Guest Lee Van Cleef Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 (edited) Okay, so after a long lay off I'm starting out with my bass all over again. I'm using the free trial on the Fender Play app at the moment to start from scratch and try to learn good posture but there's something I don't understand about thumb placement. I've noticed that when the tutors are moving their thumb from string to string they get to the G string but leave their thumb on the A string, instead of moving down to the D. Is there a reason people do this? I find it hard to strike the G clean this way, but wondered if it's worth persevering? Edited February 21, 2020 by Lee Van Cleef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mep Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 I've only rested my thumb on the pickup or E string. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggaebass Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 There’s no reason why you can’t move down to the D, it’s just what you feel comfortable with, I like to mute the lower string to what I’m playing with my thumb, and I play close to the neck, so I lightly anchor on E A and D strings , the same as is shown in this video at 7.21 . Quite a few friends of mine just anchor on the pickup 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lee Van Cleef Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 11 minutes ago, Reggaebass said: There’s no reason why you can’t move down to the D, it’s just what you feel comfortable with, I like to mute the lower string to what I’m playing with my thumb, and I play close to the neck, so I lightly anchor on E A and D strings , the same as is shown in this video at 7.21 . Quite a few friends of mine just anchor on the pickup 🙂 That's cool then. I've been watching various bassists playing and I can imagine that if you're playing very fast stuff (think Alex Webster) then it's probably more efficient to anchor on the pick up all the time, but then I guess you'd have to mute with your fretting hand? For some reason I can't get comfortable in my striking if I'm not on the string above. Like you say, it's comfortable for me. Initially moving from string to string was quite cumbersome, but I've noticed the improvement after a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonse Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 I probably have poor technique but I always found the D string a bit too skinny to anchor my thumb on. It just feels more comfortable on the A and I can make the stretch okay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 I have never been thinking of the speed and the thumb have something to do with each other. Well, Tom's right thumb does not move a lot in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JjQ4YCJhZ5M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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