i would say try your bass in classical guitar position
if play sitting this is my preferred position as well, it opens up the fretboard.
and practise, practise makes perfect and it will take time… long time
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So I described my problem in the small hands thread ( Small hands need help! - #44 by juli0r ) including video, but now that I see
(Developing Safe Left Hand Technique for Bass Guitar)
And the takeaway I get from that is: I worried about the thumb too much. When letting go with it I can easily wrap my hand around and reach the 17th fret with the pinky. Hope I got that right.
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It does. I spent 15 minutes with it and then 5 or 6 minutes with the major scale. It’s a good exercise not only for the reason stated, but it also gives me the opportunity to work on fretting clean notes as well! I’m going to use this as a warm up before Josh’s lessons going forward.
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I have to agree that neck has to be up, else it’s misery, and there’s a good point about leaning. I agravated an old back injury last week (right side lumbar), and I think I may have been leaning into it too much and too long.
I haven’t decided what I’ll end up with yet; I need to work through it. I think in the end, I have to accept that people are built differently, and as much as I want to hold the bass like Josh (after all you want to imitate your teacher), you have to with what works. I’m a stocky 6’2" in that I have short legs for a man my height ( 30" pant length), so I have a long middle. I have to work with that, so I study other accomplished bass players with similar builds to see what they are doing. Ben Burleigh is a great example, but he’s holds it differently in many cases, and I think that goes back to what Gio was getting at earlier.
Thanks for the video!
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Hooray!
… of everything having to do with killer bass playing. He’s a hero of mine in these parts as well. You can find him on Facebook too - he’s been posting remote-recorded videos recently, and his playing is dynomite. Also a good example to see him in different positions, postures, and playing all over the neck.
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I really liked his input in the gear reviews you guys did. Both of you helped influence my decision a lot.
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Thanks @Gio for that excercises. I have been looking for, and finding some quality excercises to help with positioning, strength and dexterity. I am adding this to what I have going now.
Do you have any other suggested excercises you do, or recommend?
Maybe a thread dedicated to this. Sharing the excercises, and explaining what they are, and what they are helping to achieve?
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I did too. Most of all I was happy that Josh, Gio and Ben gave some love to the entry level basses. It’s ok to run with a Squier; I’ve been very happy with mine after I upgraded the electronics ( Fender pots, Switchcraft jack – which was broken) and Seymour Duncan pickups. The only thing that will take that bass out of my hands is Fender with a smoother satin neck!
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Good to know; I didn’t find much of him on YouTube except as an accompanist in a band. I’ll look for him!
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I like this idea! Though, if I know Josh and BassBuzz, this will most likely already be in the pipeline for a super killer video soon to blow minds and change the world. Whaddaya think @JoshFossgreen?
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Hells yeah!, I know it will change my world.
If there is a video with an introduction thread, that will be a good place to add on with other exercises, from anyone who has one.
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Haha, flattery will get you everywhere. 
Yeah, I really want to cover basic playing positioning / technique stuff like this in more, better detail in the future. I think there are a lot of gaps in how it’s normally taught (including myself in that assessment). There are so many things to figure out! It would be easier if we all had the exact same body shape, then teachers could give exact recommendations and they would actually work!
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Every little bit helps! There’s a lot of stuff on your old channel, and I cull that and look for clues. As I gain experience, I see things I’ve never seen before, and for others, I just need to practice consistently and wait for things to develop.
None of this would have been possible for me without your course. No time for a 1 on 1 teacher, and your encouragement is priceless. Thanks for showing me what could be possible.
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I would love a video like that!
In fact the only teaching video (playalongs excluded) I liked apart from your course and youtube videos was the video of the guy explaining hand positioning.
I always struggle between:
“That’s easy - that’s the way I’ll do it.”
“Am I actively learning a bad habit here?”
And since flattery will get me everywhere: Your course videos are the single best instruction videos I’ve ever seen. And I’m not narrowing it down to music. I’m talking instruction video. I have never seen any better. I don’t know how you do it, but even if I repeat a video 20 times in a row your comments do not annoy me.
One would expect to get a little bit frustrated and take it out on the screen as one often does in video games after failing a boss fight too many times and not being able to skip the cutscene. But no… impossible for me to be mad at you.
Sure it’s flattery and I might have an ulterior motive, but I’m not lying just to flatter you. I mean it.
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I’d like to add also it’s good to have @Gio here when Josh is away. Gio has given tons go great advice ( in great detail) and encouragement to us rank beginners. It means a lot, because we’re just trying to get going. He never talks down to us, though he’s well beyond us.
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I absolutely agree. I value @Gio very much in this community.
I just was stuck in the thought of motivating Josh and/or the bassbuzz team.
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I’ve learned a lot from @Gio.
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Agreed, the B2B and every other instructional video Josh has done is flat out amazing. It is so true, it’s hard to learn from anything that pisses you off (other then life lessons), especially people or a person that annoys you, or is a flat out Jerk. That Josh is so personable on screen ( and in text) and Geo is so likeable, the wisdom flows freely and is easily absorbed into my think dense skull. Thanks to @Gio and @JoshFossgreen, @Bassbot, @chris, and eberybody at BassBuzz for creating such a wonderful community and making learning challenging and fun.
And I won’t name an,ES, you know who you are, but there are a lot of other knowledgeable folks here that are quick to contribute and help anyway they can, adding to the greatness of the community, thanks to all of you nassbuzzers equally as well.
I don’t know where I would be today without you all, I may have frustrated myself right out of playing if I had to rely upon myself, surfing YT vids and reading endless books continuously trying to formulate. Plan, not knowing where to go, and how to progress to the next level. Just happy to be here, welcomed by all.
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Hi! To find out what I can do, say @Bassbot display help.
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