Thank you PamPurrs- I appreciate your support- This just feels a bit more complicated than simply learning how to stretch my fingers. Indulge me- touch your pinky to your thumb on your fretting hand and show the number “3”. When I try that, my entire hand closes up like a claw. All the fingers come down together. Seems like an insurmountable problem- This could truly be the day the music died.
Given I have small hands, I find myself fretting with both ring and pinky finger pretty often. Like I say, give it a chance and develop your own style. One finger per fret is recommended, but it’s not gospel.
And to answer your question - guitar is much the same where you have to contort your fingers into odd shapes and have some finger independence.
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Looks like it might be time to take up the kazoo again. I’m going to take a formal lesson this week at a local music school and see if they can sort me out. You folks will know how it turned out if I don’t post a picture of my bass smashed into a million pieces.
I am also having issues as a bass player of only 1 year stretching my fingers to cover all 4 frets, and may never get there. But I still stretch them every day so that the micro-shifts get smaller at least (used to be MACRO shifts…lol).
A long time ago I taught myself to do the “Vulcan” hand thing from Star Trek (yes Im a geek), why, because I was bored. I did this by putting larger and larger objects in between my middle and index finger to give them the “Live Long and Prosper” spread (which for those that are interested, Leonard Nimoy got this from a Rabbi and it is actually a Jewish gesture). After about a year of doing this (while sitting watching TV or in class) I can now do it without thinking. Started with a penny wedged in between the fingers and worked my way up to a quarter. Now that I think of it I wonder if putting gradually increasing objects in between middle and pinky fingers would do the same to stretch those ligaments out slowly… humm May have to try this.
So point of this story…lol… is that you can train your body to do odd things that it wasnt really meant to do. Another example is doing a split…the human body just is NOT meant to do the splits. But you can train your ligaments and muscles to go that way (if your not old like me anyway…lol).
Just keep at it, dont get discouraged.
Does anyone know of a website or youtube video of stretching exercises to help expand your hands?
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I guess what I need to know is- Is it possible to play bass with only two fretting fingers (pointer and index). My pinky and ring finger work together- and mess up my only two “good” fingers when i try to bring them into play.
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Yes, it is possible. You would be limited in some styles, or have to work harder for the same effect, but it is still doable. As long as you can fret a single note at a time you can play a lot of basslines.
Will you be able to play everything that way? No. But that’s true of all of us.
Three fingers (with your pinky and ring acting together) is the basis of the technique Joerg posted above and should allow you to play a whole lot of stuff as well.
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Your ring and pinky being in cahoots together is normal. Mine do the same. When I first started playing I would use my ring and index together by laying my edit: RING finger over my pinky to help fret strings due to my pinky being so weak. Plenty of bass players rarely use their pinky.
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You got me a little confused there, @faamecanic - maybe we need to make sure we are using the same words first 
1: index; 2: middle; 3: ring; 4: pinky - I guess that is the way I learned it (not a native speaker, though)…
I had troubles imagining your index helping your pinky… 
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LOL… good catch. Trying to watch Football (american football) while posting is never a good thing. I meant RING finger over pinky. If I was using my index (pointer) finger over pinky that would be a WHOLE new world of finger exercises!!
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V[quote=“faamecanic, post:29, topic:5357”]
Trying to watch Football (american football) while posting is never a good thing
[/quote]
Completely off-topic, but who’re you watching? I’m limited in my options (in the 
) but watch NFL Redzone for most of Sunday evening.
@StinsonAlliance84, I know t probably seems like folk here aren’t getting that you have a physical issue preventing the fingers doing what you want them to do, but what folk are actually trying to get across is that with perseverance and practice you can change that. You may not get to the same place as most of us, but then most of us aren’t in the same place either. I can make that stretch (not right now, not after a few more weeks back on the horse)! But I can’t jump strings as well as some of these students of the low end. One or two folk in here have got pretty good at microshifting, but many of us get caught between a stretch and a shift.
