After 3 years of loving playing the bass I have just realized that my pinkie and 4th finger on my fretting hand stick out and are straight when I play. Is this causing unnecessary tension in my hand/playing? Should I figure out how to tuck my 4th finger and pinkie- like most other bass players that have a lot more playing experience than me? If so- any tips. I have searched the internext- including this forum- for any advice and can’t find any. Thanks for any advice!
1 Like
Mine did exactly the same originally. I’ve never really deliberately worked on it but rather always been aware and tried to tame those flying fingers. They’re pretty good and tidy now! Just keep being aware and pulling them into line when you notice, they will eventually obey!
(are you left handed by the way? 
)
I would caution the active figuring out and active tucking part of this.
If you’re playing with tension, trying to tuck your fingers might just make your hand and fingers more tense.
Tense fingers shoot out.
Relaxed fingers have a beautiful natural curve (tuck) to them.
To relax and get your fingers to stay close it’s a combo of:
- being real comfortable with the material so you’re not panicking and stressing about what’s coming next
- plenty of practice and exercise so your muscles and tendons know what to do and aren’t straining.
And being aware of it - like @HighlandBass said - it’ll help you notice and try and correct.
Just don’t think of the correction as being an adding of energy.
It’ll just tense 'em up more.
The correction is a releasing of energy.
4 Likes
thanks for your advice and encouragement! I knew to be aware of flying fingers on my left hand- Josh is so clear about that. It so surprised me to realize that my right hand also had flying fingers. It is really throwing me of and discouraging me to try and correct a bad habit after working so hard to have good technique from the get go.
yes!!! even after a half hour of “trying” my hand feels cramped and hurts. I will play around with relaxing into relaxing my fingers. thank you!
1 Like
Ah! that’s why I put the left hand query in! I thought you were talking about fretting fingers. I must admit I do sometimes wonder what to do with my 4 and 5 on my right hand. They sometimes do seem to just get in the way. I’m not sure there’s a simple answer there. I’ve observed some top players that have them out straight, others that have them curled up, and even some that rest their pinky on the body below the strings (an old finger picking guitarists trick).
I think for the right hand you just want to try for as relaxed as you can get. If you feel it tensing up then consciously try to relax it. That should also allow you to pluck faster. In other words I’d probably still go for the same advise. Just try to keep them relaxed rather than force them into some ‘proper’ position.
Apologies for my earlier misunderstanding!
Yes 
Like golf you have to try hard not to try hard. Master the art of not giving a Sh!t. 
2 Likes
it was my mistake- I did say fretting hand in my first post- but I totally meant plucking hand!! thank you for the validation that it’s tricky what to do with our 4th finger and pinky -and for some reason not discussed much.
2 Likes
absolutely an art.
2 Likes
I’ll defer to the experts giving advice in this thread, but I will say that I did this too. I wanted to fix it and pretty much did - if you’re interested, here’s how.
For a while, I would hold something smallish and very light - I used a pen cap - with my pinkie and ring fingers while I played. It’s not heavy and you don’t have to exert much of anything to hold it loosely, and loosely is key. The idea is to NOT think about it and just play. Then, after a while of that I could play while not holding it and without thinking about it my pinky was in a more natural relaxed position.
Before
During
After
4 Likes
wow! brilliant! Your before photo looks just like my right hand. I am going to give it a try, thank you for sharing this.
1 Like
I never consciously thought about it…
Looking at it now, it is kind of funny. I just realized my 4th finger just moves along with my middle finger! Almost like I’m plucking with both!
Thanks for giving me one more thing to work on!
As for the pinkie, what came naturally for me was to just let it hang down (I do not curl/tuck it) and what happened was that I stumbled on the “string sitter” muting technique by accident.
I needed a place to anchor it and placing it on an unplucked string was just comfortable.
So for me, sometimes it is just hanging in the air, and sometime rest on the E/A/D string - depending on where my thumb is and what I’m plucking. And sometimes it tames the 4th one by resting it together with the pinkie.
(for example, if I have my thumb resting on the E string, and I play a section that is mostly using the A and D strings, it will rest on the A string when I am plucking the D string)
Honestly, it doesn’t happen consciously. It just goes to where it is comfortable.
2 Likes
Thank you! Wonderful that it has been so natural for your pinkie to be relaxed- and to help mute strings. I never thought about my pinkie until I watched a video of someone analyzing a beginner bass player and commenting how having their pinkie finger stick out straight was adding more strain/tension. When I checked out my pinkie sure enough it sticks staight out and up. I have started playing around with Fennario’s approach but I’ll also play with using my pinkie to help mute strings.
Play way more songs that use all four fingers.
There are lots of great songs that are mostly three finger songs and if after 3 years of playing your still doing it, it’s time to take a closer look at your song list.
One hour focused practice for thirty days, if that doesn’t help repeat with another 30 days, and so on.
This is a motor control function where only you have the ability to make them do as you command, ie: more practice with intentionality.
Did you mean to say plucking or pick hand?
If this is the case a little slap practice will fix that completely.
maxhbass on youtube is a good starting point to learn slap.
Lots of great advice in this post, but the numbering of fingers was a brain spinner… I have 4 fingers and a thumb 
1 Like
I’m not sure why I mis-typed fretting hand in my first post- It is my plucking hand. Josh had made it clear from the beginning to watch out for the flying fingers of the fretting hand.
Great idea for working on slap bass- thanks. I have a YouTube playlist of slap bass videos and I’ll add the one you recommended. When I took Josh’s course I stopped at the slap bass modules because I didn’t feel ready- but maybe now I am.
1 Like
This short slap and pop riff will change your pokey outy fingers really quickly.
My pinkie on my fretting hand locks up, it’s quite annoying as it clicks when I bend it.
Yes I started thinking that it would be cool to have a fourth finger and a pinky!
1 Like