Six Common Problems with Left Hand Technique on the Double/Upright Bass.
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
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In this beginners upright bass lesson I show you the 6 most common problems that I see with left-hand technique and of course, how to put them right.
I compiled this list of issues I see most often with left-hand technique. It's really easy to not realise you are making these mistakes, so check them out to make sure you are doing things the right way!
Establishing a great hand shape will transform your tuning. Stop worrying about intonation and start focusing entirely on the music.
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I began learning double bass in 1952 and even after all this time I find it's important to review these tips. Sometimes our habits change so slowly that we may not notice. This channel can be very helpful. Very helpful.
Thank you, it's great to hear you enjoyed the lesson.
two things i immediately saw in my playing after watching this video. my fingers are too bunched up and my pinky is not properly arched. his videos are good and i have improved my technique significantly. cheers!
Hey Michael, it's great to hear that they helped. Best of luck with your practice, cheers Geoff
Thanks for the lesson. I made the 2016 All-state Festival and Double Bass for orchestra. If you haven't heard, the All-state Festival gathers the very best high school musicians in the state of Iowa. Thousands of people try to get in, but most fail. I haven't played nearly as long as the other people there. I made it on my first try(senior year). Neither my band or orchestra can help me really with bass. One plays trombone and the other plays Violin. The only one that could help,(that plays for Omaha Symphony Orchestra) is an cocky, conceited, egotistic asshole. I wasn't going to ask him anything. In short I wondering why I couldn't play that long. My hand posture isn't bad at all. I knew basically everything you said, it was just nuance things that you mentioned, that made me check everything twice. There was one thing I know I definitely wasn't doing. All in all, good stuff. :)
Thanks, and congrats on making the All-state, it sounds awesome!
Your lessons are very helpful for me and others to learn the bass. Thank you
Hey Jem, that's really common and will take a bit of time to correct. You just need to keep focus on correcting it and over time it will start to feel natural. It should lift up only enough to let the string sound. Think about relaxing that finger as much as possible. Good luck, I know it can be tough to get that to become a habit, but it will happen. Cheers Geoff
Excellent! Just what I was looking for. Problem number 4! Thank you!
Thanks for these lessons - excellent.
Great tips! Thank you
Thanks again Geoff!
Great tips. I have had pupils who are double jointed which makes it hard for them to keep a round handshape. Thank you, I enjoyed the video.
Thank you very much!
Wow, thanks for the help on this
very clear . Thanks
Very good, thank you
thank you, very useful for me
I love your videos and very concise explanations. Thank you! I've learned so much from Discover Double Bass.
Thanks Anita! :-)
Hey Daniel, It can be hard to get this so it comes naturally. You need to keep checking your left hand shape until the right shape becomes habit. Use a mirror and keep looking to see if you are maintaining it. It will take time, but it's worth the effort. Good luck with your playing, Cheers Geoff
No problems Bryan. Cheers Geoff
Great lessons, thanks!
My pleasure, I'm glad you enjoyed it :-)
I don't play double bass anymore, but these same principles apply to electric. For those who play electric after having started on upright, hand position is second nature usually. For guitar players who pick up or switch over to electric bass, it's a persistent problem with maintaining proper position especially for strength and endurance.
I enjoyed it
great job.thank you
My pleasure, I'm glad it helped, cheers Geoff :-)
That oblique finger form is an idea from the Canadian school, which gives larger contact patch, hence larger range of motion and wider vibrato. The problem with the limited span can be remedied using Rabbath's pivoting technique.
Thank you much from Spain
Thanks, I glad to help, cheers Geoff
Thats wright. Good advices.
+Slawomir Marzec Thanks for checking out the video and I'm glad you enjoyed it, cheers Geoff :-)
I enjoyed this class
Thanks Daniel, I really appreciate that :-)
Thanks for this lesson, Geoff! I'm a bass guitarist, and my wife (for my birthday) rented an upright bass for me. I'm enjoying your lessons on line.
