Right hand finger fatique

IbanezSDGR2

IbanezSDGR2

Sep 18, 2017
44
28
4,551
Pacific Palisades, CA
#1
How much playing does it take to get past finger fatigue? If I play a Billy Idol song or a song like the Door LA Woman my right fingers start getting tired after a verse or two. I'm trying to make the switch to finger bass after playing guitar and bass with a pick all my life.
 
#4
There could be a few issues here :

1. You are digging in too hard when you pluck

2. Your fingers simply need time to make the change from the pick to plucking. In this case, playing little and often is the best thing, until you build some stamina.

3.. Your plucking technique itself.

The bass line in L.A. Woman is pretty fast. Try something easier for now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FingerDub, Groove Doctor and Ellery
#6
Your fingers shouldn't be working any harder than if you were just tapping them on your leg. If they are, you need to practice your technique. Are you pulling the strings, or letting your fingers roll off of them?

Being new, this the best time to learn to play with a light touch as it will ultimately give you the most versatility as a player. Practice air bassing on your leg, a table, or whatever. See if you get tired just as fast. If so, then air bass all day long until you build up stamina :). If not, then work at adjusting your technique.

As with anything else, the more you do it, the easier it'll get.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Rage and IbanezSDGR2
#7
Joe Nerve said:
Your fingers shouldn't be working any harder than if you were just tapping them on your leg. If they are, you need to practice your technique. Are you pulling the strings, or letting your fingers roll off of them?

Being new, this the best time to learn to play with a light touch as it will ultimately give you the most versatility as a player. Practice air bassing on your leg, a table, or whatever. See if you get tired just as fast. If so, then air bass all day long until you build up stamina :). If not, then work at adjusting your technique.

As with anything else, the more you do it, the easier it'll get.
Click to expand...

Will this lead to calluses on your knees? :wacky:

Welcome to TalkBass @IbanezSDGR2 !!!!

Couple questions....
1) How long have you been playing?
2) How hard do you play? ( @Joe Nerve actually has pretty good advice. I'm just giving him crap because I can. )
3) How do you anchor your right hand? Does your thumb rest on a pickup? The E string mostly?
 
  • Like
Reactions: GrooverMcTube and Joe Nerve
#8
Great advice. Fast 16th notes are in all kinds of music, not just metal.

One thing that worked for me was to hold my elbow out away from my body so I could straighten out my wrist more. And I stopped using an anchor (pickup, thumb rest, etc) as well.

Other than that, spend lots of time practicing that kind of playing. Start slow and build it up. It will get better over the coming days. Make sure you don't experience pain as you do so. If it's painful, that's bad news. You should be able to play lighter and don't dig into the string so hard. Let the amp do the work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lobster11
#9
Lots of good advice here so far. I'll just throw in one idea for practicing fast lines while building stamina: Instead of just practicing the whole thing slowly and building speed over time, try playing it at tempo but taking a little "break" every few bars by playing, say, just a single whole note (or two half-notes) for a bar or two. For example, try playing 3 bars of the complete line, with all the 16th notes, and then just play a single whole note in place of the fourth bar. Then play the next 3 bars again in full, followed by a single whole note, etc. Over time, as your stamina improves, gradually increase the number of "real" bars that you play in a row, and decrease the number of whole-note bars, until you can play it all the way through. This way you are always practicing the groove at tempo, and you can play along with a recording without having to somehow slow it down.
 
#10
Geri O said:
One thing that worked for me was to hold my elbow out away from my body so I could straighten out my wrist more. And I stopped using an anchor (pickup, thumb rest, etc) as well.
Click to expand...
This is worth repeating. You see a lot of players resting their arm lazily on top of the bass body and bending their wrist at a 90-degree angle to reach down toward the strings. The problem with this is that nothing will tire your hand out faster (and increase the risk of injury) than playing with a severely bent wrist. (To see what I mean, try holding your arm out, bending your wrist as far as it will go, and wiggling your fingers.) Also, I've found that it is easier for me to play with a soft touch when I use a "movable anchor" or "floating thumb" technique: Mounting my thumb on the pickup seems to make me want to dig in and pluck harder than I need to.
 
#12
I've been playing guitar and a little bass since about 1982. I don't know if my finger playing skill level will ever catch up with my pick playing skill level. But about 4 months ago I had a renewed interest in bass.

I usually rest my thumb on a pickup, but switch to resting on the E string when playing higher strings.
 
Last edited:
#19
Also, you are building muscle strength and muscle recharging ability. After a strong practice session, take a day off to recover. Do some other exercises that involve the arms shoulders and hands, something less intense on the fingers. The next day, your fingers and related wrist muscles should feel recharged. Recovery time is important.

I also make sure I have eaten a food rich in potassium to recover, and I take a small supplement of L-Glutamine to aid muscle recharging. Before long gigs I always use the L-Glutamine and it seems to prevent me running out of stamina during the sets.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back