Hi everyone, it's Geoff here from discoverdoublebass.com,
if you haven't been to see the website make
sure you do go and check that out as soon
as possible.
You'll find the first part of my lesson on
thumb position which is talking about transitioning
into thumb position.
Right now, I'm going to give you the second
part which is giving you the foundations and
explaining the technique about how we play
in thumb position, so let's get stuck into
the detail.
Well, thumb position is one the most common
things that I'm asked about as a teacher and
it's something that I really enjoy using,
I use thumb position all the time, not just
for solos but also for walking bass lines,
you know, playing melodies, anything that
I can really.
I like to use as much of the fingerboard as
possible.
Now, to get into thumb position, we talked
about the transitional stance and I'm going
to very quickly recap about what we talked
about in the previous lesson.
If you haven't seen that lesson, please go
and check that out after this one.
Okay, so we talked about bringing the bass
towards you and as you move into thumb position,
the bass has to be secure against your shoulder
and as usual against your hip and that stops
the bass from rotating.
You've got to have your arm and your elbow
up so you can apply arm weight to keep the
string down.
We also, as we move from a normal playing
position, we have to move slightly further
back either just as if we're transitioning
in and out or maybe like a step back just
to allow the bass to come towards us.
It's secure against your hip as usual but
this time it's actually resting against your
shoulder.
One of the most common things that I see are
people standing with the bass essentially
too vertically trying to play in thumb position
but that means they're often not able to use
their arm weight.
Now, of course there's a lot of different
ways to play the double bass and there are
some great players who do play with the bass
more vertically but my recommendation is to
allow the bass to come towards you to make
the bass a bit more horizontal effectively
and allow you to bring your arm weight into
play and that will really help you.
On that subject, let's make sure that our
elbows are raised up and we're not resting
them against the side of the bass like this,
you'll find it very hard to play.
It's quite tempting to allow the arms to fall
down so keep the arms raised up, and you'll
be nice and comfortable.
Okay, now the main thing about thumb position
that you have to realize is this tuning anchor,
this G harmonic here, is absolutely crucial
and we've spoken already about moving into
thumb position and playing in the transitional
area and we play with our third finger lower
than thumb position.
As you may well have guessed when we move
into thumb position, the thumb takes over
and rests against the G harmonic so you need
to get comfortable at finding that note.
I don't have a problem if you use a little
bit of a pencil to mark on the bass this tuning
anchor.
Now, I'm not a big exponent of looking all
the time at where you're playing, but I often
mark the G, D and the following G harmonic
with a little line of pencil just on the fingerboard
and I know a lot of other bass players and
teachers who also do this as well.
I certainly wouldn't mark every note but I
think those harmonics are the tuning anchors
that you're going to be using to help you
reference your tuning, so if you were playing
a C sharp perhaps, that you would think,"Okay
I've got the harmonic here, the D here so
that means the C sharp's there," and it can
just help you if you're having these big shifts,
you know.
Okay, so we've got the G here and if it helps
you, you're okay to mark this.
Tiny little thing, don't mark the fingerboard
in the lower positions because you'll have
to turn your head to view them.
The reason that it works in thumb position
is it's already within our line of vision.
Okay, now this is the real meat and potatoes
of what happens.
The first bit is, that I'd like to discuss,
part of the technique is what part of the
thumb touches the string?
Essentially it's somewhere between the knuckle
and the inner part of the thumb there I'm
often just around the knuckle towards the
edge of the nail but it's not anywhere in
line with the nail and it's not behind the
knuckle so you can rule out behind this knuckle
here and you can rule out the nail.
It's somewhere in between, just sort of marking
my finger if I can, it's about there for me,
but everybody's thumb is different, you know?
It has a different shape and you might find
uncomfortable to be nearer the knuckle and
you may find it more comfortable, you know,
to be slightly of to one side but I would
recommend not going further back against the
knuckle and I'd recommend not being too near
the end.
The other thing that I do often is that I
will use the thumb to go across and play other
ones of other strings.
I won't always just be using the same part
of the thumb so I may well, like in that instance,
move the thumb across.
That can also help mute the string that is
adjacent, and you'll notice that the D string
isn't ringing and part of the reason is it's
being gently being muted with the end of the
thumb, that and the right hand.
Okay, so how do we know what fingering to
use?
Well, there's a great system which is there's
three different possibilities.
Now, the main one that I use is called chromatic.
Just going up in semitones, so you've got
G, G sharp, A and then let's use the tuning
anchor of the open A string and B flat or
it could be A sharp if you like.
G, G sharp A, A sharp or B flat.
I'm just getting carried away there thinking
about that melody "Blue Monk" that's a great
one to practice if you're starting out, practicing
this chromatic position.
This is a very popular position and one that
I use a lot.
Now, there are three positions, the second
one is called semi-chromatic.
This one is the same but there's the distance
with the tone between the thumb and the first
finger.
Again, the danger spot that you should be
looking for is between the thumb and the first
finger because for most people in chromatic
hand shape, they extend this distance too
much and you'll often find that in semi-chromatic
hand shape, this is too flat, like, actually
it was slightly flat there.
