Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Bass Guitar - Fretting

By Andy Ainsworth


Fretting is one of the core concepts of learning proper bass techniques. If you recently picked up the bass guitar, you want to gather the basics of good fretting prior to everything else. What do you seriously need to be familiar with? Well here are some integral guidelines and advice:

Keep your nails clipped and tidy. It is almost impossible to play bass guitar with claws. Ensure you cut your fingernails before even picking up your instrument.

Memorize your finger numbering. On bass guitar, your fretting fingers are numbered. One is the pointing finger. Two is the median finger. Three is your third finger. Four is your pinky.

Arm positioning. You want your arms to hang loose at your sides. Decide not to get into the Habit of resting your elbow on your lap when you sit down. Also, make sure that there is no tightness in the shoulders.

Safeguard your wrist. As many musicians are subject to hand or wrist injuries ensure, you must listen to your body if you feel tenderness. It is normal for your fingers to ache and niggle at in the beginning, but you should in no way feel piercing or other types of pain in your wrists.

Hold your palm away from the bottom of the neck. Your hand should not meet the bottom of the neck. Instead, there should be a small pocket of air.

Press carefully. Always strive to push with nominal force while still getting a strong and sharp tone.

Learn to contrast and tighten up your tempo. This may possibly seem obvious, but it is harder than it seems. You must know the contrast between, say, 40 beats per minute compared with 60 beats per minute.

And finally, remember to rehearse, exercise and practice. Learning bass techniques can be time consuming, but in time, you will become familiar with your instrument.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment