Learning The Board - To Look Or Not Look?

[fatback]

Am i making life silly hard for myself?

I've just noticed that in order to get good finger posture I'm holding the neck quite close to my face, and since I'm reading the exercises too that means i hardly ever get to look at the board.

Do you look much? Should a learner minimise the lookie bit or not worry about it?

[jakenewmanbass]

Put simply ears are better than eyes at telling you when you're in tune. On that basis I use them in proportion.

[TPJ]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='1103010' date='Jan 26 2011, 12:00 AM']Put simply ears are better than eyes at telling you when you're in tune. On that basis I use them in proportion.[/quote]

+1

[Doddy]

It's not a problem if you look at the fingerboard-it's important to reference your position on the neck.
Of course your ears are the most important thing for telling you if you are in tune or not,but a quick glance can be majorly helpful. As you get more comfortable with the instrument you will find that you naturally look at 'the board less and less.

[jakenewmanbass]

Doddy is right in his analysis but I read the question slightly differently. As I understood it, the question was checking whether it's ok [b]not[/b] to look.

[baboom]

+1 on being interested in this question - last night at my lesson I found the best position for playing (which matched Rufus Reid's piccy in his book - he can't see his fingerboard either) meant I definitely could NOT look at the fingerboard (well, at least half position) IIRC but it definitely *felt* way better - less stress on my arm/hand.

[Gareth Hughes]

I position the neck much the same - so that the first few notes are out of sight. I've found that helps with vibrato given I have short arms. As for tuning - look as much as you need, IMO. I still look at the dots on my electric basses, and that's after 20 years of playing those The attitude of 'Real men don't need dots' is bull. Maybe it's true - or maybe real men just don't play some of the same, horrible sounding rooms I do, with the noisiest, bass-heavy, ham-fisted piano players.

Visual references are great, IMO -and then after a while you'll develop a physical relation to notes with your fingers: ie, if A is under your first finger, then A# must be under your middle finger and B must be under your pinkie.

[franzbassist]

As a relative newbie to upright, I put some temporary dots on the side of my BSX when I first got it. However, I removed them pretty quick as, quite frankly, they were offputting and I spent more time looking at them than listening to what I was playing.

[fatback]

Thanks for the insights.

It's good to know that not looking (much) is worth sticking with. There's no question that for me looking too much would adversely affect the hand shape.

But i didn't want to be a masochist either

[Bilbo]

I don't look at all and the more I practise the better my intonation gets.

Odd that....

[Beer of the Bass]

For general practice and playing I try not to look at the fingerboard excessively, but I've used pencil marks on the upper positions during recording sessions. It's a bit of a crutch, but my logic is that anything which gets the part down in fewer takes is justified when in the studio.

[leroybasslines]

I find that if I haven't played DB for a while I need to look a bit at key moments - big position shifts etc. But I pretty soon find myself not looking very much at all as the muscle memory returns. The neck on my bass has a very handy bit of grain at the position the 5th fret would be if it were an EB. As I started on EB, this is a handy reference point for when I panic and lose my way!

I've heard of guys practising in the dark to stop them using their eyes and developing trust in their ears!

[NDH]

I've had my DB about a month now and have been having classical lessons since October. I have a tiny white paper marker on the far side of the board at third position [C on the G string]. I have found this is just enough to help me play more fluently with the bow in 3rd position, and that my bowing has become much more confident. My teacher is OK with this and says that she sometimes marks a number of positions for students.

I guess there will come a time when the marker will have to go and I will have to invest time in learning to cope, but by then I should have fewer other issues to worry about.

I was at band practice last night using my EUB, which I hadn't touched for a week, and found I was constantly having to make adjustments for tuning in the first half an hour, and to look at the board a lot more than I would with DB. Possible because I stand for EUB but sit for DB, possible because the EUB parts are quite a bit more complex.

Have a good time with the new beast.

Nigel

[fatback]

Thanks for all the advice.

It would be a lonely old business without the support of the bc upright fraternity. Double bass fraternity that is, although righteous too, no doubt

Interestingly, I'm finding blind playing much easier with the upright than with fretless bass guitar. Presumably that's because on guitar the angle is changing all the time as you lengthen your arm and move the neck, whereas on the DB the board is pretty static.