Recently picked things back up, and as with many times before, I’m still experiencing some pain to the medial wrist while playing.
I’m fairly certain I’ve narrowed it down to my engagement of the pinky while fretting.
I have a genetic condition called camptodactyly which involves a deformity at the proximal interphalangeal joint. Basically, a permanent flexion and lateral deviation of the finger in my case.
I’ve noticed that while fretting I always try to align the tip of my pinky to touch the string, for which I have to shift my entire orientation of the hand and radially-deviate my wrist to accomodate.
My question would be, how detrimental is it to employ the pinky? I know it’s significance in OFPF type playing and scales, but is it required?
Can you still successfully play using just the ring ringer?
I’ve watched Adam Neely’s videos regarding posture and hand/wrist positioning but the problem still persists.
Good thinking, solid spirit…
A zero carb diet fixes 90% of allailments within 6 months, including diabetes and inflammation issues.
Check the Harvard study on the carnivore diet.
It is for different reasons, but I can’t use my pinky on my fretting hand either so am in the same basic situation as you…
the answer is yes you can play the bass…you may have to adjust fingering instructions to suit, and may find some songs slightly harder to learn but I have found it is pretty fine for most things
Glad to hear you’re making it work. I intend to keep working on the grip, I’m going to try my best to play as lightly as possible with the fretting hand and see if that still gives some numbness/pain.
If that doesn’t work out then I’ll be joining the ring finger players! Thanks for the reply.
I’ve taught a lot of people with a lot of different hand conditions / injuries / limitations / etc.
Only you know what it feels like, so it’s real tricky from the outside to make suggestions or demands.
I always encourage my students to try the orthodox technique offered (One Finger Per Fret and Simandl).
If they are uncomfortable and aren’t progressing, absolutely use that ring finger.
Django Reinhardt did a lot with limited fingerings, so did Tony Iommi.
You’ll be an absolutely capable and formidable bassist without the pinky, if it won’t cooperate on the fretboard.
I am not sure if he completely avoids using it, but Chris Squire [Yes] (seems) to not rely on his pinky in the ‘traditional’ way, if at all.
Certainly do not cause yourself pain. Unless you love playing THAT much.
Off Topic:
And while I will not go further into this topic on a message board about bass, I would not take unsolicited, wildly misinformed diet advice here. But, this is from Harvard’s website, not a non-peer reviewed “study”:
08 May 2024:
“The disadvantage of all keto diets is they tend to raise LDL cholesterol levels in both the short and long term. Other longer-term concerns about keto diets, especially the carnivore diet, include the increased risk of kidney stones, gout, and osteoporosis. Also, the very high protein intake associated with the carnivore diet can lead to impaired kidney function.
Because keto diets induce the body to burn fat, all keto diets can jump-start a weight-loss program. But I would never recommend a carnivore diet for this purpose.”
it seems like every thread here goes off-topic within 5 posts…I’m sorry to contribute to it, and will not pick up on this further.
I was going to write the same thing - we’ve got to be careful about what kind of information goes out here especially health-related advice. Most literature recommends a good balanced diet for optimal health.
FWIW I fell over and broke my left wrist when I was little and it never set properly (pic attached) but it doesn’t cause me too many problems. In fact, it’s easier to use a bass than a fiddly little instrument like a guitar . Plenty of rock bassists just rely on the first three fingers to play.
My pinky is fine, but it’s rather thin and I don’t have ultra stretchy hands. The result is I play with lots of microshifting, especially close to the headstock. My advice would be to include some really slow (40 - 45 bpm) spider walks, with a particular focus on a relaxed left hand. This will help clean up your technique.
On top of that, I think the ring finger is underrated. Hear me out! Everyone wants to get the pinky going for its reach, but the ring finger is usually a lot stronger and great for hammer ons and such.
So, you could try really focusing on the ring finger for a while. Try hammer ons and pull offs, for example with a pentatonic scale. If you can precisely play with the ring finger, there’s nothing stopping you from using it with some more microshifting.
I’ll try the spider walk and another fretting exercises to try to get the pinky working, all the while focusing on the lightest possible fretting technique (which in itself is challenging haha). If it won’t do it, it’s at least a relief to know that
Just like as @BeerBaron@Gio and @g13dip and the others mentioned above, I think I’ll have to adapt to a different playing style regardless.
I’m hoping I can salvage the pinky though, but only time will tell!
Thank you @antonio and everyone else for your input!
FWIW, there are a large number of comments on various B2B lessons where people ask about not using their pinky for a variety of medical reasons. Josh’s answer on them is basically “if you can’t use your pinky, that’s ok, you’ll just have to figure out alternative fingerings that work for you”
If it causes you pain to play while engaging the pinky then I wouldn’t use it - eventually you’ll injure other parts of the hand/wrist and you can more or less do it all with 3 fingers.
The only thing that looked off to me in the photos you posted is the angle of your hand/arm relative to the neck. Why is your hand angled so much?
I took this photo of my hand behind the neck where it naturally rests. Maybe try to flare your elbow out to straighten your hand which might help?
I have arthritis in my left pinky (so far no other finger is affected) and, whilst I can use it, it gets painful very quickly. So I mostly develop my own fingerings that avoid it whilst occasionally, when it really makes a significant difference to my ability to play a sequence, I use it. Once a piece has started to go into muscle memory I don’t even notice that I’m not using it. A little more micro shifting is about the only consequence. It really doesn’t bother me much now.
As others have said, don’t push yourself into pain; it’s perfectly possible to develop a style that avoids the use of that pinky.
Nothing fixes diabetes, and I say that as a diabetic who has been in remission for several years. Do any diets in consultation with your endocrinologist.
I was going to make a similar comment. Maybe it would help to press down on the string with the pad of your finger rather than the fingertip. Like in Ant’s photo he’s got his hand positioned to press down on the string with the pad of his finger (as if you’re being fingerprinted), but in chirsstl’s pic it looks like you’re ready to push down with your fingertip which may be more common in playing a guitar vs. bass and may cause a different type of pressure on your finger and hand.
This is an example of how I have to fret to have my pinky aligned with the string properly.
I revert to a more neutral position when playing with all other digits, but to get even the tip or pad of my pinky aligned with the string, it’s something that almost always needs to be done to get a proper note.
Otherwise using the side of the pinky is what I’m left with, which at that point might as well be my ring finger due to it encroaching into ring finger territory with its deviation.
As mentioned above, I’ll experiment a bit more but should I not figure it out. Ring finger club it is!
. Plenty of rock bassists just rely on the first three fingers to play.
Everyone wants to get the pinky going for its reach, but the ring finger is usually a lot stronger and great for hammer ons and such.
