Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 1: Basic Technique

Common injuries that rob bassists of stage time

Let’s start with an overview of the most common types of injuries bassists experience, the dreaded tendonitis, also known as repetitive stress injury, which will usually be felt in the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, or neck and shoulder. As repetitive stress injury suggests, overuse is the cause of symptoms which can include pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness. The idea is that constant activity of a muscle or of groups of muscles, such as the plucking, picking, or fretting motions of the bassist, causes these muscles to become overworked, with pain usually the first indication that anything is wrong.

When muscles are overworked, they pull on tendons, which attach to these muscles and further attach the muscles to bones, and as the offending activity continues the body reacts to this overuse causing pain. Frequently by the time pain is felt the problem has been occurring for some time. Typically the root cause is practicing too much too soon, lack of warm up, poor technique, indifferent instrument set-up, significant change in practice routine, or similar playing associated activities. Also look to repetitive or overuse in one’s non-playing life.

Pain — do not ignore this vital warning

Many bassists’ first inclination when experiencing pain is to ignore it and play through it, either because they think things will take care of themselves, they don’t have insurance or ready bread for a doctor visit, an instructor or another bassist has recommended doing so, or because in the beginning the pain will often deceptively go away, and they then think everything is okay. Also many bassists remember hearing ‘no pain no gain’ at some time or other and think that applies to playing music. It does not, and it is a crock.

When experiencing pain, usually beginning in the wrist or hand, either right or left, it’s important to stop and listen to our bodies, and find out why we are experiencing pain. Often if we stop playing for a minute and shake out our hands, the pain will go away. We then will go back to playing the same way, with the same result recurring several minutes later or a little further down the line, often progressing up the forearm and tightening up muscles there. Rather than pushing on, bassists will be best served by stopping and assessing their technique a bit.

Plucking HandWith your plucking hand, we will assume the right, pain will usually start at the crease of the wrist on either side of the hand and sometimes work its way up the forearm. In almost every case this is the result of holding the wrist in an exaggerated state of flexion (i.e. the way we hold our wrist when bending it to pluck the strings). The more you bend that wrist, the more cramped the muscles become which causes unnecessary tension.

Holding the wrist at such an exaggerated angle also inhibits blood and oxygen flow which muscles need to function. Inhibited blood flow also contributes to nerve interference. This is why bassists feel pain when this problem occurs, this is your body’s way of letting you know you are doing something with too much frequency or incorrectly, in this case—plucking bass strings while holding the wrist incorrectly— it is a little of both.

Addressing the problem—proven tips for enhancing your playing experience

The good news is this problem has a relatively easy fix. The bad news is, like any unproductive habit, one needs to be mindful of it to break it if avoiding the consequences is a priority. By now, most bassists who have been playing for a while think about their right hand technique as much as they think about breathing or walking – they just do it.

The “auto pilot” nature of many playing behaviors and techniques suggest the value of becoming more consciously aware of your body and the signals sent in the form of discomfort or pain. Such signals are reliable indicators that subtle changes in playing behavior and technique, which, with patience, will also become second nature can be adopted to successfully address the pain and underlying problem causing the pain.

So how to fix it? For one, the fingers of the plucking hand should not be straight, but rather they should hang loosely and naturally over the strings. When playing a note, let the plucking finger rest on the string and gently roll off.

When playing finger style, many players tend to rest the thumb on the top of either the bridge or more commonly the neck pick up while plucking with the other fingers on the strings. This is not desirable as it exaggerates the wrist flexion just discussed. Even worse is resting the wrist or forearm on the top of the bass and plucking upward. Doing this tends to create a hook with the hand, creating excessive flexion of the wrist at about a 90 degree angle which again causes unnecessary tension.

You will notice when plucking with a two finger technique that your pinky will stick out due to this tension. The idea is to try and keep the wrist as close as possible to a neutral position, or how the wrist looks when you hold it and the hand perfectly straight. Obviously, this isn’t a practical fix for bassists, because the only way to have a purely neutral wrist position would be to put your arm and shoulder at such an angle as to cause problems there, with the result being immediate discomfort, but by being aware of the situation and making relatively minor adjustments troubles can be greatly minimized.

