Where to start?

[Leroy]

I'm an experienced 6 string player and I unfortunately am going to be having carpal tunnel surgery on my fret hand.  So I decided that while I am recovering it will be a good time to pickup up the bass.  I would like to learn to play bass with fingers, no pick.  I would appreciate any information on where to  look, book or video that will instruct me in the proper way to play with fingers.  Thanks for any input. 

[PaulThePlug]

Hi Leroy... Welcome...

Most natural and comfortable is often thumb on the top of the pickup... or install a Thumb rest.What bass you may have may be a factor with pickup position and or thumb rest fitting. Most recommended will probably be the 'floating thumb'

I quite like playing near the neck, so often thumb on the end of the fretboard.

Whatever is most comfortable...

[chris_b]

Get your bass professionally set up and fret stoned, if required, so the action an be as low as possible. Then play with a very light touch.

[Paolo85]

https://youtu.be/CR8yQCZX2HQ

https://youtu.be/b2HBaiTgOxE

https://youtu.be/VS0nUyMKYBQ

These 3 videos should do. The guy in the videos is good. There isn't really an agreed "proper" way. I imagine the first video would touch on it but note that the sound changes a lot whether you pluck near the neck or near the bridge (or anywhere in between) so you may want to play with that deliberately (and in this case, using techniques that do not require resting the thumb on something helps)

[Leroy]

I appreciate everyone's help 

[Leroy]

I appreciate everyone's help!

Paolo thanks for the video links.  The first video is exactly the info I was wanting. 

[Paolo85]

6 hours ago, Leroy said:

I appreciate everyone's help!

Paolo thanks for the video links.  The first video is exactly the info I was wanting. 

Cheers. I was thinking, do not underestimate fretting hand technique. As you deal with bigger strings, longer scale and higher action than on a guitar, you may need adjustments to prevent injuries. I started on guitar and then moved to bass, and I had a few problems with that. I would say being careful is especially important because, as an experience guitar player, you may find yourself playing relatively advanced stuff early on without building your muscles slowly over time.

When you fret, use as many fingers as possible. I mean, if you fret with the pinky, all other three fingers should also push the string gently toward the fretboard (not too hard, you don't want unnecessary use of energy, but enough to relief the pinky). If you fret with the ring finger, you also have index and middle down and so on. On guitar, right or wrong, I was only thought to do that for bends.

Also, I would suggest you look into the Simandl technique whereas instead of playing one fret per finger, you just use index, middle and pinky. Never the ring finger. So your hand covers an area of three frets and you move more sideways and adjust fingering based on that. This reduces effort dramatically and is used extensively by bass players to play near the neck (first five frets or so), but not only.

 

[itu]

Mirror is your dear friend. You can see, what is happening in the fretboard and the right hand side. Adjust the strap from the feel, not the "my knees are not seen, so I have an attitude".

 

@chris_b had very important points: bad setup will certainly drive you towards bad habits. Bass is slightly more ergonomic than say a violin (look at their heads!), but it is up to you to take care of your position while playing.

[bassalbert]

if you are having surgery on your fretting hand and you are a guitar player, you shouldn't try to play bass. it will put a lot of stress on it. I wouldn't recommend it. talk to your doctor. if you finally decide to do it, go to a really good teacher with good technique. I have been able to solve a lot of techinque issues with my students online. but sometimes a presential class is the only way to fix the smallest mistakes that we do when playing.