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I continue to report observations and advancements concerning the bass part of my life, a part that contributes to much joy and satisfaction in my life.

As you know, I like to experiment, so after a year with floating thumb (see earlier posts); I went back to the “standard” way of having your thumb resting on the pickup or B-/E-string. I noticed a little bit more edge on the funky feeling and when playing fast. With the floating thumb technique the fingers are bent and with the standard technique the fingers are more straight. Obviously I still have more control over fast movements when the fingers are straight. I believe that the finger should hit the string with enough speed to get a good sound and that might do the difference. There is not much difference, but enough to be noticed and felt.

As the speed of a song increases, I tend to play more and more staccato-like, that is rate of tone/pause decreases. I don’t let the string ring enough. This behavior was also improved as I changed to standard technique.

This month I am working on “Charlie” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and I find it easier to capture the funky feeling with straight fingers. I felt kind of liberated when I did the change back. Still floating thumb has its advantages, especially when playing on the G-string. I might end up using both at different times.

I love the way you can affect the tone of your bass with just your fingers. Where you hit the string with your finger affects how the string will vibrate and how it will sound. You can pluck the string from the middle of the string above the fretboard all the way down to close to the bridge and vary your tone considerably.

If you play close to the neck you will get a warm, round tone. The fundamental tone is accentuated, that is your tone will be more like a sine wave. You will get a deep, bassy sound.

If you play closer to the bridge the harmonics are accentuated and the tone has more treble in it. The tone is dry and dirty. The string is stiffer, which means that it will be in the same place each time you hit it. You can play faster. On the other hand the volume is weaker than when you play close to the neck. More effort is needed to produce the same volume.

How you pluck also affects the tone. If you play with a pick or with your nails or hard fingertips more of the harmonics are retained. If you play with your pads the vibration of the string is dampened at the pluck and the tone has less harmonics.

Added to all this we also have slap and pop and playing with thumb. I try to give the basslines of each song we play in our group character by varying the way I play. As bass players we are limited in the possibilities of adding effects because of the nature of the bass sound. Too much of effects just make the tone diffuse and undefined and your sound disappears among the guitars. But with a mostly clean tone and fingers we can achieve much!

I like to experiment, try new approaches and improve things. I have written before about the floating thumb technique. Click on the tag “floating thumb” below to read more. After having used the floating thumb technique for a while now, let’s evaluate.

I had to gradually work my way up to speed on the fast songs. Since the angle of the fingers are different, muscle memory has to be retrained. That was no problem. I can actually play faster now, because I find the position of the fingers are more natural.

The most difficult thing with changing technique was playing on the lowest string (E-string on a 4-string bass or B-string on a 5-string bass). The “normal” fingerstyle technique is resting your thumb on the pickup or on the two lowest strings. When you pick with your finger, you land on the next lower string or on the thumb. That way playing on the lowest string “feels” like playing on the other strings. Your finger is stopped by a string or thumb. When you use the floating thumb technique and you play on the lowest string your fingers have to stop in the air by themselves. The feeling is different and I have found it difficult to play relaxed when playing fast.

The advantages the floating thumb technique are many. The angles of the fingers are more consistent whether you play on G-string or E-string, which helps muscle memory. I find it easier now to change from picking with my fingertips to picking with my finger pads in order to change the tone. It is easy to move the hand from playing close to the bridge to playing close to the neck seamlessly, because you are not dependent on having your thumb resting on the pickups. I find the angle of my wrist is more comfortable now. You can easily switch to slapping technique, because your hand is almost in the correct position already. When you play on G-string you are able to mute several of the lower strings (not only 2) with your thumb. I guess that floating thumb is the only way, when you play 6-string, though I have not tested that yet.

It is important to make sure the thumb is resting lightly on the strings. We do not want tension to build in the thumb. Just a light touch is enough to mute them.

Using equalizer for shaping the tone of your bass is not that useful. You will often end up having different levels for different strings. If you want a fatter sound and you decrease treble, the higher strings will sound weaker. Equalization is most useful to cut harmonics above the range you are playing or compensate for the characteristics of the amp, speaker or room. At least I want my strings to sound evenly.

Better than equalization is to use your fingers. You can change a good deal by playing with your fingertips or with your fingerpads. Also the angle with which you hit the string affects the sound.

