Play with thumb lower, or in front like suggested and USE your pinky.
With time your pinky will get much stronger, and you will not have to go all the way out in front of the bass.
You will find the right thumb position after your pinky is working better, and in time it will become more natural for you to go to that position when playing that high on the neck.
It is the better option then excluding your pinky because you will have a harder time training your pinky for one, and it takes longer to build the strength in it as well, and it will slow down the strength building in your whole hand if you opt not to use the pinky when you can / should
Other than just more consistent practice using the index and middle fingers to pick with is there a best way to ensure consistency between the two fingers. Seems like I pull a little harder with the middle, I figure if I can hear the difference, so can everyone else.
I guess that is why “the right hand technique” is so important. Correct plucking makes the most difference in the tone it seems.
I have been noticing that when I am just starting to learn a song in a lesson I pluck with much less confidence being focused more on fretting the right notes so they sometimes sound so dull and even muted at times… It even makes me doubt my setup of pickup height (I go check every time and it sounds OK by itself)
After a hard night’s work when I start going over the fast work out (generally!) I feel more confident and the tone changes so much.
In one of the lesson comments Josh said that the plucking fingers will ALWAYS sound slightly different and no need to worry about that.
Think about chugging the root note through a song, comparing using only index finger and alternating index-middle. I guess alternating adds extra to the tone even if the pitch is the same…
I am super new to all of this so sorry if it is mostly noob bs ;D
not at all…thank you, granted I’ve only been at this a few months but I’m looking at the mantle of perma-noob as my right hand keeps wanting play like a guitar pluck with the thumb and pull with the index…I learned to pick a guitar this way when I was a teenager its called piedmont picking. So picking with the index and middle finger is foreign but trying to get a reasonably even pull from each is a separate beast all together. Thank you for the advice!! I’ll keep chugging along with it.
Well I have seen your question to Josh under the Single Pluck disco octaves lesson last night. Where he said it is OK! I have tried it and it was impossible for me to pluck with my thumb (my bass is my very first instrument in life)
When I see peope do that in you tube I admire it a ton because it looks chill as fuck!
This guy is a Turkish youtuber and happens to be using 5 string version of my bass.
wow…here I thought it was something I was doing wrong. It won’t stop me from trying to learn the gallop technique but I’m not going to worry so much when I fall back to piedmont picking on occasion…thanks again
You can do exercises for right hand plucking. Some is simple, like chuggung for endurance.
Others get more complex, and involve walking up and down the strings in various patterns.
You can really make your own.
Try alternate plucking, index middle on open E
Then index - middle on open A, then Index - Middle on open D, then index - middle on open G, and walk back down.
Then try Index - middle - index on open E to Middle - index - middle on A, to Index - middle - index on D and Middle - Index - Middle on G and back down.
When you start making shifts on alternating fingers, it will feel very very strange, don’t get discouraged, just start slow and work your way up.
There are others, hard to explain w/o video, but I can try later, I have to go get my daughter now.
Try adding these a couple min a day to your practice, it will help immensely.
@JoshFossgreen I’m struggling getting my head around #7 lesson 3.
It goes half, half, whole, 2, 3, 4. Surely that’s five beat’s to the bar?
What am I missing?
Jamie
Joerg thanks for that, but @JoshFossgreen says, “half half whole two three four” I’ve listened to it many many times. I even went back to module one and have done the full course again, and I’m stuck here again. Last time I skipped it and went onto the next module. Bad mistake that’s missing to much
I’m struggling with that finger stretch on the left hand – very distracting. I can stretch Index/Ring or Index/Pinky, but Index/Ring/Pinky together seems out of reach for me, but not by too much. This is real annoying when I was in Module 8 working out the Root/3rd/5th, trying not to shift. My finders are not short, but my knuckles are offset, especially the pinky:
This is how things are for my hand in the “natural position.” To get the pinky into play, it requires me to rotate my wrist/hand outward. A very touchy-feely maneuver that I have to work very hard at to get it right. I don’t yet have the muscle memory to get there without having to think about it. I think @Gio told me once that the positions change gradually depending on where you are on the neck.
I really want the “one finger per fret” but it has eluded me thus far.
Also while it gets better with practice you can overdo it so before hurting yourself by trying to stretch further than you (currently) can shifting is perfectly fine as said.
Also the offset is pretty normal for human hands. I have small hands so in absolute measurements it’s probably less but relative to hand size my offset is comparable.
Thanks guys. I suppose if there’s one downside to the curriculum, it is that the teacher can’t really look at your hand and say, “Yep,…” or “Nope,…” Although Josh as good as job as you can get without being there.
I thought that too but as far as I can tell @JoshFossgreen does everything he can to clear up any doubts you might have, but especially hand shape and position is a complex topic as there isn’t a one size fits all solution.
I have come to learn that providing videos of actually playing what you are struggling with is the best method to get help here on the forum. Josh even took the time to create pictures of correct hand shape when I had questions about that regarding slap - see this thread/post: Slap & Pop on strings close together - #8 by JoshFossgreen
I know it can be scary to publish things expecially things you are struggling with but apart from a 1on1 teacher (which of course would be helpful too) I think this is the best method to get reliable help. Sidenote: It also helps when trying to do both roles yourself - teacher & student. It allows for a more objective eye on what you are playing. I don’t consider myself knowledgable enough to say “Yep.” or “Nope.” or “This has pros and cons.” but there are people here who are and I think they could be able to help if they actually see something to say yep or nope to