One way to break the habit of using the pick up as an anchor is to adopt more of a floating technique. By anchoring your thumb on a string and leaving a string between your thumb resting on a top string and your plucking fingers. In this way you won’t have that hook at your wrist, and will be less likely to rest your wrist or forearm on top of the bass. Your wrist will be at a 45-60 degree angle rather than 90, and you will be at less risk of cramping up and experiencing discomfort.

For example (based on a 4 string model): if plucking the E string, the thumb should be at or on the pickup. If plucking the A string, same. If plucking the D, the thumb can rest on the E string and finally if plucking the G string the thumb can rest on the A string. Pino Palladino plays in this way. Pino told me he specifically developed this manner of playing to avoid wrist and hand problems, and he further reports he has been successful in side stepping such problems.

Taking the forearm off of the top of the bass also will eliminate the likelihood of nerve compression at the elbow which can radiate down to the wrist and hand and can also induce muscle cramping.

Before and after playing, say with the right hand, make sure you do some wrist rotations, simply turning your wrists in either direction, loosely, several times each direction. Doing so will help keep the wrists loose and pain free. Try to keep the wrist loose during playing using small, precise strokes rather than using excessive motion. Muscle tightness while picking commonly manifests itself in the muscles of the thumb and forefinger often extending into the forearm. Wrist rotations are a good idea for bassists employing finger style playing as well, but are particularly important when using a picking technique.

Positioning your fretboard hand for more rewarding playing

Next up let’s talk about some positioning examples and things to think about for the left hand, i.e. the fretting hand when playing electric bass.

PositioningThe classic “proper” technique is to position the left thumb in the middle of the back of the neck, between where the first to fourth fingers will be on the fretboard, creating a triangular shape between them. The thumb should also be placed at or just below the middle of the neck to create an anchor around which the rest of the hand will move as necessary. This positioning helps to keep the pinky down, keep the wrist fairly straight, and will activate muscles only as the other fingers are being used; reducing the chances of triggering repetitive stress injuries and their painful consequences. It is quite helpful to keep fingers spaced one per fret and keep the palm off the neck. Then, keeping hands and arms relaxed will help minimize the chances of repetitive stress injuries being experienced. However, if pain does occur stop playing and reassess technique.

Some bassists will use more of a circular type technique with their left hand, placing little emphasis on thumb placement but concentrating on keeping the left hand in a ‘c’ curved shape like a claw and extending that ‘c’ shape to the whole arm. This technique also keeps the shoulder relaxed because in this position, the elbow acts as a counter balance. Employing this technique makes it easier to get around the diameter of the fretboard.

Let your fingers do the walking—but do so with proper technique

If you keep your fingers curved while playing in this style, your fingertips won’t flatten out as you fret, you won’t pinch the string and the hand won’t be in a state of hyperflexion for long because its position will be ever changing. If you arch your fingers when playing this will allow the strength generated by the forearm muscles to pass efficiently to the fingertips without being impeded.

Repetitively pressing down with the left hand on the fretboard puts pressure on the finger flexor muscles due to the constant pressing down on strings; the potentially negative aspects of this activity are magnified by the thickness of bass strings. It is recommended bassists try and adopt a lighter touch and not press so hard, perhaps experimenting with different settings on their amp or even a more powerful amp. I have also found it helpful to experiment with bass volume settings and lower the action to reduce unnecessary exertion.

