I’m with jimmy that more hours helps with the issue a lot, but whenever I consistently run into those kinds of issues (thumb pressure, badly bent wrists, flying fingers, fret buzz, etc.) I also treat as a sign that that passage is outside of my comfort zone and needs more (methodical) practice. Sometimes practicing slow solves the issue, sometimes it’s better shifting or finding ideal fingerings for my body.
This is normal. If you need a bit of a refresher or confidence boost module 1 lesson 4 covers the basic hand position and what to do with the thumb (demonstration at 5:05 to 5:30ish).
Like so many things, that’s something that will get better with time and as you progress through the course.
My pinky is way stronger than it was when I first started the course. I still get some buzzing if I’m not focusing enough so I’ve still got some way to go, but it’s definitely tons better than it used to be.
This is a very good video on the fretting hand, especially on the thumb issue. It explains why the hand builds up too much tension and how to avoid it. Pinky positioning is also a topic.
I still struggle with moving the position of the plucking hand thumb, especially switching between muting E and playing E
Any exercise ideas for getting better at this?
Also my bass has no thumb rest, so today I “built” this to see if it helps
I had that problem with my acoustic bass as there’s no pickup. With the style of guitar in your photo you could fit a ramp under the strings and use that (not an easy option with my one’s traditional sound hole). There are ramps that fit on with suckers that might give a firmer brace. Where you have that elastic (?) so far forward/over the fretboard your plucking will be a bit boomy and double base like. I move up that far forward only when that’s the tone I’m after.
I have also an acoustic-electric bass without thumb rest and don’t plan installing one. In general, I practice the floating thumb technique so when playing the A, D or G string, the thumb will be resting on the respective lower string. For the E string, the thumb isn’t resting anywhere but somehow this doesn’t disturb me too much with the acoustic and I try to mute with the fretting hand.
I think my thumb-angle is too steep, I tend to get stuck with my thumb between strings But I guess I just have to try to be patient and practice the correct move more slowly.
Did your upgrade make playing easier?
Mine has pickups inside the body but I thought I might make something with the 3D printer sometime. The I had to position the bricolage thumb rest version like that to avoid getting stung by the hook, I’ll probably put something on top so I can put it further back.
Pinky and ring getting in the way of each other. Until I started B2B I developed the bad habit of three finger fretting, with index middle and a combination of pinky with the ring spooning as support on top.
Now while trying to do 1 finger per fret especially when playing with pinky and ring in succession, my head kinda treats them as one and often doesn’t realy hit with either.
I hope that gets just better with time, but I’m curious if anyone facing similar issues?
Also I’m now unsure how to play octaves. Should still use pinky for that or force myself to use the ring finger?
I haven’t put one on my acoustic yet, still plan to when I get around to it. I do have one on my Ibanez Electric which allows me to rest my thumb anywhere between, as well as on, the two pickups.
If you search for “ramps” you’ll find a few threads discussing them and their use. Here’s one example:
For my acoustic I plan to construct a wooden one that will span the sound hole and clamp onto the edges of the hole.
Sounds like you’re almost doing the ‘Simandl’ fretting technique which is quite acceptable. It is very common for people to struggle to separate their ring and pinky; they do have a tendency to move together. This can be fixed with practise but it is also quite common for people to not use their pinky. It’s probably better if you can but I, for example, have arthritis in my fretting pinky so I don’t use it, just using first, middle and ring, which does mean you have to do more ‘micro shifting’ to reach those frets that are just out of reach!
If you search ‘simandl’ you’ll find various discussions about it. Here’s a recent one:
Thanks, yes I it worked so far on most baselines, but I have no “excuses” (no offense to anyone having a condition in that regard) to not use OFPF, being tall with large hands and it enabled me to play some of my favorite basslines with more ease, Holy Diver for example.
I don’t usually struggle with practice as I have a whole school period to practice in, however what I might be struggling in is getting a good understanding of all the different places you can play one note, for example for the Bb scale, F is played on the 3 fret of the D string, but on the music that I have been working on the tabs said that I can play it in the 9th fret as well. I didn’t know you could play the same note more than one way, but it turned out to be more convenient.
I find octaves easiest with the pinky, and when I watch other bassists that’s how they do it. I’ve heard of people using their ring finger for octaves, but that seems like a much wider stretch than using the pinky. I’d suggest trying to build up that pinky strength and independence.
This is the same with me. Often, my ring finger and my pinky are too close together and it’s tough to separate them. I saw a video about that topic (I think it was posted by Josh on YT, but not 100 % sure and right now I’m unable to find it) but in there it was said that this has something to do with the tendons since (different from the other fingers) pinky and ring do share the same tendon which makes it especially tough to get these 2 fingers independently working.
Yup. From what I understand there’s a bridged tendon that connects to the middle finger as well. An easy way to see this in action is to rest your hands palms down on a table (fingers straight or curved, doesn’t really matter as long as they comfortably contact the surface) and try to raise each finger without moving the rest. Most people will have difficulty moving the fourth without lifting the third or fifth fingers. It’s a pretty common topic for pianists in particular and is part of the reason why there’s a lot of technical exercises for them to “strengthen” that finger.
Back to struggling. I was getting confident in my slides thanks the awesome recommendations (thanks everyone!), but hit an exercise where it all fell apart. Inconsistent slide tone, finger pain, etc. I keep misjudging my limits on bass and not realizing I need to slow down more until I’ve been at it long enough to be a problem
I feel like I’ve reverted back to day 1 bass playing. I know it’s obviously not true but I’ve been stuck on Groove #2 on the Talking Bass challenge and just went through the infamous Billie Jean again. While it is better than the first time around, I feel like my notes aren’t flowing together nicely and the speed isn’t there. And I am absolutely stuck on playing root notes when playing in church. I have the tools but I can’t make my brain implement them. Rant over. I’m just frustrated right now.
But I guess I just have to try to be patient and practice the correct move more slowly.
If I continue to have fun playing bass I probably can’t avoid getting GASsy and buy a classic e-bass too 
