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Left hand shift
- Thread starter icarus88
- Start date
I would not shift. IMO those are strength excersise and shifting would defeat that purpose. And ditch the tabs.
Not real shifts, but the OP is talking about micro shifts. That means that you don't keep your finger 100% steady above the frets but still play with 4 fingers and kind of pivot of bit. Especially in the low positions. That's perfectly legit and advisable.
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A pivot is not a shift, IMO. When I do exercises like this, I try to keep my hand as stationary as possible to maximize strength and stretching results.
That type of exercise helps you get comfortable stretching out to span a 4-fret area in any fingering. You really want to make sure you are able to keep your fingers in place, so when you use the 1st finger your 4th finger isn't flying off the fretboard, or the other way around.
You should try it without "shifting" of course
But you do not have to clamp your thumb, freeze your palm in one spot
and spider your fingers uncomfortably to span the first 4 frets
You are allowed to move your left hand to reach a note
even when you are "staying in one position"
this is how players with smaller hands can do 1FPF fingering in the first 4 frets
Is this a Shift or Pivot ? I don't know if there is an official term in bass pedagogy
I think Carol Kaye calls it a pivot
But you do not have to clamp your thumb, freeze your palm in one spot
and spider your fingers uncomfortably to span the first 4 frets
You are allowed to move your left hand to reach a note
even when you are "staying in one position"
this is how players with smaller hands can do 1FPF fingering in the first 4 frets
Is this a Shift or Pivot ? I don't know if there is an official term in bass pedagogy
I think Carol Kaye calls it a pivot
Shift or pivot as needed, it doesn't really matter. The main thing is keeping the left hand fingers close to the fretboard, relaxed, and not flying up in the air. I keep the left hand thumb relaxed as well when playing lines like that, it shouldn't be rigidly anchored to the back of the neck.
Keep the tab btw. Tab is superior to standard notation for conveying fret/position specific exercises like that.
Keep the tab btw. Tab is superior to standard notation for conveying fret/position specific exercises like that.
Shift/pivot if needed. Tension is much more detrimental to technique than any slight, relaxed movements.
The answer depends. If you can safely play it without pivots or micro-shifts, you should. I.E. use pure one finger per fret (OFPF). That doesn't necessarily mean you only learn it this way.
If your hand is not big enough to safely use OFPF in this position, you can use a pivot or a micro-shift.
I consider a pivot when your hand rotates on the thumb, which stays anchored to a fixed point on the neck. You may use a pivot to cover four frets with four fingers when the reach is slightly to large. Or you may use a pivot to move up or down one fret. The idea is a position consist of 6 frets, rather than 4. SBL calls this 4+2...I would call it 4+/-1
A micro-shift is when the hand structure remains consistent, but moves slightly up are down the neck. I.E. your thumb moves up or down the neck with the rest of your hand, rather than pivoting about a fixed point. The intent of using a micro-shift could be to avoid spreading your fingers to the point that could cause a repetitive stress injury. Using micro-shifts can result in four finger patterns that are different than pure OFPF.
You may find all three approaches useful in different situations.
If your hand is not big enough to safely use OFPF in this position, you can use a pivot or a micro-shift.
I consider a pivot when your hand rotates on the thumb, which stays anchored to a fixed point on the neck. You may use a pivot to cover four frets with four fingers when the reach is slightly to large. Or you may use a pivot to move up or down one fret. The idea is a position consist of 6 frets, rather than 4. SBL calls this 4+2...I would call it 4+/-1
A micro-shift is when the hand structure remains consistent, but moves slightly up are down the neck. I.E. your thumb moves up or down the neck with the rest of your hand, rather than pivoting about a fixed point. The intent of using a micro-shift could be to avoid spreading your fingers to the point that could cause a repetitive stress injury. Using micro-shifts can result in four finger patterns that are different than pure OFPF.
You may find all three approaches useful in different situations.
I've done chromatic permutations exercises for ages on the guitar. They are the most misunderstood technical exercises ever.
First, I disagree they are strength exercises, simply because there are NO strength exercises at all. Your hands and fingers already have more strength they'll ever need for playing. Maybe the exception could be some bending but that's it.
Quite the opposite in fact these exercises should lead you towards decreasing the strength needed and relaxing you more.
However, the large size of low frets on a bass makes them a lot more challenging than on a guitar, so for most people it's really hard to relax in the 1234 range because we need to stretch the fingers which definitely adds a lot of tension, defeating the purpose.
Actually, the real purpose of chromatic permutations is finger independence. Playing relaxed is more like a requirement, but because we all tend to tense, you can say that relaxing is the first purpose here, which enables practicing for the second purpose of finger independence.
With guitar, the amount of students who really don't get this is staggering. Many spend hours a week with 1234 chromatics and NEVER move on to the actual permutations which are the real deal. That's because they waste all their practice time thinking they have to cover the whole neck length every single day, and they repeat the whole drill at different increasing metronome speeds, then after an hour of self-imposed torture they of course have enough and move on. But they never relax once during the whole thing.
