Double Bass Right hand ring finger use

[Les Fret]

I have been experimenting lately with using my ring finger of the right hand on my upright. I Already use it on my electric bass and classical guitar so I am used to it. But it is a bit harder on upright. First of all you have to develop some calluses on that finger and keep using it otherwise your calluses vanish and you have to start all over again.

I know NHOP is using it and I also saw Edgar Meyer using it.
I don't want to go as far as NHOP in this technique and I don't find it convenient for scale like patterns but I am just using it for string skips and ghost notes and certain fixed right hand patterns.

Any of you who is using the ring finger on upright and how? Or if you don't use it why not?
Any tips or ideas? any other famous players who use this?

 

[Co.]

I use it also for string skips and double stops, especially octave double stops and I use it a lot just for a different sound, since it has softer skin and softer muscle support. I usually don't use it for speed on double bass.

 

[Fedor Ruskuc]

I did a workshop with NHOP and he explained how he is doing it so I tried for a while.But eventually I decided to drop it because I couldnt get enough punch in the sound since I play pretty high action and I would have to rotate my hand to ise it . Now I use it just for tremolo .

 

[Jim Dombrowski]

I lost the tip of the 2nd finger on my right hand in a childhood accident. I've played electric bass for about 40 years using my 1st and 3rd fingers for plucking, and upright bass for the past 10 years. If I am just using my index finger, I can play in a conventional RH style (with my hand hanging downward), but I have to rotate my hand to use my 3rd finger for faster passages or intricate rhythms. Through a lifetime of playing, I have developed plenty of strength, speed, dexterity and callouses.

 

[Les Fret]

I use it also for string skips and double stops, especially octave double stops and I use it a lot just for a different sound, since it has softer skin and softer muscle support.

I think the softer skin and attack will become louder and less soft once you use it regularly. My goal is to have the same sound in all three fingers. But it takes some weeks to develop that callus.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I practice scales with it when warming up (for details, look Here) and when walking fast tempos for a long period of time in rotation with other techniques to keep my right arm from tightening up. I don't feel like I have enough control yet to use it in the true NHØP sense when soloing. Maybe someday.

In terms of technique and placement, the linked video shows the position I use, but there are other positions that could work as well. I fully agree with the notion that a good portion of the sound relates to the callus of the striking surface. In my way of striking the string, the finger itself is largely inert and it's the arm/wrist chain that actually makes the motion.

 

[Les Fret]

I don't feel like I have enough control yet to use it in the true NHØP sense when soloing. Maybe someday.

I agree. I consider the NHOP technique as an own technique that works really well for him (obviously) but it is not for everyone. For soloing I think it is too complicated and two fingers is easier for the mind (and fingers). But for string crossings and multiple string ghost notes the ring finger can come in handy and makes certain things easier. Especially string crossing patterns that involve three strings. It is just a nice extra thing in your tool bag.

 

[Co.]

I think the softer skin and attack will become louder and less soft once you use it regularly. My goal is to have the same sound in all three fingers. But it takes some weeks to develop that callus.

I've been using third finger regularly for more than ten years, but the way I use it, will keep it softer than first and second finger. I don't try, to make it sound like the other fingers. I only use it for certain double stops and string skips or for a softer sound. The coordination is pretty developed, but the callus will never develop, the way I play.
I never really felt the need, to play with three fingers like NHOP. For example in bebop heads or similar music, I never articulate all the notes with my right hand fingers, like NHOP does. To me it feels much more natural, to do a lot of left hand articulations instead.

 

[sean_on_bass]

I went through the whole 3 finger thing on electric bass and ultimately decided it was not useful for me. Not likely to go through that on double bass either. I was mainly seeing it as a way to play faster, but by example of other players that get all the speed needed with two fingers, i came to the conclusion it wasn't necessary. Just look at Christian McBride. He gets all he needs with two fingers and few can compete with his speed of playing notes.

Now using occasionally for accents or multiple stops i might do. I also will bust it out for tremolo playing. Just not a staple of my pizz style.