Make sure that this is equally divided and
have a look at the way the fingers are.
The fingertips aren't completely in line that
way, and neither are they completely that
way, there's a slight angle going on.
Always try and keep the fingers arched and
the weight going into the fingertips whether
you're in chromatic or semi-chromatic.
Remembering that the problem area is almost
always, for students that I see, between the
thumb and the first finger and just keep coming
back referencing the harmonic and playing
the stopped note.
It should sound the same because it's possible
to play it out of tune like this, for instance,
you can just about hear the harmonic and then
now we're sharp it's not exactly the same
pitch so you find the harmonic.
Now, let's just . . . well I'll tell you what
I'll do, I'll explain the last one and then
we'll go back and we'll have a look in detail
at how to use the first one, which is the
most common.
Now, the final one is called diatonic.
You can think of this as either the top of
a C scale, C major or the start of a G major
scale so it fits within the scale and the
notes are G, A, B, C. It's two tones and then
a semitone at the top.
To recap, chromatic, semi-chromatic and diatonic
all the while we're letting the weight go
into our thumb, via the arm, into the hand
and the fingers are resting down, you don't
see my fingers flying up like this away from
the fingerboard.
It's really important to let them come to
rest, keep a really relaxed, loose hand shape
and let the thumb and the spare fingers keep
the string down, keep the weight into the
fingertips.
For the rest of the lesson, we're going to
look at this chromatic hand shape and this
is the one that I think is most important
and that you should learn first.
In future lessons we're going to be looking
at the semi-chromatic and diatonic and we'll
talk about moving up the fingerboard but for
now, I would like you not go any further that
this first position of thumb position with
the thumb on the G harmonic.
Check that these notes are correct using tuning
anchors such as the G or the A, open A string
and play them, this pattern, on each one of
the four strings.
As you move round, like a normal playing position,
you have to move your arm round to allow you
to get the purchase on the string.
If you're kind of like this, you'll find that
you get a bit tight, you need to . . .
What I would like you to do is to try different
finger combinations, not just thumb one, two,
three, try going thumb two, thumb two, when
the second finger goes down or the first finger
comes down behind it and then reference the
third finger one two, one two and then now
try one three.
Sorry I keep saying one, I mean thumb three,
thumb three, thumb three.
Thumb three, thumb three, thumb two, thumb,
one.
Different patterns that you can think of.
It really is important to make sure that this
hand shape is established much in the same
way that when you're playing in half position,
you have to have this really nice hand shape
to be able to help you to play in tune consistently.
One way that you can practice this is to practice
moving into thumb position, bringing the bass
towards you, try the harmonic, play the stopped
note and then play the pitch that you're working
on or the pattern that you're working on.
You could even do this with the bow.
In fact, I'd recommend using the bow to get
a really focused sound.
Then move the hand away and try it again.
Now, try it in the lower area of the bass
in half position and back on the different
string.
You could even practice a pattern, for instance,
say arpeggio.
These are just the first two notes of the
arpeggio so we can stay in this chromatic
hand shape and it should be really smooth
in and out of the different positions.
Have a go at playing that so G, B flat with
the second finger, D with the first finger,
G harmonic and then the B flat at the top
and then back down.
It's just a G minor arpeggio but going up
to the third, there's the arpeggio and then
the third and I keep referencing my tuning
using the D as a tuning anchor.
You can practice playing something in the
lower position and then moving up into this
higher position.
Okay, now for the more advanced players, I'd
start looking at playing something that you
can play quite comfortably at a lower position,
in a higher position in terms of melodies
and what have you.
You could do something like "Summertime",
all of this fits within this chromatic hand
shape.
It could be absolutely anything, you could
practice your walking bass lines and then
making sure that you're practicing moving
in and out of these different positions.
One of the problems that I see is that people,
when they start to get comfortable with this
chromatic hand shape and thumb position, is
that they'll start to play and then they'll
move straight back down into half position
but they won't actually explore the area of
the bass, the full range of the fingerboards
that they won't be playing.
They will be playing in between, so try to
make sure that you can join it up.
What you don't want to do is to be lifting
the . . . remember with your shifting when
you're moving from one position to another,
the fingers should remain with the string
down on the fingerboard.
If you're playing, try to keep, as much as
you can, the string down.
Try not to do this, I'm obviously making it
really dramatic here, try to keep everything
down.
It's all about moving fluidly across the fingerboard
so thumb position doesn't feel like this separate
entity it's joined up with your normal playing
in a really comfortable way.
Well, we've covered a huge amount of ground
there, people starting out in thumb position.
Make sure you review this lesson, make sure
that you're really comfortable moving in and
out of regular playing positions into thumb
position and you may wish to check out the
previous lesson in this series.
Now, going forward I'm going to be covering
the semi-chromatic and the diatonic hand shapes
in detail.
We've also got a lot of other lessons to come
out so it may take a little while for me to
get there but rest assured I'll be revisiting
thumb position in detail and providing links
to those lessons directly below this video
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