Taking into account the bass differences, my suggestions to you are:
- keep the purpose in mind: fingers independence while relaxing more and more
- use all 4 fingers, one per fret, no shifts
- choose a range when you don't need to stretch or stretch is minimal (e.g. 5678-9876)
- you can move up and down the neck a bit but you don't need to cover it all
- don't use the metronome (this is NOT a timing exercise and the metronome will tense you up), practice free time so you can instantly slow down when you notice your coordination is not great and speed up again without interruptions once your fingers get the pattern
- by all means practice at least SOME permutations! In fact the basic one 'index-middle-ring-pinky' is the least important
Now, improving left hand fingers stretching is another matter altogether. You CAN also use these exercises for that if you want, though there are better ones. In that case the permutations cease to be important, you can stick to the basic one. If you want to focus on stretching, move down the neck gradually from your comfortable range rather than starting in the 1234 position, so that you don't stretch too much at once. Spend a little time there but then go back to a less stretching range. Back and forth between more and less stretch a few times. Don't shift, use one finger per fret. Shifting allows you to PLAY more comfortably by avoiding stretching, but if you are practicing to improve stretching well you got to stretch!
There is another weird possible misconception behind the corner: that you are allowed to do anything that works for you to do what is written on the exercise, but that is true when you PLAY music, not when you practice a technical drill. You need to seek the purpose of the drill, not fulfill what's written on the tab.
First, I disagree they are strength exercises, simply because there are NO strength exercises at all. Your hands and fingers already have more strength they'll ever need for playing. Maybe the exception could be some bending but that's it.
Quite the opposite in fact these exercises should lead you towards decreasing the strength needed and relaxing you more.
However, the large size of low frets on a bass makes them a lot more challenging than on a guitar, so for most people it's really hard to relax in the 1234 range because we need to stretch the fingers which definitely adds a lot of tension, defeating the purpose.
Actually, the real purpose of chromatic permutations is finger independence. Playing relaxed is more like a requirement, but because we all tend to tense, you can say that relaxing is the first purpose here, which enables practicing for the second purpose of finger independence.
With guitar, the amount of students who really don't get this is staggering. Many spend hours a week with 1234 chromatics and NEVER move on to the actual permutations which are the real deal. That's because they waste all their practice time thinking they have to cover the whole neck length every single day, and they repeat the whole drill at different increasing metronome speeds, then after an hour of self-imposed torture they of course have enough and move on. But they never relax once during the whole thing.
Taking into account the bass differences, my suggestions to you are:
- keep the purpose in mind: fingers independence while relaxing more and more
- use all 4 fingers, one per fret, no shifts
- choose a range when you don't need to stretch or stretch is minimal (e.g. 5678-9876)
- you can move up and down the neck a bit but you don't need to cover it all
- don't use the metronome (this is NOT a timing exercise and the metronome will tense you up), practice free time so you can instantly slow down when you notice your coordination is not great and speed up again without interruptions once your fingers get the pattern
- by all means practice at least SOME permutations! In fact the basic one 'index-middle-ring-pinky' is the least important
Now, improving left hand fingers stretching is another matter altogether. You CAN also use these exercises for that if you want, though there are better ones. In that case the permutations cease to be important, you can stick to the basic one. If you want to focus on stretching, move down the neck gradually from your comfortable range rather than starting in the 1234 position, so that you don't stretch too much at once. Spend a little time there but then go back to a less stretching range. Back and forth between more and less stretch a few times. Don't shift, use one finger per fret. Shifting allows you to PLAY more comfortably by avoiding stretching, but if you are practicing to improve stretching well you got to stretch!
There is another weird possible misconception behind the corner: that you are allowed to do anything that works for you to do what is written on the exercise, but that is true when you PLAY music, not when you practice a technical drill. You need to seek the purpose of the drill, not fulfill what's written on the tab.
Do what feals most comfortable and keep your shoulders relaxed.
yes -great post
practicing relaxed, accurate, smooth = fast, and leaves room for expression
tense, fast-as-possible, rigid, inflexible= fatigue and possibly injury
It's not a buckle down and use force to overcome resistance exercise
It's a relax and train your body how to move smoothly exercise
More yoga than weightlifting if you will
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Maybe not traditional orthodoxy, but after discovering Quarrington left hand technique, I'll never hold my left hand in a fixed OFPF position again, ever. Developed for DB, everything but the thumb position exercises transfer directly to EB - for me, my left hand, and the music I play. Maybe won't work for everyone, but again, for me, a total revelation in how to play totally relaxed. So I say microshift all you like.
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I think this is just a pivot exercise, in fact in the other bass method book this 1234 permutation is called a pivot,If I do the exercise without turning(pivot) my thumb, it creates excessive tension and my hand hurts.
Attachments
There is a continuation of the mentioned exercise, 12 different 1234 permutations,I was wondering if I should just pivot or micro shift, good answer, thank you
for the exercise in the middle, i would do full on shifting for this, mainly because it are in the lower positions of the neck where i play with 124 technique aka Simandl. So i would shift down to catch the last note on each string. Unless you have abnormally large hands, i would not recommend trying to play these in a fixed position. so i disagree with most replies in this thread.
