Me too!
I missed out on the “long fingers” the day God created me, but glad I got the “good looks” part. LOL
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As much as i “enjoy” microshifting with my fat, stubby fingers, it really seems to present more of a challenge when playing a fretless bass. I have observed though that a lot of fretless players do not play much in the first 5-7 frets so maybe that’s the “secret” 
esp if one wants to play false fingerings 
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It’s been a few months since I had a fretless, but I don’t recall having any unusual micro shifting issues with it.
I played a fretless during the first part of Mark Smith’s Sight Reading course, which pretty much focuses on notes in the first position (frets 1-6) and didn’t have any particular issues with it (other than the usual intonation errors common on a fretless).
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Other than intonation erors… that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Microshifting makes it more difficult to be accurate because your hand is in a different location with respect to the frets. Every time you have to move your hand, you’re introducing more opportunity to put your fingers in the wrong spot. If you’re looking at the neck it doesnt matter quite so much, esp if it’s a lined bass. It’s not the end of the world, i generally play simandl the first 5 or so frets and switch to one finger per fret further up the neck.
Ideally, if one is fretting a fretted bass properly (right behind the fret wire), it’s not too hard to transition to fretless and intonate well.
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Agreed 100%. This is where muscle memory comes into play in a big way, which comes from lots and lots of practice (preferably sight reading).
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1FPF and microshifting are not mutually exclusive. 1FPF simply means that you play the four frets with four different fingers, not that your fingers are glued to their positions at all times.
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Struggles right now are left-hand related. Long long ago, when I was 4, I got my left pinky finger caught in a door and nearly took the tip off. Thankfully, I didn’t, but from then on it was always a little deformed. The tip curls back quite a bit - getting it to curl the right way and press down with any kind of strength is difficult. Throw in the fact that I’m left-handed (even though I play the bass right-handed) and you have a lifetime of left pinky finger woes. So far I’ve been working around it by keeping my ring finger up close to it for “support”. Not sure if it will be a permanent workaround, or just a “one weird trick” to use until I strengthen it, but we’ll see as time goes on.
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Many experienced players play like this, they even support the ring finger with the middle finger.
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Thankfully all my other fingers are strong. I lift weights (olympic style weightlifting mostly) so my grip has always been pretty good. Except that stupid left pinky. It just gets in the way. 
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I am almost done with the Bassbuzz lessons. I don’t know what to study next. I am not in a band or playing with anyone.
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Do the Hollywood Yakuza sort of thing - chop! 
Seriously, though, I have led a very active life and all of my fingers and one thumb were dislocated at one point or another. They’re all dysfunctional to some degree. And fairly stubby at that. I find that the trick is to keep them moving and do warm up exercises regularly, and despite these shortcomings I’m progressing nicely along B2B. Well, for a given value of progressing and nicely.
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I’ve gotten through the “fast” first lesson and plan to practice it before moving on, but my biggest issue is using my middle finger on the E string instead of my index. I’m trying to break myself of the habit but it isn’t easy.
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Nope, and that’s why the first lesson is just chugging the E. It takes time 
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So what I am struggling with is what plan of action to take.
I am currently on Module 6 Lesson 1 Part 2.
So far I have enjoyed the lessons, learning lots and Josh is great and all that. But the workouts since the dreaded Billie Jean has been going downhill I use to be able to do all three workout speeds and be at 85-90% on fast so as Josh said I would continue moving forward.
Now I am struggling for the slow workouts, I mean I get through them but not 100% and not pretty at all I feel like my fretting hand is not where it should be at all… here’s my dilemma do I continue moving forward and finish the course and then go back through it a second time or do I start the course over when I get to the end of Module 8 (halfway point) or do I spend more time on each lesson before moving on.
I have been doing one lesson a day and then practicing the workouts a few times each speed so like 30-45 minutes session each day.
I know I should do what I feel I should do and everyone is different but any insight would be great, thanks!
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All of those sound appropriate… I had a similar situation, what I did was slow down, meaning that I didn’t do a lesson and all 3 workouts in one day, depending on the lesson I might just stay on the slow one for a day and then the next day put effort on the medium…
it was frustrating because I really wanted to keep the pace that I had initially plus keep the pace of the 50 songs challenge, well that wasn’t realistic so I took a couple of days off and then got back and lessen the burden, this is to be fun and I don’t have a deadline… now I’m more satisfied with how the course is going…. Just started slapping and I can tell that this module will take me the longest yet, and that’s ok
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@Reo Thanks for the input I appreciate it! I will keep moving forward and maybe repeat the workouts a few days before moving on to another lesson to make sure I am more comfortable with them. I have been splitting the workouts as well so some days I do the slow 3 or 4 times and then the medium 5 times the next and so on…
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slow down the slow, instead of trying to do it in any sort of ‘time’, try memorizing finger movements. Do a bar at a time, nail it, do the next bar, nail it, add it to the first bar.
Go backwards a lesson and do it again, build confidence.
As we chatted as well, find a really easy tune outside of the course and start learning it, little by little, bar by bar. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry is about as easy as they get. Learn the riff, use it as a warm up. Your brain needs to cycle a bit on/off from a task, when you come back to the struggle you may find it not so hard.
It will come.
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@John_E thanks bro! Just finished my practice session and tonight went well I didn’t think about anything other than the task at hand. Played the groove on all three speeds and nailed it at 100%. Then I noodled around and went through all the notes I know so far and named them as I played them so yes it’s time and consistent effort.
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