To recap right and left hand technique for injury prevention:

  1. Keep right hand fingers hanging loosely over the strings, not straight. This will help you keep your wrist in less of a flexed position and closer to neutral which will lessen the chance of wrist pain.
  2. Try to limit anchoring thumb on the pickups and adopt more of a floating technique to avoid excess wrist flexion. This will lessen chance of wrist pain and tendinitis.
  3. Try to keep your wrist angles on both hands as close to a neutral position as possible- 45-60 degrees is much preferable to the usual 90 we bassists tend to gravitate toward. This is the number one way to avoid pain and tendonitis in the hand, wrist, or arm.
  4. Don’t rest the right forearm or wrist on the instrument—this will help to avoid nerve compression and muscle cramping.
  5. Do use proper positioning in left hand placement on the back of the neck. This will help to avoid weakness and the tendency to use excess pressure when fretting, leading to wrist and hand pain.
  6. Try and adopt a lighter touch and not press so hard on strings. Less pressure equals less effort equals less pain.
  7. Experiment with different settings on your amp or even a more powerful amp. Let the amp do the work.
  8. Consider adjusting action on your bass to be lower if it is quite high. Don’t work hard if you don’t have to.

In future installments we will talk about posture, common and not so common injuries and how to manage and of course, prevent them, as well as show some stretches and other tips that will help you along your road to injury prevention.

Be sure to check out the complete Health & Fitness series

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  1. Johnny

    Thanks for info, I’m glad to say I do what is mentioned. But I have pain in my plucking fingers, the first joint after the knuckle in three fingers it can get so bad it’s pain full to make a fist, what could cause this? or is it just age and arthritis setting in lol i’m 38.

  2. Thomas

    I have noticed that ever since I have started playing bass my right wrist constantly pops when I rotate it.. (in both directions). When playing I will switch back and forth from resting my wrist on my bass to holding my elbow out in more of an Entwistle style. What could be causing this?

  3. Johan

    Nice article. Might be worth mentioning that tendonitis comes from a lot of other activities as well. I got it from too much typing while writing up my master thesis. And thereafter a lot of stuff was painful. Bass playing, being one of them.

    What im trying to say is that people should consider other measures as well (ergonomic office workstation, cut back on playing playstation etc)

    • Thanks Johan. All these points are well taken and I’ll try to implement them into a future article.

      Best,

      Randy Kertz

  4. So great to feature Randall. His book was a major help to me when recovering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome recently.

  5. VJK

    I see the ad for Ansir Music; I have been following them for a while. I would have to believe that what that have going on with the angle neck could help in relieving some of the stress on the body while playing! Is that their intention?

    • VJK,
      In all honesty that was not our original intention. The idea was to create an instrument that was easier and more comfortable to play. So it was more of trying to create an instrument you could really dig into and maybe grab an extra note or two! As of recent, players have been telling us they are playing longer with less pain. So it’s a win-win situation!

  6. Julio Moscoso

    una recomendacion, Deberian tener la opcion de mostrar el texto en español tambien. se ve super interesente pero no comprando del todo. Gracias

  7. Shane

    I’m disappointed in this guide. It should include a proper warning concerning the “1 Finger per fret” rule when playing on the first five frets.

    Playing 1FPF on those frets puts a terrible stress on the left wrist, arching it at usually a 75 degree+ angle, unless of course your hands are the size of dinner plates.

    For most bassists who don’t have absolutely massive hands, it should be noted that you should only cover three frets at a time with four fingers, until you’re playing in sixth position (Root = 5th fret) or higher.

    • Chris

      Yes, as a female bassist, my hands are comparatively small, although they are large for a female. I find that I use the three fret technique myself. I generally do not play songs with my ring (4th) finger, but use it to play major scales. I think it is important to pivot your hand at the wrist while playing because it is more efficient than sliding your hand up and down the fretboard.

    • Tim Hansen

      Hi Shane.

      Totally bang on. I have average sized hands but tried to play for ten years with 1 finger per fret and got such bad pain I eventually gave up bass for nigh-on 20 years. This has only been rectified recently by a great teach (who I only needed one lesson with before he spotted my problem) called Nathan Freddo (now bass chair at Eton).

      1 finger per fret can wreck havoc on hands.

      Tim

  8. scott

    Im wondering if the angled neck concept on the ANSIR basses actually reduces wrist strain? I get shooting pains in my left wrist if I play more than a couple hours at a time. Needless to say, this puts a damper on things.

