About 30 years ago, when I was a teenger, I had an accident that involved severing the tendon to my pinky finger. I suspect this was a big part of me, perhaps subconciously, deciding not to pursue bass back then when I had the chance.
The smaller circle in the pic shows where the initial accident cut the tendon. The larger circle shows where the surgeon cut down my wrist, looking for the other end that had shot up my forearm. He never found it, and the pinky tendon was spliced onto that of my ring finger.
I am a lefty, so the pic is of my fretting hand.
At the time the doctors told me I would lose about 15% of function in extension. Flexion is not affected. It does have the weird effect that if I lift off with my pinky finger, I also HAVE to lift off with my ring finger. Thatâs just how my fingers work now.
Iâve now been playing for about a year (I started at the same time as my 10-year old son, whom we started buying lessons for - he plays an Ibanez Mikro 
). I have been slowly progressing through the course and Iâve just finished the Major Scale module.
I can play basic tunes and jam along to Yousician or with school students, whom I play with at lunchtimes - Iâm a High School teacher. However, Iâve noticed I get a lot of resonance sometimes where my right hand muting isnât so great when Iâm fretting different notes, like in string crossing. I find my fingers tend to âhop offâ one set of strings and onto the next, instead of staying planted and fingers acting independantly.
The Major Scales module has got me thinking a lot more about fretting, and Iâve noticed great bassists keep ALL their fingers down on the string as they lift off or fret different notes throughout the scale. This is very, very tough for me. I tend to âSeeSawâ a lot as SBL puts it, lifting off fingers when I actually want to keep them planted. This is expecially true of my index and middle fingers when Iâm looking to fret with my pinky.
I also find the âfour finger stretchâ, playing one finger per fret very difficult, even though Iâm very tall with large hands - my fingers just donât seem to want to stay disciplined and orderly and stay planted while I stretch out my pinky.
I do get some pain/discomfort across the back of my hand when playing scales in a very strict and controlled way, although I do find I can work through this a lot of the time without too much difficulty.
Am I doomed?! I did watch Joshâs video on the Simandl technique and wonder whether this is worth pushing into more? Iâm not discouraged, and am really enjoying the course, and playing, and making small wins. However, I wonder if there is a better way for me to adapt my playing.
Thanks all!
