Upright Bass Standing Posture from a Physical Therapist (NOT what you learned from your teacher!)
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Upright Bass Standing Posture
In this video I discuss upright bass standing posture, and it is probably not what you learned from your teacher.
Most bass players learn to put the left foot in front of the right to open up the left foot and leg, and to keep the left arm at shoulder height. These recommendations feel very natural because they reenforce our tendency as humans to orient the body to the right (see Postural Restoration Institute's work).
As we rack up hours of playing and practicing, exaggerating this tendency can cause us to lose adaptability in our system necessary to preserve alternating and reciprocal function necessary for a healthy movement system. The end result for many upright bass players is back, shoulder or neck pain.
In fact, most issues in the hand and forearm can be tied back to positioning of the rib cage and pelvis, making standing posture of critical importance when playing upright bass.
In this video, I describe a method of positioning the body that maintains or improves our ability to re-orient the body to the left. This is going to improve the ability of the back of the left side and front of the right side to remain more open, thus improving freedom of movement in the left arm and efficient force production in the right arm, both of which are critical for high quality (and injury free) bass playing.
To review:
1. Knees soft, right foot in front of left
2. Contact with the right inner heel, arch and big toe; pushing back and to the left
3. Contact with the left heel and big toe
4. Pelvis and thorax turn left
5. Left arm below shoulder height, allowing the shoulder blade to remain less compressed to the thorax
6. Sternum up on the right, allowing efficient force production of the plucking hand
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If you have questions, post them in the comments section, and I'll follow up with another video!
Best video on the internet by far. Thank you for bringing the PT perspective.
Man did I need to see this. AT 67 yrs of age with degenerative disc disease lower back and advanced left shoulder arthritis playing my upright kills me for a week afterward.
This is a nice alternative position to the standard one. With some progressive resistance training, sometimes even degenerative disc and arthritis pain can improve substantially
Pls make a video about cello position.
So G! Love you Greg!
Thanks so much!! Also those lines at the end were tight af hell yeah
No problem!!
In nearly 50 years of teaching bass, I never instructed students to stand with the left foot forward. However, I also never told students to stand with the right foot forward either. My approach has always been to align the body as it should be in a natural, relaxed standing position with feet even and spaced so they are directly under the shoulders. One should feel a strong sense of grounding with the weight of the body supported evenly by both feet.
This is great advice
Untill you play with the fingers of the right hand this can realy be usefull, but my dubt of this position is when you play with the bow, because the right leg could going in contrast with the bow and give you some problems
Something I’ve not considered!
great video! but what about playing in thumb position?
That’s tough. Combination of leaning and reaching. Ideally you’d be able to keep the head from having to pull down a bunch, but honestly most people aren’t spending that much time in thumb position so it’s such a small amount of overall playing volume that if likely doesn’t matter much.
@@ChaplinPerformance classical solo bassists spend a significant amount of time in thumb position
True that! I’m sure some classical bassist has a good answer
I was wondering the same -- struggling with proper technique to avoid fatigue and lock up. Great video though, thank you
Greg, thanks for this instructional video. I'm always exploring body/bass mechanics and I will def incorporate your advice into my playing. As a classical solo arco player, my advice to the question above about getting into TP is to step back with the left foot to bring the neck of the bass to your left shoulder. Bassists lorraine campet is master at this. Here's a link to a video showing this. Right at 45sec she takes that step back.
Brahms - Cello Sonata No. 1, Mov. 1: Played by Lorraine Campet, Double Bass - RUclips ruclips.net/video/xTnoX6_rqAg/видео.html
Can I play it while it’s resting in its stand? No wrestling then.
If you want to be good, you need to move with the instrument. Being disconnected like that is not the vibe.
@@ChaplinPerformance I know ultimately it’s not proper. I ‘m a Fender Bass player but just got hold of a 100 yr old Czech standup. I’m navigating well enough on it in the stand and my bad left shoulder isn’t screaming fits trying to hold it. Thought I’d throw it out there. Thank you for the quick reply. Love your video!
Thank you for this! As an untrained bassist, I was struggling to figure out the “right” way (I’m left handed as is my bass) to stand and play. I almost naturally fell into position with my pluck-side (left) foot forward and my right elbow down. I’ve had my bass for a while but haven’t taken it to a performance, yet. I’m looking forward to someone telling me that I’m doing it wrong.
If you just started, I’d get some lessons. Also, don’t wait for the “right” way. Otherwise, you’ll likely never get very good
@@ChaplinPerformance Not so much “starting” more like “transitioning.” I switched from drums to electric bass the late 90s and fretless not long after that. A different animal to be sure, but I don’t fell pressed to be “very good.” I’ll settle for “adequate,” which is where I am.