I have an issue mainly on my pinky finger where my middle knuckle can lock flat while I use full span stretch and trying to get enough pressure.
It’s not something new to me, I’ve always been able to move the mid knuckle while leaving the end knuckle bent to the point where the fullly straighten lol.
The issue is at full span , I have the pressure on my pinky but, it forces that knuckle to lay flat and is very akward to unlock unless I move my hand away from the fret board to relax enough and have the finger joint unlock , so to speak.
It’s not painful, it is just that way, I cant quite get enough pressure unless I lock that joint when using 4 fret span.
Thats the problem, when i lock to get pressure, it slows me down because I have to relax the hand for it to return to normal, and I can do that on all fingers.
Does it help to bring the hand a little bit forward? Or trying to keep a little curve on the fingers?
If nothing else works, you can use microshifting. One thing that can make tiny shifts faster is to pivot the thumb on the back of the neck, like, keeping the thumb in place, and moving the fretting hand left and right.
Also doing some other exercises, like playing on the G and D strings while keeping all fingers curled and fretting with the tips of the fingers, will help to strengthen the pinky. One reason why it might lock flat is because it is weaker than the other fingers. Full span stretches might be hard on the pinky especially in the beginning.
I wouldn’t give up using the pinky. It is very useful to be able to play with it. Just give it some time, it will get there.
If I put even a small bend my finger ends in the middle of the fret sadly, so i get buzzing.
Yes, I will probably have to do micoshifting, my hand span is only 8 inches and even a short scale bass its a stretch reaching the head. I have to move the guitar to reach the G tuner
I think I experienced something similar, where that pinky knuckle would almost “pop” loose after taking pressure off of it to move it to a higher string.
My solution at the time was more microshifting, but I also used several of Josh’s exercises built to increase stretch in the fretting hand.
Now, six months later and having finished B2B, I hardly ever notice the issue. So at least for me it was just a time and practice thing.
YMMV, since I have large hands. But playing under tension created most of my problems. With practice and familiarity I learned to relax and that helped a ton.
Mark from TalkingBass just posted a new video, and in it he says good technique matters far more than physically attributes, and he advises avoiding stretches and instead doing microshifting.
I don’t understand what you mean by “for just one of his many videos”. I linked the video because in it he mentions microshifting. He happens to mention one of his newest courses in the video.
Yes, he has many videos, and I suppose one could try to learn to play bass and music theory just by watching youtube videos. But the YouTube videos can’t be compared to his TalkingBass courses. His courses are very structured and professional. I’m going through the Groove Trainer and it is totally worth the price. I’m going to take more of his courses in the future. I know they are not cheap, but he is a professional teacher and his courses are high quality.
Ps: did you mean to say “for one of his many courses” instead of “many videos”? That might explain why I didn’t understand what you meant.
Taking a brief look in to getting private lessons will be a very enlightening experience for folks. Suddenly B2B, TalkingBass, and even SBL stand out as the extreme bargains they are.
THIS! That’s why I gave up on private lessons. They alone costed me more than my Squier and I learnt from them much less than from the BassBuzz course. It was valuable to have a teacher seeing how I was playing and correcting me when I was wrong. But there wasn’t enough time for much teaching when it is 30 minutes once a week and costing a small fortune.
There is so much more in Josh’s and Mark’s courses. And we can go on our own pace, studying and practicing every day, doing lessons again when necessary. With private lessons it would have taken me a lot more time and money to get where I am now.
For context, private lessons will run you about $50+ per lesson depending on if it is 30 or 60 minutes and where you are at, sometimes less, often more.
Micro shift. Don’t hold your hand in a 4-fret span.
Micro-shifting is not a cheat that you have to fall back on because your hands are too small. It’s proper technique to let you move comfortably and naturally.
I’ve got long piano-player fingers. I hold my hands with a natural and relaxed spread as much as possible. When I reach, it is generally not to push a fret down, but to feel out where to move my hands to. (I.e. I will reach with my pinky to feel where the fret is to help guide my hand into position, but I press down with a relaxed hand not with a stretched out pinky.)
Here’s me showing off 1-finger-per-fret with my fingers touching each other.
That’s why I gave up on private lessons. They alone costed me more than my Squier and I learnt from them much less than from the BassBuzz course. It was valuable to have a teacher seeing how I was playing and correcting me when I was wrong. But there wasn’t enough time for much teaching when it is 30 minutes once a week and costing a small fortune.