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[Shizo]'s Avatar
[Shizo] [Shizo] is offline
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I played guitar for half a year now and recently picked up a bass.
The two major changes from the guitar for me were:
1. Longer neck - the wrist is twisted more when playing at the low end.
2. Thicker strings - the fingers have to press harder, adding to the wrist strain.

Recently I started feeling pain in my wrist. I watched a "basics" video on youtube and it said that you shouldn't curl your wrist. But if I keep it straight, I find it practically impossible to play some things without muting strings with my fingers.

If I play standing up, with guitar strapped over my neck, the situation becomes even worse. What am I doing wrong here? It really hinders my practice.

PS: I did manage to record a funny double bass improvisation.. I got this idea because of the pain from playing in normal position.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRKxurDaUic
02-08-2008
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MadTiger3000's Avatar
MadTiger3000 MadTiger3000 is offline
5,943 posts, Natural Philospher
  
 
Put the bass at the proper height for you.

IN GENERAL, the proper height would be where your right arm would be at a 90-degree angle when you are ready to pluck the strings. This may look and feel kind of high, but it is what it is.

You left hand should naturally curl over the strings.

http://www.bass-lessons.com/html/playbass.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/1187...assguitar.html
02-08-2008
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Hosey's Avatar
Hosey Hosey is offline
963 posts, "Shoryuken!"
  
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by [Shizo]
1. Longer neck - the wrist is twisted more when playing at the low end.
2. Thicker strings - the fingers have to press harder, adding to the wrist strain.
The bass is slung too high? Actually, in your video, the position you're in isn't an uncommon way to sling a bass. Think of Fieldy from KoRn (I'm not endorsing KoRn, but their bassist is a good example here), his bass is strapped so that he plays it in an almost upright position. The bassist in our band slings his pretty slow, because it keeps it easy to move around the low end. And he doesn't have any problem tapping out high notes, either. He does it quite often actually.

--
Patrik
"Why should things be easy to understand?" -Thomas Pynchon
Music and Whatnot: 1800Hosey.com

02-08-2008
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[Shizo]'s Avatar
[Shizo] [Shizo] is offline
2,099 posts, Registered User
  
 
MadTiger3000:
Thanks for those great links. I started playing by really curling my wrist to press hard on the strings (and avoid my fingers laying flat and muting other strings) but I guess I must learn to play with a naturally curled hand. This is a video I made the first day I got a bass (note the curling wrist): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAta7XKBJvM&feature=user

Hosey:
Daym, I've seen some Korn videos before where their guitars were hanging really low, almost dragging on the ground behind them. lol. But I didn't know the bass player always plays like that. It does look upright.. I guess there are really no concrete rules in music, only guidelines.



PS: lol, I just noticed how that photo looks like my avatar. But I never actually played guitar/bass like that.


[@$#%^ thread merging.. arr]

Do basses vary in their neck length?
Because on that tutorial page it says "get used to holding your fingers on fret 1,2,3 and 4". Well, on my bass I can't stretch fingers from fret 1 to 4 without either shifting up my hand or curling my wrist a lot. Or maybe my hands are too small.. but my body size is just average.
Last edited by [Shizo]; 02-09-2008 at 03:35 AM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
02-08-2008
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kyle blaque kyle blaque is offline
1,354 posts, Registered User
  
 
well I used to have wrist problems when playing guitar until I read this article on some site can't remember either guitarnoise, or ultimateguitar.. either way the thing they mentioned the most was not to over grip the guitar. your putting too much stress on you fingers and wrist, you need to get use to just pressing enough to get a clean sound not hammering down real hard because you don't think the note is fretted properly... I'm not sure of a practice for bass because i didn't really have this problem but I would practice just lightly pressing down on the frets so that you hand is really loose, and not so tense. I watch it now because your able to play for longer, and your able to switch faster because your not always full on with your fretting maybe that can help

02-09-2008
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