Sooo… I’m struggling with left hand pain. Like, I played the riff from Californication for half an hour and now my left wrist hurts. I’ve been around the block (microshifting, pinkie vs. ring finger, hand position, thumb placement), but this sh*t keeps just popping up when I finally feel like “I can play as much as I want to.”
Practice wise, I’ve written a 7 day schedule which gives me different versions of practice days. The focus is on fun, so I always include that. Here’s what that looks like:
Day One
Technique (a scale, two strings, three octaves)
Fun: Easy song on youtube
New stuff: a lesson or a riff
Slap basics: just slap one string up to fret no. 5
The next day would look a bit different, and maybe have other elements or details (like a blues section instead of slap). I am struggling with finding consistency or larger goals. It helps me slide into practice, though.
Hey @antonio a while back I over did it working on a specific riff that I was having trouble with. I played that same riff for a few hours a night all week.
By the weekend I had tendon pain and long story short I took nearly a month off from playing.
So my free advice is that these are small muscles / tendons etc that are being used in a ‘weird’ way for the first time and it’s easy to overuse them.
@alexmorrison14 is right. Take a rest day and take it slow. You can always watch the lessons without playing bass. So you can do something productive without injuring yourself.
If you want to you can also just play open strings with your right (plucking hand) to work on your timing / alternate plucking and not use your left.
I take it you are right handed and talking about your fretting hand.
Your fretting hand should be as straight as possible to your forearm. A sharp angle will definitely give you pain eventually.
The first consideration that comes to mind is - are you using a strap?
Second would be is your Bass positioned correctly, in other words not too low.
And third consideration is is the headstock at about a 45 degree upwards angle.
@Celticstar Yes, correct, I almost never have problems in my right hand, which is a plus. I’m using a strap, but it feels kinda useless sitting down. My bass is also a bit stock-heavy and neck dives a little. I’ll try to shorten the strap to bring it up enough.
@Never2Late Thanks, I’ve seen that video and I’ll re-watch it.
For now, I’m just taking a break… did my taxes today instead Thank you all for your help! I don’t feel like I’m struggling anymore, cheers
At the moment, I am struggling with…bass.
I have been uber focusing on sax for the last few weeks and am finding that I either can’t, or, don’t just have the time/attention/energy to focus in on bass as well and get a song under my fingers to record for a cover.
That said, sax is making huge strides but at a cost.
Thus, not much in the area of covers from me right now.
I have a few in the works but not gelling.
Maybe next week when I am off I can get something moving with more time.
Anyone else play another non guitar/bass like instrument and also find this an issue?
Since starting bass I gained 25 pounds. I basically quit all my other hobbies to make more time for bass. I’m finally trying to find balance again. I exercising and playing my drums more. I don’t feel compelled to play bass every spare minute like I did. As long as I play a little bit each day or almost every day I feel like I’m staying sharp. It’s good to have balance. I’ve even lost ten pounds over the last couple months.
I wouldn’t call this an issue. Just a focus choice. I’ve set aside bass for the moment as I work on guitar; sometimes I do the same for keys. The important thing (for me) is that it’s all working on music.
Ha! I did actually go with Justin Guitar years ago and while he is a good teacher, guitar just wasn’t working for me. Then I broke my fretting index finger and sold the guitar and amp and that was it
Fender Play had me do a ‘quiz’ to determine my level, with the silliest questions that didn’t seem relevant to different levels of skill. I’ve done a few of the lessons related to scale exercises to see how it all compares to B2B and all I can say with certainty is that B2B rules. I’m repeating B2B and it is just as good the second time 'round!
When I do a practice session where I play one song after the other (sometimes the same song over and over), I struggle sometimes with my pinky getting kinda … I don’t know, unresponsive.
It is like it doesn’t want to bent at the joint, I try to move it with the muscles, but it doesn’t do anything.
Kinda like it has some block, like something is stuck in there and I have to use more force to get it to bend. And when it finally moves, it snaps forward, like it just jumped over that bump.
Same issue. Just gotta keep working it. I feel the same way when I have to cover the A or E strings…like its pulling a lever at the base of the finger and then the whole thing swings over in one clunky fashion rather than articulating at the mid-finger knuckle.
As an experiment, try and hold your pinky striaght and then bend it just using the mid-knuckle…mine doesn’t like to do it and wants to engage the tensons/muscles at the base. Same issue to a lesser extent with my ring finger…no problem doing it with the middle or index finger.
@Malyngo I sometimes find my pinky has become weak if I am practicing for a while, such as playing a song over and over. That’s when I know it’s time to take a break or stop for the day
While my pinky has strength and use it very much, when I go after 8th fret it seems it cannot stretch enough. At least when doing the 1 2 3 4 exercise. Pfff. Also speed.
Chugging fast 8th notes—both picking and fingerstyle. Fingerstyle technique is fine, but my forearm cramps up before the song is done. Gets just need to play more.
Picking…I just suck. Can’t make smooth transitions over strings. Either I get “jumps”/ skip the first note in the transition, or it is very noises/dirty and my pick gets hung up.
Is it better to start with a downpick on beat one or an up-pick for a song with running 8 or 16th notes that cross strings?
Most of the time this will be down in practice, but really it depends on which beat and to which string the string crossing occurs.
Are you alternating picking all the time or just downpicking usually? Note that you don’t usually need to alternate for most eighth note songs - I’ve done 168bpm with just downpicks.
Thank you all for your help! I don’t feel like I’m struggling anymore, cheers