Death Grip

Hope this caught your attention, and now that you're here, take a few minutes to read this lesson. I could be well worth your while.

The first thing you'll notice is that there is no music for you to learn. Why not? Simple, this exercise is designed to help your fretting hand avoid the "death grip," and you can do it any time you are practicing.

Get into your normal playing position, and play any none-open note. Now as the note is playing, raise your finger until there is just the slightest buzz. That's right, I said try to get a buzz. Don't get so loose that the note is muted. What you want is to apply enough pressure to just miss having a good sounding note.

Now play. Anything at all. But be aware that you are trying to buzz. If you do this every day for a while, you will find that you aren't choking your bass any more, and your flexibility should be increased.

Since I am new to bass playing, I'm sure that this all must be second nature to established bassists, but last week was the first time I'd ever been presented with this exercise and I love it. I hope this will be found useful to someone!

Chris