What You Need to Know About Bass Fretting Hand Pain...
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- If your bass fretting hand hurts when you play then that's a serious sign that something is wrong with your technique.
I talked about this before in this video 5 Things I Wish I Knew As A Beginner Bassist... • 5 WORST Mistakes Begin...
But fretting hand wrist pain is a topic that's so important it needs its own video.
We will talk about cures in a moment but before we do, it's important to talk about causes.
Why?
Simply put. You don't want wrist pain to become a recurring problem. And the best way to avoid it in the future is to become conscious of what you're doing wrong in the present and correct your technique as soon as possible.
After all, you can't change what you're not conscious of.
Makes sense.
So what makes your fretting hand hurt?
1. Bent Wrists
Our wrists are not designed to stay bent for long periods of time. And they are really not designed to carry out complicated tasks like playing the bass guitar when they are bent.
Record yourself playing and watch for the wrist angles you have when you play. Ideally, they should be as flat as possible.
2. Bad Posture
Bad bass playing posture, such as wrong strap height or sitting badly, can create pain in the elbows, under the thumb or anywhere along the arm.
Again, film yourself playing and make sure you're not hunched over the bass and pushing limbs out of they're natural position.
3. Muscle Tension
Whilst we can't eliminate tension we must try to minimize it at all costs.
Why?
Well, the tenser we are when we play, the less muscle power we have at our disposal and the harder it becomes to move naturally.
What can be done to minimize this?
Try to keep your hands in as natural a position as you can. This way, they can't be tense because being in a natural position means using little muscle power.
So, we've understood how the fretting hand starts to hurt and we know what to avoid. But, what should you do about it now we're in pain?
What should you do differently?
1. Take a break!
Never play through the pain. Ever.
There's a certain romance that comes from "pushing through" but this kind of false heroism will just land you back in the injury room.
If your body is in pain, then it's telling you something is wrong and that it needs a break.
You should always listen!
2. Stretch
Stretching will help release tension in the muscles but there's a caveat here.
Not all stretches will be relevant to your problem. And, pain experienced in one area of the body - the hand for example - can be a symptom of a problem elsewhere in the body.
Without a proper diagnosis, you have no idea if you have tight muscles, carpal tunnel, an elbow problem or something else.
This is why you must find stretches that are relevant to you.
How do you do that?
3. Speak To A Specialist/Doctor
A specialist will be able to give you really specific advice on how to stretch before playing, how to alter your posture and how you can play more safely.
I recommend Jennie Morton who is an excellent consultant who is used to dealing with performers of all types.
Here's a link to her website www.jenniemort...
4. Get A Massage
I've benefitted from several deep tissue massages. Our muscles can become tight if we're using them a lot and, whilst stretching is always a great thing to do, sometimes it's not enough.
A good deep tissue or sports massage can help work out a lot of the tension your body is holding on to.
5. Learn About Posture
Lastly, it's great to learn about how to use your body more effectively.
I had to do this as part of my recovery program and it changed everything for the better.
I learned about Alexander technique from an instructor called Jane Gregory.
Here's a link to her website alexandertechn....
I always encourage you to speak to a qualified medical specialist. I'm not offering medical advice here. I'm just sharing my own experience with injury and my teaching experience of having seen how others pick up injuries.
#bassfrettingtechnique #beginnerbasslessons #basstechnique
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Great advice. I never thought about going to see a specialist for music related things. Always looking forward to the next video!
as soon as you said "bad posture" I knew that was my problem because I sit hunched over my bass like a shrimp and it made me bend my wrist when going down to my 1st-3rd frets on my E string 💀💀
How do you even manage to play the E string without bending your wrist, it's impossible for me
I seriously have no idea
Same.. and my pinky’s are both curved inward naturally 😭😭
@@Gothgalactica I'm the same i have bad clinodactyly on my fretting hand and its causing me pain because i need to bend my wrist to hit the stretches, have a short scale bass coming tomorrow hoping that will make a difference
@@kof867 I hope that makes a difference for you! I make tiny bits of progress with my lil pinky, but I’ve definitely decided not to let it feel like a hindrance or like I won’t be as good as anybody else if I can’t use my pinky like people with straight ones 😌🖤 We’ll find our ways around it! Hope you love your new bass and don’t lose the joy! ✌🏽✨
@@Gothgalactica there’s always a way around things, micro shifting helps but sometimes I get lazy and stretch. I suppose just keep playing is all we can do. Also I know it’s only been 5 days of playing my new bass but, I can already tell it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, I’d strongly suggest looking into short scales if you’ve got small hands and/or pinky curvature. Difference is night and day
I don’t know if it’s because i don’t warm up or because im still getting used to the thicker neck of a 5 string but my entire fretting hand aches all over after 1 or 2 songs
All these videos about bass-playing related pain keep talking about pain in the wrist and here I am trying to find out why my dorsal interosseus(between the index and thumb) hurts so much when I play for longer than 5 minutes and I still haven't found out what could be causing it. I've tried to experiment with the strap height but it makes zero difference.
I do wish I could relax my hand instead of tensed flying fingers but I don’t know how to fix it. Either I have buzzing frets because I don’t press down hard enough or I play clean sounds with tense fingers…
I just hope my finger strengthens the more I play
Update 3 months later: my fingers got stronger but the reason why it’s so hard is bc my bass is cheap ;/
My plucking fingers of my right hand don't bend anymore from a repair surgery for a broken wrist need help figuring it out without more surgery.
FINALLY!! A video to address my issue!
I just watched one of your videos from four years ago (you've changed for the better) and can you make another slap bass tutorial
@@OnlineBassGuitar1 I've been playing bass for a couple months and I feel like I'm stuck between easy songs and hard songs to play I don't know what to learn next and a lot of what I can learn seems complicated so do you have any advice
Good info. Thanks
so the pain in the palm and nuckle area is probably from too much strain?
But it’s impossible to not bend my wrist like if I have it straight, it doesn’t touch the E string even
Cheers
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