Something I have explored lately and found very useful is to play with my thumb only and at the same time dampen the strings slightly at the bridge. This gives you a fat tone with short sustain, almost like an upright bass. G-string needs less dampening than the thicker strings so you will have to move your hand towards the bridge as you move to a higher string. Some songs that we play just begs to be played this way.

I absolutely love the sound and feeling of my fretless bass. It was as I suspected, playing fretless is for me. To expose me as much as possible, I decided to play everything with the fretless for a while. That means biting rock, funk, blues and soft ballads. The only thing that is excluded is slapping. I realize that my Warwick Streamer LX is better suited for rock, but the fretless can bite you also. You can create the “mwah”, the typical fretless sound, when you want it and avoid it at other times. It is all in your fingers.

For maximum “mwah” you should have a low string height. On the other hand, if you want to avoid it at times, the height should not be to low. Regarding your playing technique, you get more “mwah” when you play on your pads instead of on your fingertips. If you slide up just a tiny bit to the correct pitch the effect is increased. What we call the “mwah” is really a change of the timbre, the color of the sound as it develops. The amplitude of the harmonics change from the start to the end of the tone. Your fingers has much to do with it. Wow, a naked tone can express so much.

I have been using the floating thumb technique (see earlier post for an explanation) for a while now and I like it.

One additional advantage besides what I mentioned earlier is that you have better control over D- and G-string and can get a fatter tone if you like. I always felt that the sound of the G-string was to small, at least on my main axe, Warwik Streamer LX. Now I can “dig in” more with the fingers. More flesh equals fatter tone.

I appreciate being able to mute more than two strings with the thumb. It is important to practise slowly at first, so that the thumb rests relaxed on the strings. The fingers that are not used at the moment should have as little tension in them as possible.

I stumbled over this interesting video from You Tube where Todd Johnson explains the floating thumb technique when playing bass. This technique means that instead of anchoring your thumb on the pickup or on a particular string (B or E), your rest the side of your thumb on top of the lowest strings. As you play on higher strings you just move your thumb from B/E/A to E/A/D for example. This way you can mute several strings with your thumb and your hand has the same natural position whether you play on E-string or on G-string. Also the angle of the wrist is smaller and healthier than with the traditional way.

I had an interesting conversation with Byron Santo some time ago that inspired me to pursue this change of thumb position. The video mentioned above is an excerpt from Todd Jonsons DVD “Technique Builders”. In the video he demonstrates how to do it and the advantages of using it. The DVD might be worth buying.

A way to train your arm muscles for better slapping is to grab an ordinary drumstick in the middle with your hand (palm) and do the typical slap movement with your arm and wrist in the air. Position the arm like you normally do when you are slapping, but with no bass. The stick will be like an extended thumb. The added weight through the drumstick will help your muscles to build more quickly. But, as always, start with a few minutes at a time. To much and you will get pain.

I have had some interesting dicsussions with friends the last week that accentuated the need for regularely stretching our muscles. Problems build during the years and sooner or later the body strikes back. I also know of several bass players that have had problems with their hands. So lets not cheat on this.

Streching is different than ordinary warmup. You stretch your fingers for example two by two to their utmost position for about 30 sec and then you rotate on all fingers and wrist. Use your imagination and vary the positions. Do it slowly and use the other hand or something else (a table) to move the fingers slightly beyond their limit, but don’t hurt yourself. Do this several times a week when you have time. It is better to do it a few times thoroughly than rushing it over every day in a few seconds. If we neglect this, tension can begin to build up in the hand with pain and worse as result. I have no medical traning but this is what I have picked up and is practising myself

When I got turned on to bass playing, I wanted to learn as quick as possible and since I also have a pedagogical interest I payed close attention to the most effecient way to learn. One of the key elements seems to be relaxation. In both left and right hand you have to find and maintain a relaxed feeling. It was so obvious when I tried to learn a song and to quickly played at full speed. I was frustrated until I learned how my fingers and muscles operate. You cannot cheat and force your hands to play quickly. At first, decrease the tempo so that you can relax completely in left and right hand. You have to make sure your hands keep the relaxed feeling as you increase speed. If you just train to play as quick as possible, you will be good at playing sloppishly fast.