Zander Zon: “Single-Handed” Solo Bass

Last month, Zander Zon sent me a note with some bad news. The talented bassist injured his left hand and could barely move his thumb. At first, he tried to play through it, but decided to stop and take care. He can’t pick up anything with his left hand now, making playing bass impossible.

As the days passed, Zander had a hard time not playing. So he wrote a tune that only requires his right hand and a looper.

Here it is… the aptly named “Single-Handed”. The track is available on iTunes.

Get well, Zander!

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  1. Bill

    Very nice! Speedy recovery Zander!

  2. Larry Molmud

    What effect pedal do you use to get that sustain while tapping?

  3. Ernie Leblanc

    Been there…

    Get Better Than Ever!

    This is one hell’of’ah Fantastic Solo-Bass Tune!!!!!

  4. Rolandas Balkauskas

    Amazing and respect. This is further proof that the human mental and spiritual abilities is more important than the physical. All nice and important things are in human head.

  5. Inspiring as always Zander! You have more melody and creativity in one hand than I’ve got in both of mine haha! Wishing you a speedy recovery dude!

  6. rubendlr

    Zander, you never cease to amaze me. Make you have a complete and speedy recovery.

  7. SneakyPete

    Wow, really love your work in general, and this is another great example. As others have said, your one-handed skills dwarf my two-handed skills.

    I messed up my left thumb pretty badly over a year ago (can you say “fillet”?) and still have some numbness–I can really sympathize with you! Sadly I had to stop playing until it healed fully. If I could make a suggestion, go really easy on it until you’re 100% healed up! Re-injury sucks. :(

    • Thanks a lot for your kind words and support, but sorry to hear about your thumb. That’s a good suggestion to wait until you’re 100% – albeit a challenging one! How long did you stop playing for? I don’t think I can just stop, but I’m trying to adjust my playing routines a bit!

      • SneakyPete

        Since I’m getting along in years I don’t heal as fast as I used to. It was about 4 months before I was healed enough to not feel any pain in the pad of my thumb. I *slowly* started up again at that point. I’m not suggesting you stop, but just be careful. From your video it sure looks like you are taking care of yourself.

        Of course it also depends on your type of injury. In my case it would have been easy to re-open the wound or cause other problems.

        Good luck!

        • Wow – 4 months is a long time. Doubt I could do that! It’s good to hear about other musicians being disciplined enough to do that though, and it’s certainly what I need to seriously consider. Thanks again!

  8. Jon Willis

    I suffered an injury to my left hand via a table saw accident which removed my fingertips on 2 fingers and chewed up my middle finger pretty good… leaving only my index unhurt.. I used capos to perform my songs with for my gigs.. I would cut notches in them to allow certain strings to ring to open notes.. Glad to see you are still going strong Zander !

    • Jon, I’m sorry to hear about your injury, but it’s amazing how you’ve figured out ways around that. That resilience is really inspiring. Have you heard of a Spider Capo?

      • Jeremy

        You are an inspiration, like several others I badly injured my left hand, had 6 operations and drew inspiration from people like you, I had my first bass gig last week, mainly using three fingers but I couldn’t be happier and inspired to work harder than ever before! Hope you have a full recovery. Love the music too

  9. Palma

    Really nice job Zander, you’re really talented! I’m a bass player too and, due to a car crash 3 years ago (smashed my left hand middle, ring and pinkie fingers), I loss the tip of my ring finger and also can’t move the pinkie. None of that kept me away from playing bass and I’m now in 2 bands playing funky stuff :D. Music is an amazing thing that keeps surprising us and making us smile even when we least expect it. Speedy recovery Zander!

  10. Beautiful, great job as always Zander!

  11. Enrique

    What a way to create music while waiting on the recovery of that left hand!
    Best of luck. E