Originally published July 19, 2014, lightly edited for clarity.
Fingering should wind up being a series of natural unconscious choices that you don’t think about anymore than you think about the way your mouth moves when you talk. To get your fingering to this point, it is necessary to work on it in a natural “makes sense” kind of way. Another way to say this is to practice the way you are going to play. The consistency of how you do everything from the way you hold the bass when you practice down to complex fingering choices made for a line should be the same from practice to performance so that the muscle memory will develop more quickly. The following video discusses these topics and their importance. Fingering technique is one of the fundamentals I teach. If you want personalized feedback on your left-hand fingering, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
Read the transcript
You're well in the ballpark. Occasionally watch the shifts, I hear the note on the and of four getting clipped just a little bit, specifically going from the last note of measure eight into the first note of measure nine, and it seems to be where it happens the most consistently. It's just a little bit, but make sure that those notes are really smooth and connected. Okay, also a little bit more emphasis on the two and four. I mean, you're doing everything exactly the way you're supposed to be doing it, but it needs to translate through your fingers just a little bit more consistently. I mean, I hear it. In fact, it's actually kind of good to over-exaggerate it at first. One, two, four.
I also notice you don't move when you're going from the D to the G, I guess your fingers are spread out enough? No, I use a fourth finger to go to the five chord. Oh, for you. Yeah, that's what I was doing, actually. I, okay, I've been doing it with the second to the fourth, I should do the first. Yeah, yeah, there's no reason to start on the second finger here. Yeah. Now, on like, on the next one, like, Slide Four, Blues Number Three, you would obviously start on the second there, right? Right. But on this one, you know, basically fingering, I think, should always be relative to what you're playing. Do what makes the most sense, what is most relaxing for the hand, you know. If you don't have to, like, that's a perfect example, there's no reason to play that with a second finger unless you just want to. Right. I mean, it's not benefiting, it's actually making you have to work a little harder. Yeah.
Because one other thing, one of the things I'm fighting with is my left wrist. Now that I'm trying, now that I've got my fingers curled instead of laying flat, I'm happy to bring that wrist further around, and it's. Well, actually, no, you shouldn't actually do that. Just let the fingers be curled, don't let the wrist come in to do it, don't compensate with the hand. Yeah, don't do that. Okay, yeah, keep that wrist straight, just curl the fingers. The wrist should not have to help it out, because that's actually not good to do at all. You want that wrist as straight as you can keep it. Well, yes.
All right, and also keeping that thumb, you know, the thumb position like this, in the sense that, yeah, it's just kind of pointing towards the headstock, you know. Right, you know, do you remember watching that video with that kid doing the Neutral Musician? Right, yeah, something like this. Yeah, watch that. I mean, it's like relaxing the hand. The whole thing about that, your left-hand technique, is just relaxing it, then flipping it over and just letting it stay relaxed, and basically just slide the bass neck in there, and basically where your fingers go is basically it. I mean, okay, the fingers naturally curl themselves without the wrist having to bend. Yeah, I think I'm trying to curl up too far. Yeah, do not bring that wrist out, you're going to invite all kinds of pain and everything. Pain and suffering.
Let's just go through and check fingering, because on this one you actually have to reach a little bit, because of the distance between the first finger on the second fret and the fourth finger on the fifth fret. Right, right. Now, what I do here is, I try, I start off on the second finger. Can you see my left hand clearly? Yes, I can. Right, so when I'm playing the first two notes, and then I go to the second two notes, my hand is very relaxed. Now, as I hit that first note of the second beat, I'm going to start reaching with my fourth finger to get ready to play the D on the fifth fret of the A string. So I start off relaxed, one and two, and then I start reaching, then I stay stretched all the way through this. As soon as I go back to this first finger, I relax the hand, because I can give it a break for a minute. And then I go back to that first finger, I reach again. But you see, I'm not staying stretched out the whole time, I'm just staying stretched out when the first finger is going to the fourth finger on the A and D strings. But as soon as I go back to that first finger on the A, I relax the hand a little bit again.
Watch that wrist angle of your left hand, okay? Yeah, keep that wrist straight. Well, you know, okay, see how it's angling out a little bit? Okay, yeah, try not to let it stick out too much, okay, because that's how I'm trying to get that stretch, I guess. Right, but don't compensate with the wrist though, okay, then it ends up moving the whole hand. Well, if you need to move the hand a little bit, it can be quick moves, but you want to eliminate as much space in between those as possible. Right, right. So find the balance that's going to be comfortable for your hand in stretching, but also moving the hand a little bit while minimizing the stress that's put on it. Because, you know, Robert, this is the hardest area to play on your bass, on any bass, in the first five frets. This is the most difficult for the left hand, so you really have to kind of work carefully there, you know.