    • Hi Scott,
      We have been told the angled neck does relieve stress on the wrist. Not only is the neck angled but it is askew of center. (This can’t be achieved by moving the strap buttons) There is less of an outward reach; and the neck is positioned where it is most comfortable for you! Therefore less stress on the joints.

      • scott

        Intriguing. I looked at the website. This seems like a very interesting idea. A bit pricey for me to be honest, Im average guy, but if it helped relieve my wrist pain, it might be worth it.

        • I understand about the price! We have been trying to keep our prices on the “Low” end of the custom builders. (Couldn’t resist the pun). Think of this as an investment in something you will have for a lifetime. Playing an instrument is an investment of time, effort and money. We have teamed up with a credit agency that deals exclusively with musicians to help fund your purchase. We also have various payment plans. Give us a call at 440-897-2037 even if you’re not ready to buy we can at least discuss the options.

  9. I agree with Shane. When playing on the lower frets there’s pain but no gain for many bassists who insist on the 1FPF rule. In general, I advise students to use URB type of fingering in the “money” positions unless a certain moment in the music requires a four fret position. If you happen to have particularly large hands this doesn’t necessarily apply.

  10. I’m not very tall … I’m about 5’2 and I’m a boy. But I learn the 1 fingers per frets position when I started 12 years ago. I never experienced any pain in both my hands. I had a teacher during 4 years then I when to college studying DB for 3 years and I must say that I revamped my positionning after that. I have a classical guitar position now in the EB and of course the right position on DB. Always strait hands and I never had any problem because of that. I also play 6 strings bass exclusivly no problem it isn’t hard at all, no pain. It is funny that all you talk in this article I was doing it.

  11. lately my plucking hand middle finger have been hurting, what should I do? my teacher told me that I may be plucking to hard, so I have been practicing really soft, but the pain is still there….

  12. For electric bassists keep both wrists and forearms as straight and aligned with each other as possible. This probably means to use a classical guitar style of holding the instrument. Use the horn on the bass for the intended purpose of positioning the instrument at an up angle across the body. Tell your sound engineers to turn your instrument up in the mix, control your volume from your onboard controls, and play lightly putting the volume control in charge of the output. Alternate plucking fingers and learn to introduce the ring finger into the plucking.
    There are other issues which I have seen occurring as well – Thumb trauma/bruising, and lower back and shoulder problems from weighty electric basses. Boutique instruments with extended ranges, heavy tone woods, and onboard electronics are adding pounds to the instruments. Some are weighing in at 13lbs and more. That weight stresses both tissue and the skeleton. Looking into comfortable straps and working out will help overcome the weight to a degree. I would suggest sitting with the instrument or employing a padded stool to overcome the weight bearing and subsequent fatigue. Fatigue and weight are always a precursor to injury.
    The bad news – over time there will probably be repetitive stress issues- look into the Alexander methods, I have heard that they may be some therapeutic help in that regimen.

  13. For electric bassists keep both wrists and forearms as naturally aligned with each other as possible. This probably means to use a classical guitar style of holding the instrument. Use the horn on the bass for the intended purpose of positioning the instrument at an up angle across the body. Tell your sound engineers to turn your instrument up in the mix, control your volume from your onboard controls, and play lightly putting the volume control in charge of the output. Alternate plucking fingers and learn to introduce the ring finger into the plucking. The picture of the plucking had above shows the wrist bending at what appears close to a 90 degree angle, that positioning is not recommending as the tendons in the wrist are hyperextended which is a setup for further injury. Classical guitarists have known and have been taught this for years. I can recall seeing this in Classical books 40 years ago. And
    There are other issues which I have seen occurring as well – Thumb trauma/bruising, and lower back and shoulder problems from weighty electric basses. Boutique instruments with extended ranges, heavy tone woods, and onboard electronics are adding pounds to the instruments. Some are weighing in at 13lbs and more. That weight stresses both tissue and the skeleton. Looking into comfortable straps and working out will help overcome the weight to a degree. I would suggest sitting with the instrument or employing a padded stool to overcome the weight bearing and subsequent fatigue. Fatigue and weight are always a precursor to injury.
    The bad news – over time there will probably be repetitive stress issues- look into the Alexander methods, I have heard that they may be some therapeutic help in that regimen.