Glad to help and congrats on the new bass! :-)
Thank you dear friend!
My pleasure Dmitry, enjoy your practice, cheers Geoff :-)
Just had an "Ah-ha" moment with no.5!
Thankfully I don't do any of these, but I have another one - the 3rd finger and sometimes 4th as well get stiff when I play with 2nd finger in lower positions (I - III). Because of a stretch between 1. and 2. it's hard to fix this problem, even if I keep attention to it!
My bass teacher bunched his fingers, but he also was missing the tips of two of his fingers so it was hard to play like that. Sometimes you gotta do what's works for you. Also it was for bluegrass bass qhich is played completely diffrent.
How do you combat problem no.1? I find this sometimes with my playing.
thank you i hve sick on the index finger but after i saw this contents and very good to my finger
Geoff are those Med or Light gage strings. Nice tone. Thanks and Bright Moments.
Hey Andre, they are Pirastro's Evah Pirazzi Weich which are their light gauge. Thanks Geoff :-)
I have problem no.5 and am trying to fix it. It does feel difficult to main the stretch between first and second finger. Thanks for the lesson!
I've actually got a lesson coming out in a few weeks time about this exact thing. Try thinking of the 1st finger moving away from the 2nd and the 2nd stays in a natural position. This is better than just trying to stretch equally between the 1st and 2nd fingers. Keep an eye out for the video for more.
BRILLIANT VIDEOS I PLAY ELECTRIC BASS FRETLESS 4 STRING AND FRETTED SIX STRING i am looking into getting an electric double bass
What should I do if my pinky splays out whenever I use my first or second finger?
I really like this video! I do much of #1 and #5 #6. I notice I do this because I'm originally an electric bass guitar player but I'm making a switch to get more abilities but I have trouble not doing 1,5&6. It's difficult to use my pinky since my fingers are already pretty short. Any tips you have for my left hand to get better? Thanks.
That's a tough one, but I think that supporting the little finger with your other fingers makes a big difference. Also over time your hand gets used to the stretches, especially between the 1st and 2nd...keep at it and I'm sure you will get there :-)
Great lesson!i found it very helpful! Personally im havin trouble with number 5 , maintaining the distance between finger 1 and 2 but im working on it , any advice to improve this?
josemaria cerisola I'm glad you enjoyed it and that's probably the hardest issue with left hand technique. I think the key is to keep monitoring and correcting it whilst keeping as relaxed as possible. The gap is probably a bit bigger than most people expect, but I've not found any way except repetition to learn the shape. I hope that helps, good luck with your practice, cheers Geoff :-)
When young, when resting, I would slip the neck between my first and second fingers as a reminder.
Good video, good examples, good production. But it could be even better if you show 'correct' variant on all examples. In order to show real difference
Thanks for the feedback, that's a great point and I agree. Cheers Geoff
I have a problem with #6. I do it sometimes during rehearsal, but I don't during concerts
I'm not a contrabassist, but it was oddly interesting. 🤓
Everyone's welcome :-) Thanks for watching.
Good thing that siren only started going off at the end lol
yes but that is the simandle school of playing, but what about the other styles of playing bass using all four fingers
I realized that every time i play a holding note, my left hand subconsciously moves down especially when i play using my four fingers. It slides down the fingerboard and when i press using the index finger again it goes out of tune. How do i solve this. Can i ask how do you place your thumb too? When i play a low F on the E string my joints at the thumb hurt when i press for quite some time.
hello, how can i improve knuckle collapse in thumb position if i'm not strong enough yet?
Left hand technique in either thumb position or in regular playing position is never about strength, but about using arm/hand weight. So it's almost certainly a technique issue such as standing with the bass too vertical, your left elbow too low meaning your arm and wrist are not in line, or your fingers are collapsed. It may be that if you have VERY high strings that makes it harder than it needs to be in thumb position, so bear that in mind, but most likely it's technique.