There’s a famous one-armed drummer out there that proved that you can play with limitations if you adapt. There’s a guitarist with finger tips missing who did ok for himself and pretty much defined a genre by adapting. We can’t all become world beaters, but we can all get to a point that we enjoy playing and even make contributions.
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Pete… sadly I am a New York Giants fan (they were playing the Washington Redskins).
Love your examples of famous musicians that have overcome physical barriers (Rick Allen - Def Leppard, Toni Iomi - Black Sabbath). Any yeah you have hit the nail on the head that you can still play a damn good bass even using just three fingers. Index, Middle, and Rinky…lol
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I want to thank all my BassBuzz Buddies for rallying to my support. I’m going to visit my local music shop tomorrow and ask the resident guru if there is any hope for me. The pressure is on, because I’m in the autumn of my years, and I’ve already started to live the rock n’ roll lifestyle ( Playing by my own rules , thumbing my nose at society and so forth). This behavior would be far more authentic if i could actually play an instument. I’ll keep you posted!
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Sounds like a good plan! Never give up…just find the groove you can do and go with it!
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Yes! It is for most mortals.
I used to be an adamant teacher of “thumb in middle of the neck! One finger per fret!”… until I went to a clinic where Baron Browne was on bass.
His thumb was peeking up behind the neck the whole time.
He played with a 3-fret spread most of the night.
He grooved harder and shredded harder than I could. By a lot.
Myth busted.
The 1 finger per fret thing is, if your hand can do it, a position that can be helpful and economical. It is not necessary to rock the bass.
If you wanna see more shots of Baron Browne and hear him play, check him out:
http://www.baronbrowne.net/html/
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Here’s me playing with only one fretting finger:
Everyone else’s comments are great and I agree with the general “don’t give up” sentiment.
Some questions for you - what do you want to get out of playing bass? How much do you want it? Would you rather sacrifice the long term pleasure of achieving those goals for the short term relief of not having to figure out your fretting technique challenge?
And also, if you had to come up with a non-traditional fretting technique in order to play bass, would you? It worked okay for Django, here he is tearing it up with two fingers:
And this dude:
Hope that helps!
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Thank you Josh! I have to admit I was ready to throw my bass in the fireplace after I finished nailing your beginner plucking lesson- and then saw your giant fingers covering the entire neck in the beginner fretting video. I’m a completely different species, finger-wise. As far as what I want out of the bass, I don’t need to do the Entwistle parts on The Who’s latest Farewell Tour, but I also don’t want to be in the circus with the guy who playes drums with his feet, plays guitar with no hands, or plays trumpet out of his rear-end. Can’t I be somewhere in-between with my two functional fretting fingers? Can I at least learn to chug along to a few Eagles and Creedence songs?
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Even with 4 fretting fingers, most of us (and I mean all bassists) are in that category.
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Ha! I was just about to post about Django Reinhardt but you beat me to it @JoshFossgreen.
Well, not one to be outdone on an internet forum, I exercised my Google-fu and came up with this awe inspiring video of Kang Yana Mulyana. This amazing man frets with just his thumb and with a speed and precision that most of us with 10 fully functional digits will never match.
Now I’m not suggesting that anybody try this technique… I’m just saying where there is a will there is a way. We’ve all got to work with what God gave us and do the best we can. 
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I think I’ve met perhaps 2 or 3 guitarists who could play that fast. Granted, I haven’t exactly spent my life hanging out with musicians, but I’ve definitely known plenty who were extremely competent, and I doubt any of them could even tell you that this was played with only one fretting digit. He’s not even tapping with the other hand to up his fretting speed.
You play the hand you’re dealt - even if you struggle to hold the cards.
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Challenges. I think with enough persistence it can be overcome. I’m starting out myself. My challenges are, sitting I just can’t get comfortable with my wrist and my back hurts. Standing everything is fine, but then my feet hurt after a while! But…I am determined to make this work. One lesson, one day at a time. I may not be able to be John Wetton when it’s all done, but I’m sure going to take this as far as I can – and enjoy the ride.
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