Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Not For Nothin'


Chad Thorne

Recommended Posts

There are a few bass players around here who do the same thing. They rest their right hand on top of their bass, and bend their hand down at a right angle to pluck the strings. If I did this I'd have CTS, if I hadn't already had it and had the release surgery for it. If you see pics of me playing you'll see that my left (plucking) hand/wrist are nearly straight. I find this position very comfortable.

 

So my question is: What's up with that? Did Jaco play that way, or something? The guys who do it all seem to have come out of college music programs...

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 19
  • Created
  • Last Reply
BP magazine had a brief tip about this very topic--the need to keep one's wrist and arm straight to avoid longer term problems like CTS. I find myself resting my picking hand and curving the wrist many times--I think it's mostly laziness on my part. I wonder if this is an issue of fingering versus using a pick. Seems harder to do if you are picking maybe?
"Everyone wants to change the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves." Leo Tolstoy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wasn't it Stanley Clarke who started playing that way? I may be wrong, but I remember something to that effect being said in an interview.

 

I used to play like that a lot, and still do. But I recommend the straight arm/wrist position and try to make a conscious effort to use it myself, too.

"I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes

 

The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stan the man played with his right hand bent back and down. It makes some sense playing wise because it makes different length fingers lay across the strings as though they were the same length.
IIRC Chad uses a very light touch so that may make different length fingers a moot point?

 

I dig in quite a bit. My natural "wrist posture" is to have my fingers more or less perpendicular to the ground, as in lifting a briefcase or something with a solid handle.

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/49/l_44917844531d4690a921eedfb872c6c5.jpg

Also, I do not rely on how my bass hangs on my body. (It may or may not be touching my thigh in that photo.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a couple of different hand positions when I play. This photo taken by one of the Lowdown's esteemed alumni shows my right hand when I'm playing fingerstyle

 

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs142.snc4/36472_1501632027325_1429945352_1333812_1154793_n.jpg

 

My hand position changes considerably for pickstyle playing. But for the most part my forearm is still resting on the body. Does my technique put me at risk for CTS? I certainly hope not.

Obligatory Social Media Link

"My concern is, and I have to, uh, check with my accountant, that this might bump me into a higher, uh, tax..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a close up of my right hand and wrist:

 

http://www.jeremycohenbass.com/images/bass%20right%20hand.jpg

 

As in Nicklab's picture, the fingers are perpendicular to the plane of the strings, which I feel I necessary for getting a great sound. Pickups pick up vibrations which go parallel to them. They don't pick up vibrations which go at an angle or straight down at the pickups.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I play with my wrist/arm resting on the top of the bass, like in JC's picture, my left shoulder gets really tired and sore.

 

My main 6-string weighs a ton. I don't need or want the additional weight of my arm pulling on the strap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, but it caused you to lose your hair... ;-)

 

Fantastic. Now who's gonna clean the Coke off my keyboard and monitor?

Do not be deceived by, nor take lightly, this particular bit of musicianship one simply describes as "bass". - Lowell George

 

"The music moves me, it just moves me ugly." William H. Macy in "Wild Hogs"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find with my six-string that the floating thumb technique has its advantages.

 

Wally

 

If I play with my wrist/arm resting on the top of the bass, like in JC's picture, my left shoulder gets really tired and sore.

 

My main 6-string weighs a ton. I don't need or want the additional weight of my arm pulling on the strap.

I have basses to play, places to be and good music to make!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a close up of my right hand and wrist:

 

http://www.jeremycohenbass.com/images/bass%20right%20hand.jpg

 

As in Nicklab's picture, the fingers are perpendicular to the plane of the strings, which I feel I necessary for getting a great sound. Pickups pick up vibrations which go parallel to them. They don't pick up vibrations which go at an angle or straight down at the pickups.

 

Interesting you say that about string vibration patterns and the angle of fingers vs strings / the ground.

 

I've had alot of success getting different tones by not being perpendicular to the strings. Using my right hand more like you would on an upright, with the fingers at 45 degrees or even parallel to the strings. To my ear, getting more finger on the string and rolling off it rather than plucking with the tip seems to give it a bit of a fatter sound with a softer attack.

 

On the string vibration point I'd been told that round wounds vibrated in all directions whereas flats tended to only vibrate in directions parallel to the pick up.

 

As long as the string passes through the magnetic field generated by the pick up then a current will be induced in the pick up coil. Given that the magnetic field doesn't emanate from the magnet like a beam (at least I don't believe it does) then I don't understand why a vibration of the string towards the pick up wouldn't be detected.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After posting in this thread, I went through pics of the band and was surprised by how inconsistent my wrist angle and forearm placement is. Sometimes my forearm is parallel/flush with the bass body, and my wrist is straight. Other times my forearm is resting on the top edge of the bass and my wrist is bent 90 degrees like in JCs pics. And every possible permutation between those extremes. I also saw that my thumb position moved all over the place: sometimes anchored on B string, other times resting just below the string Im using, and sometimes pointing straight into the air.