For more information please check out our free lessons on thumb position, discoverdoublebass.com/thumb-position-double-bass-lessons or our full-length course courses.discoverdoublebass.com/p/double-bass-thumb-position
Best of luck with all your practice. Thumb position isn't harder than regular positions, it's just less familiar and the more experience and guidance you have the easier it gets.
I agree with 10% of what u're saying, but the rest I just find unacceptable. Just looking a few videos of Streicher, Stoll or Karr will explain better what I try to say, and then ina a jazz-vane there are also a lot of examples. I believe the only good left hand technique is the one that, first of all, doesn't exclude the connection with the right hand, the mind and the rest of our body, and that connection, of course, will vary a bit from style to style. If we only speak about the anatomic part of technique, then it should be the way we're able to use our hand "full-power" without getting tired and earning a tendinitis, without getting out of tune of course. In my and my students case, it's proven that having a thumb relaxed (but not static!) allows us to adjust perfectly the rest of the fingers on any board. As a clump between the thumb and the rest of them, with a difference that the pressure which is supposed to be coming from the thumb, in fact, is coming from where the resonate box is touching our body (stomac, hip, etc). That way, we work both left hand and the whole body position because each hand, body, double bass or bow is different. Greetings.
I’m totally self taught except for a couple of books and videos. Joining double bass after 14 years of bass guitar. I think I’m doing the right hand shape but keeping it correct is exhausting and my hand aches. Do I have bad technique or is this just new muscles being developed?
With any new instrument it's normal to have fatigue and perhaps find it uncomfortable at the start, but you shouldn't be experiencing pain, especially any sharp pain. It may be that the instrument needs setting up, but it's also very likely to be technique related so ideally an in-person lesson would be well worth it to get the feedback.
Also, bear in mind that the way you play upright bass is so different to electric bass due to the use of arm weight in both hands which isn't present in electric bass technique...so I would encourage you to pay close attention to that as it's the cause of a lot of problems, especially soreness and fatigue in the left hand. There's a lot of info on this page which may help discoverdoublebass.com/lesson/using-arm-hand-weight-the-balance-point
Best of luck with all your practice and enjoy the new bass! Cheers Geoff
youre sitting in this video, but if "one" is standing i find a completely different feel...should the arm almost "hang on" to the neck pull the fingers back?
Hi John, for me it's the same technique sitting or standing. It is harder to do if stood up as if the bass is not balanced correctly you may end up trying to support it with your left hand, where as it's sable already when sat... but the left hand technique should be the same for both. If it feels different stood up I would explore posture as that's the most common cause of problems that can in turn effect left hand technique. I hope that helps, cheer Geoff
The 'hanging on' analogy is a good one...that is similar... the natural weight of the hand/arm is pulling the strings down and the hand is relaxed, but has the correct shape. It's also similar to opening a draw.
Unfortunately, my fingers are double jointed so my pinkie finger cannot go into a natural looking arch. :^(
scarlett I think it's tricky as not all the tips will work for everyone, except to try and stay as relaxed as possible...that's a universal one :-)
Youre doing right hand
Lol jokes on you. I broke my little finger as a kid and it's never straight.
I don't know why I'm watching this I play violin??????
Lol, :-)
Any other Americans notice he didn’t say pinky😂😂😂
Six people play violin. xD
I play bass and violin, what's your point.
Tip number 6 is pretty dumb because rotating and lifting the old fingers is standard celli technique that allows the energy of the left hand to relax from finger to finger. Maybe don’t do the exaggerated thing Geoff is displaying here but look at Joel Quarrington do something like this. Pivoting is important. As for maintaining a gap between 1-2…… Italian bassists uses 1-3 on half steps to alleviate the awful sort of tension that the Simandle fingerings bring (although the standard simandle 1-2-4 fingerings are great for chromaticism if one is rotating the weight through each finger)
These sorts of videos are flawed, I wouldn’t go to jazz guys for (left hand) technique per se the same way I wouldn’t go to an orch dork for creativity
Is there an excessive you can recommend for finger posture