Bad Habits for Bass: The 1 Finger Per Fret System

Lots of players teach and use the 1 finger per fret method. It's often misunderstood and causes all kinds of strange shapes and positions on the neck. Here's a little advice on using it well. I've stated this in the video, but this lesson is referring to shapes down at the bottom of the neck(where most bassists spend most of their time) up at the top of the neck the frets are very close together, you can play one finger per fret all you like.

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Music

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• bass
• lesson
• dave
• marks
• technique
• one
• finger
• per
• fret
• frets
• neck
• strings
• hand
• shape
• position
• fingering

[wbk666]

i have quite small hands for a bloke (stop sniggering at the back) and this vid has helped me a lot. thanks.

[Socialdem18]

@1USASOCOMRET Umm, dude, he's clearly Irish. He's certainly not trying to be Scottish, I should know coming from Scotland and all. Now shut up and stop being silly.

[ahdowns]

HI DAVE, These tips are helping me a lot, as I am a beginner. I was taught, and have a book with tabs showing to play the C Major scale starting on the 3rd fret of the A string. This is of course more of a streach than starting to play the C Major scale starting on the 8th fret of the E string. Being a beginner, I would have not thought about doing it the way you showed.

[eaglewings]

I'm an aspiring bassist and with my friends I play quite fast paced metal songs and such. I'm working on building my speed on the plucking hand, but at the moment the goal I'm trying to reach is being able to play clean and well sounding 16th notes at 120 bpm for the duration of a 4 minute song. And whenever I get to like, the second verse, my plucking hand starts to feel sloppy and gets tired.

I guess I just need to practice the tune over and over, but I could use some tips on playing fast.

[dmk2113]

Do they teach this?

I learned upright formally and taught myself electric bass... on upright you never use your third until basically past the octave harmonic... I always just did the same for electric bass.

[MasterxKenobi]

@hillerm Actually I'm an idiot, it doesn't cramp up. Haha. Came back after trying it -- good advice. My thumb is usually behind it, pointing sideways. I have a long thumb, and I'm double jointed. Basically I can bend my thumb completely backwards. It makes it a bit more comfy the other way. But I will incorporate the top of the neck as well and see if it helps me later on. :)

[MasterxKenobi]

@hillerm You rest your thumb on the top instead of behind? Sounds interesting but doesn't that cause your hand to cramp up a bit? Will try it though -- thanks for the tip!

[MasterxKenobi]

I was born with insanely long fingers. Thank you bass guitar Gods. ;P And good job on video Wolverine! I didn't know Wolvey was a bassist! That makes me like bass even more!

[terreseco]

Dave you are one sick bass player. I look forward to getting a lesson from you one day. Would love to make contact. Peace.

[M34sketosnakepit]

@Jimmy0915x And a Little of Adrew Stockdale from Wolfmother...xD

[melkoreshack]

I never knew this was a taught method. I always tried to figure out the most comfortable way to play a riff to combat hand fatigue so I bounce around quite a bit. Some fast riffs make sense to keep your hand extended like that since you are going through the pattern so fast but most don't.

[CommonKillerPriest]

very helpful