To play “from the tail”—that is, with more than just your hand muscles—
on upright, keep your “fretting hand” elbow up and your hand curved.
Photo by Holly M. Berkowitz |
On electric bass, “from the tail” playing is accomplished by keeping
your bass at a 45-degree angle and keeping the fretting-hand fingers
curved, slightly apart, and relaxed. Photo by Holly M. Berkowitz |
A few weeks ago, I attended a
string-quartet concert. After the
performance, a member of the group
introduced me to an electric bassist
friend who hadn’t played for a while
because of a hand injury. Immediately,
I began running down a list of considerations
to help a bass player keep
their hands healthy. We didn’t come to
a conclusion about why he might have
injured his hand, but our conversation
reminded me of the many hazards
facing an unwary bassist.
To stay in shape and keep playing,
we need to devote some care
to both the fretting and picking/
plucking hands. Most problems
arise from misuse rather than overuse.
Surprisingly, much of what
I’ve learned about what an electric
bassist must do to take care of his
or her hands comes from my years
of playing upright semi-seriously.
If there was ever an instrument
that challenges the body, it’s
upright bass. I bought my first
upright some 20 years ago—a
big-bodied American Standard
behemoth with a 43” string length.
Keep in mind that a standard
electric bass is already a challenge
with a mere 34” scale length, and
most uprights are closer to 41.5”.
On the upright, to play a whole-step
(such as from F to G on the
E string), requires a span from the
1st finger to the 4th finger with
the hand wide open.
As you might guess, for the
fretting hand, good use of muscle
groups is crucial on the upright,
and this is true even on the
electric bass. Likewise, there’s
a temptation to pluck too hard
and in a way that defies how the
human body is designed to work.
Both picking- and fretting-hand
challenges are relatively similar
between electric and upright,
although to different extents.
It’s easy to overstretch your fretting
hand on electric bass, especially
when playing the lower frets near
the nut. To make things easier on
my fretting hand, I play with a
1-2-4 fingering on electric bass—
a technique that’s standard on
upright. If you guessed right away
that this approach only lets you
cover three frets in one position,
you’re right. But that’s okay. On
electric bass, you just need to combine
a 1-2-4 fingering with thumb
pivoting. That is, rather than
stretching your fingers to cover four
frets, your thumb stays anchored
behind the neck while you swivel
the hand back and forth around the
thumb to extend your reach.
A few years ago, on a plane
trip back from Amsterdam to the
States, I sat next to a woman whose
work was the equivalent of sports
medicine for musicians. When I
mentioned I played upright bass
and had some fretting-hand problems,
she suggested I learn to play
“from the tail.” She explained that
fretting-hand fingering on bass
becomes easier when you don’t play
by pressing down strings with your
hand alone, but instead, by imagining
that your fingers are moved by
your arm, which in turn is helped
by the shoulder, and finally, with a
big assist from the back and clear
down the spine to where your tail
would be if you actually had one.
To accomplish this on upright,
you need to keep your “fretting
hand” elbow up and your hand
curved. Otherwise, the muscle
groups beyond the wrist are out
of the picture. To transfer these
mechanics to electric bass, I keep
my fretting hand’s thumb behind
the E string, my wrist in line with
my arm, and think about how my
hand connects to the shoulder. In
addition, rather than holding the
bass neck parallel to the floor, I
tilt it up nearly 45 degrees, which
helps the fretting hand fall naturally
into the correct position. Finally,
it’s important to keep the fingers
curved, slightly apart, and relaxed.
Likewise, to execute the thumb-pivot
technique, keep your fretting
hand open and curved, so that all
the muscle groups get involved. If
you switch to a baseball-bat grip,
you cannot thumb-pivot, and only
the finger muscles are brought
into action. When I was learning
upright bass, my teacher told me
to imagine I was holding a pop can
in my hand and to keep the hand
shaped in that position while playing.
This is overkill for electric bass,
but still gets across the idea of keeping
the hand curved, rather than
folded into a V shape.
There’s a lot to consider with
body mechanics as it relates to bass
playing. In my next column, we’ll
discuss the picking/plucking hand
and ways you can care for it, as well
as ideas that apply to both hands.
See you then.
Dan Berkowitz is
a professor by day and
a bassist when the sun
goes down. He plays
upright and electric bass
for blues, jazz, orchestra,
and musical theater.
Contact him at
profdanb@gmail.com.