Beginner question: I’m struggling with pressing the pinky of my plucking hand hard enough against a fret so that I don’t get any string buzz. Is there any exercise or fingering drill that I can practice to build up strength?
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Welcome @petesanjose the boring answer is just practice.
Don’t overdo it early on it’s easy to strain it. Even after 5 years I still feel my pinky isn’t as strong as it should be.
Don’t t sweat it, it’ll come eventually.
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There are lots of clips on Youtube for warm ups and strengthening your fingers. It will come with practice as you play and start to relax a bit more. It’s completely natural that it will feel weak to start with. I can’t imagine not using my pinky now.
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Honestly I wouldn’t bother with these. As it comes with time anyway, spend your time learning vs pinky cardio.
nothing against Josh’s video (or others) but folks have to make content of all types for - all types.
None of us are going for prodigy/bass mastery guru status. It’s a hobby to enjoy.
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HIGHLY recommend the exercise in this video. I started my bass experience with it before doing the full B2B course. But I continued to use the drill throughout the entire experience. Its been the most valuable practice drill for me as I’ve been learning.
Not just pinky strength, but also stretch, accuracy, string crossing, necessary microshifting, “hearing” walk-ups and downs. It was terrible and sloppy for a long time, but now I have so much more confidence moving through the entire fretboard.
And welcome @petesanjose!
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One song that is fun for pinky reps (it’s simultaneously a workout and a fun song to play) is Gimme Some Lovin by Spencer Davis Group. The main riff is G octaves (D string 5th fret pinky and E string 3rd fret index) pinky-pinky-pinky-pinky-pinky-index and repeat. And the chorus part is just ascending the d string 5th fret- 8th - 10th - 13th which uses a lot of the pinky also). So you get some pinky/octave practice. But, yeah, time and practice and not overdoing it. Pinky feels sore…put the bass down.
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My old violin teacher (pinky is tough on that as well) had me do a sort of spider thing with all my fingers on a flat surface. Splay out your fingers and push down all fingers, then each finger, and then move the joints etc. you can just do this anytime you have a table nearby
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This video by Josh demos a really effective exercise. As he says, work it for ten minutes a day and you’ll see benefits after a couple of weeks. Better yet, keep it up and your playing will definitely improve.
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It’s usually not lack of strength. Usually it’s inefficient technique.
First, look at hand position. Are you holding your hand like Josh teaches? Fingers perpendicular to the neck. Are your fingers flat and hand relaxed like you’re holding a sandwich? As opposed to curled over like you’re typing on a keyboard?
Where are you pressing in relation to the fret? You want to press as close to on top of the fret as you reasonably can. This takes much less force than trying to fret in between frets.
If you’re doing that - are you squeezing with your whole hand? As opposed to trying to just press with the pinky?
Video I made for someone else, but touching on this. I’ve cued it up to the point where I show about hand position and how to use less effort and get better muting:
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I respect your personal opinion. Mine is that I can’t see how warming up for 5/10 mins before playing is a waste of time and can be focused on ‘learning’ as you say such as scales, timing, speed etc. My post does say it will ‘come with practice as you play’ @petesanjose isn’t asking about being a guru. He is asking all of us for advice. What works for you or me might not work for him. Just trying to be helpful.
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Scales are a very different skillset and exercises for these if you inclined to learn them are valuable. Through experience and discussion on the forum we do tend to see a lot of folks looking to improve this or that which are more muscle memory related than anything else. To that end, if you find value in this type of thing, then great, but, some come free with time anyway, and I am suggesting that that warmup time can be spent doing things that benefit more from focused effort.
Let’s face it, we are all hobby players that overthink absolutely everything, and the most important thing is that you have fun and keep playing. Whatever works for you is grand.
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You, me and maybe most of everyone else. Ive been trying to use my pinky since I started last summer.
Its only when I consciousness push myself that I use it.
Might as well take a set of bolt cutters to mine.
Module 10 lesson 4 (London Calling). Quite a workout for pinkie stretch/strength and dexterity as it’s part of a fast triplet…I plan on revisiting this one…