 

My guess is that when Im playing simple root-5 stuff on the lower strings, I go into autopilot and revert to old habits: forearm on the body, thumb anchored. (Ill need to remember to take my lightest bass if I ever do an old-time country gig!) And when Im plaing on the higher strings, my wrist angle and forearm placement automatically change so that my short little fingers can reach the strings. Or maybe its because Im paying more attention to technique when Im playing lead bass?

 

Another thing I noticed from the photos was the thumb on my fretting hand often sticking up above and beyond the neck. In one pic it looks like my whole thumb is wrapped around the top edge of my 6-string neck. No wonder the tendons I damaged years ago sometimes hurt after a gig!

 

This thread inspired me to look closely at the photos. Hopefully, the photos will inspire me to concentrate more on my technique.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting you say that about string vibration patterns and the angle of fingers vs strings / the ground.
The angle is a matter of efficiency, really.

 

Sure, it's possible to place your finger parallel to the string and pluck it by keeping your finger straight and doing the sideways, you've-been-naughty, "tsk, tsk" waggle thing. The mechanics of your finger, though, are better geared for pulling the finger towards your palm in a grasping motion.

 

It's similar to walking sideways; you can do it, but you probably wouldn't want to run a marathon that way.

 

If you only pluck in the "normal", grasping manner, then changing the angle means less of the force you are generating is imparted to vibrate the string. The rest is wasted because it's difficult to vibrate the string longitudinally (in the direction of the string). [unless you're Ellen Fullman playing a Long String Instrument, in which she rubs the strings with rosined fingers while walking the length of the (up to 90 foot) strings.]http://www.ellenfullman.com/images/full_rays_Fago.jpg

 

For the rest of us it's something like F' = F * sin(theta), assuming grasping-plucking only, where theta is the angle at which your finger attacks the string; finger parallel to string (theta = 0 degrees) to finger perpendicular to string (theta = 90 degrees). F is the force of your plucking finger; F' is the force that goes towards creating transverse waves in the string. Obviously F' is maximal when perpendicular, so this is the most efficient way to do it.

 

That doesn't mean it's the only way to do things. Plucking at a 45 degree angle, with or without some waggle, may create a desired sound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

For the rest of us it's something like F' = F * sin(theta), assuming grasping-plucking only, where theta is the angle at which your finger attacks the string; finger parallel to string (theta = 0 degrees) to finger perpendicular to string (theta = 90 degrees). F is the force of your plucking finger; F' is the force that goes towards creating transverse waves in the string. Obviously F' is maximal when perpendicular, so this is the most efficient way to do it.

 

That doesn't mean it's the only way to do things. Plucking at a 45 degree angle, with or without some waggle, may create a desired sound.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Do not be deceived by, nor take lightly, this particular bit of musicianship one simply describes as "bass". - Lowell George

 

"The music moves me, it just moves me ugly." William H. Macy in "Wild Hogs"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting you say that about string vibration patterns and the angle of fingers vs strings / the ground.
The angle is a matter of efficiency, really.

 

Sure, it's possible to place your finger parallel to the string and pluck it by keeping your finger straight and doing the sideways, you've-been-naughty, "tsk, tsk" waggle thing. The mechanics of your finger, though, are better geared for pulling the finger towards your palm in a grasping motion.

 

It's similar to walking sideways; you can do it, but you probably wouldn't want to run a marathon that way.

 

If you only pluck in the "normal", grasping manner, then changing the angle means less of the force you are generating is imparted to vibrate the string. The rest is wasted because it's difficult to vibrate the string longitudinally (in the direction of the string). [unless you're Ellen Fullman playing a Long String Instrument, in which she rubs the strings with rosined fingers while walking the length of the (up to 90 foot) strings.]http://www.ellenfullman.com/images/full_rays_Fago.jpg

 

For the rest of us it's something like F' = F * sin(theta), assuming grasping-plucking only, where theta is the angle at which your finger attacks the string; finger parallel to string (theta = 0 degrees) to finger perpendicular to string (theta = 90 degrees). F is the force of your plucking finger; F' is the force that goes towards creating transverse waves in the string. Obviously F' is maximal when perpendicular, so this is the most efficient way to do it.

 

That doesn't mean it's the only way to do things. Plucking at a 45 degree angle, with or without some waggle, may create a desired sound.

 

Hmmm...that wooshing noise must have been that post going straight over my head!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...