Lots of people use the 1 finger per fret system as if it was some kind of law. In this lesson I show the limitations of the system and a few alternative perspectives on how to assign our fingers.
This Lesson is a preview of the Bassic Fundamentals Course
Thanks Mark. Excellently explained as always. I’M looking forward to the course.
Thank you very much, Mark.
I appreciate this lesson. My hands are old and small which makes it very difficult to stretch at lower end. This lesson has taught me to study the piece I’m playing and prepare for finger assignments in advance. Never thought about this level of preparation. Thanks Mark.
Very good. I am an old bass player who has not been playing for a long while. Just got a new bass and basically starting over
I’m an older beginner with small hands and I have to say you’re the first person I’ve come across to explain how I can adapt my style of play. Others comment on adapting and mention famous players with smaller hands, even with missing digits, but they don’t explain how to adapt. Top marks. (excuse the pun).
having small hands…. this really helped me. thanks Mark.
Just bought the study book of scales, and it is very well made. Stuff is explained in a logic, clear manner.
Then I watched the sample lesson 2 on finger assignment, ans OMG, what a revelation in the simplicity, logic and PRACTICALLITY of the lesson.
4 years ago, I stopped learning electric bass and upright because my live teacher then was telling me NEVER to use the third finger, or to ALLWAYS use the third and forth together, as a pair, ALLWAYS. It is the way HE was playing as a professional, on both electric and upright. But I could not really make practical sense of that IMPOSED RULE and quit practicing. But your video and what seems to be your teaching philosophy and style are just was I was waiting for .. So thank you very much …
Thanks, Mark. This lesson has been really helpful and reassuring for me, particularly in combination with the ‘thumb pivot’ lesson. I learned the 1-2-4 Simandl fingering on the double-bass as a youngster which is helpful for me near the nut because I have smallish hands but I always felt that I had to obey this 1 finger per fret mantra and had to unlearn that technique. It turns out that I don’t! It’s exactly from the fret you mentioned – fret 5 and above – that I can shift from 1-2-4 to 1-2-3-4 fingering. With the lesson on the thumb pivoting I can just about play the F minor scale with one finger per fret but, again, the tone is a bit hit and miss as I can’t quite always hit behind the frets to create that clean note. I’m practising! Anyway, thanks for this lesson. Really appreciated.
Urgh!
No doubt I have been destroying my hands and doing it wrong for forty years, but playing octaves with my first and fourth fingers makes me feel nauseous wherever I am on the neck!
Each to his own…