How to Hold and Play your Bass Guitar
You bought the bass guitar. You learned to tune it to perfection. You
have even begun to learn how to read sheet music. What do you need to
know now? You need to learn how to hold and play your bass guitar
properly to make your performance as stress free and professional as
possible. Proper left-hand positioning and right hand stroking are just
like any other learned skill and repetition and practice will build the
quality of your skills.
A lot of mistakes are made when playing a musical instrument, but in
order to master the bass guitar, you need superior left-handed skills
that leave your fingers able to reach the notes quickly and with
precision. You will know when you have mastered your left-handed
techniques because you will find yourself more relaxed and finding that
next note will be easier for you while utilizing this proper technique.
Practice the following tips and feel your body and music improve in now
time.
- If you are right handed, make the letter C with your left hand.
- Now turn your hand away from you positioning your thumb toward
you and facing upwards.
- Push your wrist up slightly and place your hand on the neck of
the bass guitar.
- Make sure that your thumb is placed between the first and second
fret behind the neck and also make sure that it rests a fraction
more than halfway up the backside of the guitar neck.
- You want the base of your fingers resting right underneath the
neck. The most common mistake is to have your fingers either in
front of or in back of the neck so pay special attention that the
resting position is correct.
- Curl all four of your fingers over the strings and you are ready
to play.
Some warnings and caution here:
- When the thumb is resting too high up on the back of the neck,
playing any note with the fourth finger is uncomfortable and
difficult to manage.
- The right side of the thumb pad is what should be resting on the
neck. Make sure that you are not holding the neck with the tip of
your thumb which is a common mistake.
- The worst thing you can do while playing is bending your wrist
backwards. Make sure your wrist is straight and not tilted backwards
or forwards.
Front view of correct left-hand Side view of correct left-hand
position
position.
Now that you have mastered the positioning of your left hand on the
guitar neck, let’s move on to learning how to properly stroke the
strings with your right hand.
Some bassists will use a pick to play their strings, but it is much
more common to use your fingers to ‘pluck’ the strings. Here is a basic
description of how to play your notes using your fingers.
- Hold your plucking hand loosely over the strings with your palm
facing the bass itself.
- Your thumb is going to be the anchor for your hand and this
gives your fingers more agility to play the strings. Place your
thumb on the pickup closest to the neck like this.
- You can see the next step in the above illustrations as well;
correct finger positioning while plucking. It is important to keep
your fingers straight and to utilize the muscles of the hand rather
than those of the fingers. Why? You will build up a greater
endurance and a lot more power when you do, so keep the first and
second joints of your fingers straight and do not bend them.
- Practice plucking the E string towards you until you reaches a
point of smooth and consistent quality of tone.
- Now try using your middle finger on the A string and then
alternate back and forth. You will mostly be using only your index
and middle fingers when playing the bass.
Many bassists do not develop correct hand and finger technique when
they first learn to play. Do not follow their examples; utilize the
above methods and tips and you will be assured of a quality of playing
that will be hard to be surpassed. It is worth the extra effort, I
promise!
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