Finger exercises (concentration on speed)

rk.cu.000

What kind of exercises can I use to build up finger speed? I'm referring to both exercises involving use of the bass guitar as well as not involving the instrument.

Neil Gray · Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:16 am Post subject:

Scales. They serve many purposes...
Firstly, they give you a good musical foundation, which never goes astray.

Secondly, they give you, when fingered properly, great dexterity (speed and accuracy) across the fretboard.

As for playing for fun, I tend to take whatever I am playing at the time, whether it's slow, fast, country, funk, blues... whatever, and I will change the style, speed, fingering, time and key sigs... anything and everything.
This again gives you more scope to play from whilst improving stamina and strength in your hand.

At the end of the day, JUST PLAYING is the only thing that will condition you to playing bass faster, better, and with more accuracy.

I am also a Judo instructor, and I can say from experience that working out your wrists will give you great stamina for bass. Working out your fingers will help beyond your imaginings...

How do you work out your wrists and fingers???

1) Squeeze a tennis ball. Not just once, but for an entire movie. Do this every day, and you'll be capable of running marathons with your fingers, and you'll be able to remove entire walls with your wrists!

2) If you can, get some netting. String it up, and 'grapple' it (grab it like you would grab a man's shirt). Ideally, you should do this cleanly, without your fingers actually touching the netting... just your palm. This helps with control, and will improve your finger strength.

3) Grab a barbell and put A LITTLE BIT of weight on it. Rest it in front of a flat bench. Sit on said flat bench with your forearms in between your legs and your wrists hanging over the edge of the bench. Grab the barbell, and gently roll the weight from resting on your fingertips (down) into a 'curl' position, where your fists end up 90 degrees from your forearm (up). Do this 12 times followed by a 30 second rest, then do it again. Repeat this 3 times.
You need to use a weight that is light, because if you use too heavy a weight, you will not be able to use your hands for two or three days! The wrist and forearms are small muscle groups, and don't take too much to build.

With these strengthening exercises, it's important to keep flexibility and stretching as a priority, otherwise you are likely to build muscle that won't yield to moving. There's nothing worse than being strong only to find that you can't use the muscle for anything. You'll know if you're inflexible when you go to pick up your bass and find that it's heavy, even though your forearms and wrists are bulging with muscle and veins!!! That means that your muscle only works within a certain range of movement, and anything outside that range stresses the muscle instead of stimulates it.

Good luck. Let us know how you go.

Here endeth the sermon.
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rk.cu.000 · Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:13 am Post subject: Scales..

Thanks for the extensive info, appreciate it. You mentioned scales as a valuable tool for improving finger strength and speed as well as strengthening your musical foundation. I'd like to know if there is any online resource which I can use to learn scales. I was planning to take guitar lessons for a couple of months but am broke so that plan went out the window. Which leads me to another question. What advice do you have to give to a broke college student who desperately needs to buy a bass guitar? I will probably be able to assemble the funds for a 2nd hand bass. Would this be a good idea or a bad one? I know that this question is completely unrelated to my previous one, but would greatly appreciate it if you could help me out as my knowledge of bass guitars is satisfactory at best.
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George Urbaszek

Hello
This web page has a lesson on speed training. It uses a scale as an example and gets you playing at four times the speed within a minute:
http://www.lesson.standaid.biz
Bass of Luck!
George Urbaszek
Australia

rk.cu.000 · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 12:15 pm Post subject: Scales..

Neil, I decided to take your advice and practiced a whole bunch of scales... definitely a good way to go about things. Besides increasing finger speed and dexterity, just playing a bunch of scales for an hour increases your understanding and comfort level with the fretboard and its patterns like no other exercise does. Great for confidence too. Would definitely recommend playing scales to anyone looking to build up any of the above. And thanks George for the link..
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