 

[Les Fret]

Just look at Christian McBride. He gets all he needs with two fingers and few can compete with his speed of playing notes.

I agree that you can get the same speed with just two fingers but the fact that Christian McBride (or whatever other bass player) uses 'only' two fingers doesn't say anything to me. That doesn't mean that everyone else has to do the same.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Agree regarding two vs. three finger technique: neither is better than the other, but they are two different animals. NHØP's technique is basically an outside-in banjo roll. What makes that alluring to me is that can be done with straight fingers using arm weight, which gets the particular sound I am after. I play often with a guitarist who uses this technique, and he gets virtuosic results with it that are hard to argue with since he makes it look effortless. If I even get to the point where I can walk consistently with accent control on three fingers, I'll be happy. Beyond that, it's all gravy.

 

[sean_on_bass]

I agree that you can get the same speed with just two fingers but the fact that Christian McBride (or whatever other bass player) uses 'only' two fingers doesn't say anything to me. That doesn't mean that everyone else has to do the same.

Just to clarify, my intent was not to invalidate the technique, but to offer my personal experience. I agree that using 3 fingers is perfectly acceptable, and there are other subtleties to it outside of simply playing notes faster.

 

[Josh Kneisel]

I use it all the time, just kind of depends on what I'm trying to do if it's the best choice. I use the ring/middle/index roll thing for quick triplets on one note a lot also.

 

[Josh Kneisel]

I also use it to jump strings quick when I am trying to get certain quick runs most efficiently.

 

[JRA]

for quick triplets on one note

^^^ same here!

 

[james condino]

Having spent a lot of time in my youth studying classical guitar, I'm fairly comfortable using all of the left hand fingers on the bass, but most of the time the first two get the job done fine. I've seen more than one of our heros blow the doors off complicated tunes using what looks like the worlds fastest index finger only technique. For me, the additional ring finger seems to be most useful trying to lock in a solid groove on some of the latin tunes like fast bossas and sambas and some of the gypsy variations that are more than a simple 4/4.

Chris- were you up posting at six am still going strong from the night before gig or up at dawn for yoga????

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Chris- were you up posting at six am still going strong from the night before gig or up at dawn for yoga????

Up at dawn...always a dangerous time to post if that first cup of coffee hasn't kicked in properly yet.

 

[Levin]

I'm trying to get it out of my playing while practising, but I occacionally use it without thinking whilst playing as I used to practise like that a lot.
Like most, now I only use it for the occacionall skip over from a low string to a high one when I have to be ready quickly with my first two fingers.
I quit practising with it because I couldn't get a nice consistent fleshy big sound of it after several years without having a really weird angle. For me it's a lot of fingers to be controlling at once too for example when playing permutations between two strings, it's much easier with only two for my limited brain.
But when I was practising it, it felt really nice and rewarding playing certain things, like when you have one finger on each of the three upper strings that would have been a lot harder for me with two fingers only. This I would have tried to practise it with two fingers today for a IMO better sound, but if you can play in a lot of different ways and have the practise time to keep all of them up to the job and are having fun, that's great!
More ways to play the same thing is more often better than not, unless keeping up the chops takes too much time.

 

[Jmilitsc]

Charnett Moffett is another great player who uses right hand ring finger, you can see a lot of that on these videos:

I spoke to him about this very thing once after seeing him do that (I think he was showcasing that record actually). He said it wasn't really for speed purposes, more that the ring finger is closer in length to the index finger and that he gets similar tone from those two in combination, compared with too much difference in tone with middle finger. Was all about tone to him. That was an interesting thing to learn for me.

I tried for awhile and can't do the ring finger thing, but I've paid more attention to producing consistent tone between the first two fingers since then.

Definitely check him out if he's playing near you - really creative shows whether solo or with a group. Caught a really cool show at iridium years ago where he built up each tune from just him solo, one player at a time to like 7, then back down. Anyway, great player, always interesting, very nice guy.