Sticky fingers

Morten Sickel (11865)

Bass Instructional Forum
10/29/2008 4:54 AM

We are playing a song ("I will survive" as done by Cake) with a pretty funky bass line, going through the cords on 1 4 5 7 8 with some pull-offs and hammer ons. (eg when I start out with an A -minor, I play on the frets E-5, A-5, A-7, D-5 and D-7) When playing this on my fretless, I have to put the fingers on the fretting hand 'on top of each others' and occasionally, they are starting to stick together, when eg going from A-7 to D-7, slowing me down and causing general problems... any tips on how to avoid this? Remember, since I am playing fretless, I cannot fret a bit higher or lower on the neck to avoid this...

hmm, maybe the best advise is to play it on my fretted bass... :-)

M.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 9:12 AM

David Muise (15739) wrote:

Great song! Great version!!

No technique advice though. Maybe toss in open strings on the more passing notes, at least for now?

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 10:44 AM

Morten Sickel (11865) wrote:

Great song! Great version!!
Absolutely, and not too hard either, if just the fingers flows...

No technique advice though. Maybe toss in open strings on the more passing notes, at least for now?
Maybe for some of the patterns, but since I'm playing more or less the same figure through Am, Dm, G, C, F and Bb, then I have to fret on all notes through some of them and in all cases, I find it easier to do the same all the way without too much thinking... :-)

(Thanks for the idea, sounded maybe a bit negative..)

M.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 12:10 PM

David Muise (15739) wrote:

Is the line (from the chord's center) 1 4 5 7 8? I'm not having a problem with that, but I'm barring as I go from 1 to 4. Or drop that 4 in favour of a rest; it seems the troublesome point & the line seems to groove without it.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 1:14 PM

Eugene Shults (361) wrote:

It seems like that is the line from his description. But I think he is saying that those are the note choices rather than the actual progression. I don't know.

Clarification Morten?

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 3:43 PM

Morten Sickel (11865) wrote:

You are right, I was unclear, Didn't have a bass when I wrote the post, the actual progression is like 1-1-8-5-7-7-8-7-5 played quite quickly (sorry no 4 in there either) and the 8-5 is what causes problem, when fretting, I use fingers 1-1-4-3-1-1-4-1-4 and what causes problem is the 8-5 with fingers 3 and 4.

M.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 4:35 PM

David Muise (15739) wrote:

Tried that & it didn't seem too bad. Then I remembered 'fretless'. I see what you mean.

Best I can offer is to barre 3 for that 8-5 or sneak a 7 in between them

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/30/2008 11:27 AM

Eugene Shults (361) wrote:

Yeah. I see what you and Dave mean. Normally doing that with a fretted bass using those fingers is no problem but with a fretless you have to hit the exact spot so your pitch might be a little off doing this.

I was playing around just now to see another way around this. Barring with the ring seems like the best way to get around that. I don't know how your hand is so I don't know if that would be the fit for you or not. I just bend my wrist in towards the neck to get a clean bar with the ring. I hope this isn't bad technique lol. I'll ask my instructor about it later.

Hope that helped!

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 11:27 AM

Eugene Shults (361) wrote:

What do you mean when you say that your fingers are sticking together?

I'm assuming your fingering is index for the root and above notes and ring finger for the other frets?

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 1:09 PM

Eugene Shults (361) wrote:

I see what you are saying now. You are having difficulties going to frets that are top where you are already? I would just bar when you need to using your ring and index fingers. If it is tough to bar with your ring I would use your pinky to go to the above note on the 7s.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 1:11 PM

Eugene Shults (361) wrote:

Use your pinky to go from 5 to 8 if you need to. That's usually what I do when I make similar movements. And I would bar with the index when going from 1 to 4 or 4 to 7.

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Re: Sticky fingers

10/29/2008 5:11 PM

Morten Sickel (11865) wrote:

Thanks. I'll look at that :-) It might be that the best thing is to play it on the fretted bass, I used to sing that song, then I played the fretted, but now the guitar player has taken over, and I tried to play it on my 'default' fretless :-)

M.

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Re: Sticky fingers

11/1/2008 10:58 AM

Jeff Foertsch (544) wrote:

just a thought, have you tried staying on the same string and sliding up the neck to the notes, this generally means you play an open passing note, if you're slow like me, to get your hands back into the root position. slides on a fretless sound awsome anyway and would definatly help you cut through the song.

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