  14. no pain no gain ;.;. bass up and deal with it.;.; if it don’t kill ya its good for the band ;.;.

  15. I concur 100% with Dr. Randall’s advice. In nearly 35 years of electric bass playing, from heavy Fenders to extended range basses, I’ve never had hand nor wrist pain. Positioning the instrument is crucial – it may not be sexy, but I’ve been around longer than my colleagues who thought it was more important to look like a rock star.

  16. Great article! It should be also mentioned the one thing that marked a huge difference in my playing in terms of avoiding or dealing with injuries: before you play, always, always, always STRETCH first. I wish this was the first thing they would tell bass students before they even pick up a bass. At least I wish they had told me that early on.

  17. After 40 years + of playing bass guitar and double bass, I’ve learned much of what Dr. Randall says by trial and error. The repetitive motion thing still gets me from time to time. I have learned that I simply have to lay off a day or so every couple of months. I had a very good teacher on double bass who was very adept at the ergonomics of the instrument that helped a lot. But bass guitar is somewhat different. I have played with the ‘stretch’ fingering technique a la Jaco since my college years and it took years to get the best ergo for that (not enough space here). I have relatively small hands for a bass players and it was a challenge. In the last 10 years, I’ve learned not to play through the pain but to find out what is causing it. Dr. Randall nailed with the smooth transfer of force – I think of playing with the whole shoulder and arm to press down the string. The easiest way to get this concept is to move the thumb away from the back of the neck. Our strings require too much pressure to try and only use the the squeeze between the thumb and fingers as most guitarists do. I highly recommend finding a good chiropractor in your area should any recurrent pain occur.

  18. Oliver M Grech

    Not directly related to this article but nevertheless I would like to highly recommend the readers to invest in a good padded strap, preferably 3 inches, especially if you got a heavy bass guitar.

    Thanks for this article, it helped me a lot!

  19. Megan

    I know this applies to many jazz and Rock bassists but what about us funk bass players who incorporate a lot of tapping? I know when I tap I have before broken a nerve in the tip of my middle finger… What can I do to avoid this in the future?

    • Pascal Guilbert

      I’ve gone through this too. For slap technique, I use 2 things
      1 A compressor, so you don’t have to play so hard.
      2 Put the bass a little upper than usual position, so your thumb is in the right angle to strike.

      I must thank the author of this article for all the good advices and reminders.

  20. Pamila Wiersma

    Timely writing . I am thankful for the facts , Does anyone know where my assistant would be able to get access to a template a form document to complete ?

  21. Karen

    Very informative article, thanks! Thankfully, I haven’t had any plucking hand wrist issues yet. However, I do suffer from plucking thumb tendinitis. In the morning my thumb “pops” when I extend it. I guess I need to be more aware of positioning when playing, as I do rest it on my pickup. Recently looked into kinesiology tape to see if that would help, but the information I found online says that’s not really effective, at least in this case.
    Any suggestions would be welcome! Meanwhile, maybe I should consult a medical professional, who’s also a bassist. ;-)

  22. Neil B

    I got a lot of pain in my neck and right shoulder after a long practice session and it hasn’t gone away. I’ve set off a load of arthritis there to join the arthritis in my finger and thumb joints.
    Not a lot can be done, it’s taken me 6 months to reach a point where I can turn my neck to reverse properly in the car.

    I just thought I’d mention it to a sympathetic audience, my wife works in a hospital and I get no sympathy there!

  23. Marcus McClary

    The left hand technique shown is the traditional one which has left me with recurring wrist pain. Then I saw an Adam Neely video which turned everything around. This is worth a watch and may help many. My occupational therapist watched me play both ways and said “That’s easy, the Neely method is the easiest on the hands and wrist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRkSsapYYsA