Bass Fingering in Swing Music

Video Transcript

"First thing we want to do is go over the proper fingering on the upright. It's very important that you only use your first, your second, and your fourth finger one, two, and four. You want to leave your third one minute, leave it out. What it does is it helps to prevent tendonitis from forming. It's very bad for your fingers and technique in general. I don't know the exact logic behind it, but I know it is true. The way you want to grab the bass is you make a C. Like a C clamp. Then you want the middle of your thumb to be right here in the middle of the neck and you want to grab down like this. So notice I only use one, two, and four. It takes a while to get this second nature. I'm still working on myself. You might see me slip a couple thirds in there, but you got to get it out of there and you got to get one, two, and four down. A good way to practice is to go one, two, four. Notice how I got right at the octave right on my fourth finger and once you get up high you can use your fourth finger. So, that's a good way to practice one, two, four, one, two, four, one, two, four, one, two, three and you're right there on the octave. Notice how you're using different hand techniques so it's not bad for your third finger up in the higher registers. Again today we're focusing mainly on the top of this baby so we're going to keep it one, two, four."