Right Hand Technique for 4-string, 5-String and 6-String Bass 

Janek, I really appreciate your videos lately - you've been covering topics that are approachable for bassists of all levels, but you're maintaining your high standard of quality AND continuing to offer your unique perspective and insights on each topic.

This was such a nice, detailed but concise overview over your technique. It seems as if you recording yourself so much really helped you be aware of what exactly it is you are doing. Some content creators seem to reiterate the usual recommendations found more or less all over the internet, but when you actually watch them perform they divert quite a bit from what they recommend. I don't see that with you. What a testament to constantly work on the basics and build from a solid foundation. Highly appreciated! Looking forward to more content of yours 🙂

This was about the right hand, but just changing the bass to the left foot on an elevated surface removed my pain from my fretting hand. Thanks, it’s great to learn the right way as a noob. Will rewatch this several times.

Great advice and great demonstration of your proposed techniques. I'm a 73 year old male and learning the bass. The most difficult challenge is being able to produce a perfectly clean note. Your video has now made me re-think my playing posture and plucking technique. Thank you!

Thanks, Janek, for this video. Muting the strings you're not playing is one of the greatest problems we must solve on the electric bass. Thank you for graciously presenting solutions here.

Hi Janek, I've been playing a four-string bass for a long time and never felt the need to move my thumb down to the D string while playing the G string, as my thumb made enough contact to mute the E string. Additionally, I had developed a method of muting the D string with my little finger. Recently, I bought a 5-string bass and have been frustrated for a couple of months because the low B would occasionally ring while I was playing the higher strings. I assumed it was due to my hands being too small to make full contact with the E string, so I purchased a fret wrap to try and fix it. This video has fixed everything! Changing the angle of my thumb and wrist has allowed me to fully mute my 5-string with ease. Thanks for your generosity and great free content, and keep up the good work!

A great video Janek! I’ve played on the left knee for many years after watching the Gary Willis instructional video during the late 90s. I’m guessing your left knee playing is due to your classical guitar background? Your statement about the term ‘floating thumb’ was interesting. I would call it ‘floating’ because the thumb for me never rests on the pickup. Regarding the raised left knee, I’ve invested in a drum stool that allows me to rest my left leg on one of the tripod feet. It’s nice not to see a fret wrap, which I consider cop out unless you’re tapping. Once again, a great video.

Just tried the elevated left knee with my 6 string and doing some hymn runs for tomorrow and right away both my wrists were looser and it gives me an easier reach across all strings. Not using it for tomorrow because my muscle memory was all thrown off, but something I will be incorporated into daily practice. Thanks for this!

Super inspiring! This is a welcome reminder that the first "effect" we use as bass players is picking hand technique. I sat down and tried combining this with the Gary Willis ring-finger-up technique - my brain was *not* ready for how much information it was getting! I can already tell that this is going to unlock a lot of possibilities in my playing.

Great video, very detailed.I would certainlty appreciate a similar detailed look at your picking techniques.I am a seated left knee player ,puts your joints in natural positions.

Thanks Janek. I've change my right hand technique because you. The results are unbelievable good! Greatings from Poland.

I used to play my 6 strings with my thumb floating over the strings. It's been a long time since I had a bass teacher, and I recently decided to take a few lessons to help me with a technique I was trying to learn. The teacher immediately noticed that I was not anchoring my thumb and resting my forearm on the body of the bass. I would never have thought about working on this if I had not met this teacher. It really helped me getting better with some things I struggled with. I also noticed that it was easier to achor the thumb on my bass with a wider strings spacing. My main bass has a very narrow spacing (14mm), so I came back to my old bass (16,5mm) for the moment, until I really get this technique sorted out.

Doing a lot of studio work I’m pretty obsessed with muting, especially extended range basses. I have used the “floating thumb “ most of the time but it never feels natural to me and sometimes I lose the position when playing large intervals anyway. Been looking to fix this. Love your idea of anchoring the thumb, it’s just simpler and I can probably get it into my muscle memory pretty fast. This is a great video that newer players should really prioritize,imo. Get the right muscle memory early on.

Back in music college I did suffer from strin in my right and left hand. However I found your videos and changed my right hand technique. It took a good month or so to get used to, but boy was it worth it.

Double Reverse P. Incredibly underrated setup. ❤

Hey Janek! Would be up for doing a stand alone video on that gorgeous 6 string? Looks and sounds incredible I’d love to see all of its details!

I got my first multi scale bass and oh boy I did not think about my muting technique needing an overhaul for it 😅

As always, your instructions and passion for music is infectious. I’ve become more polished and my endurance for playing has gone up with a similar technique. Sometimes, I’ll put a small stool or wooden block under my left foot to raise my leg in a more comfortable position too. Thanks again and Happy Easter buddy!! Blessings.

Dude thank you, I had just been working on this and getting frustrated I couldn’t execute what I heard in my head. This helped out man! Cheers 👍

Thanks Janek! I started doing this a couple months ago because I felt I had more control. Glad to see I am in the right track.

Great video. Appreciate you sharing. One to watch a couple times.

Always thankful to Janek for... legitimizing my technique! ;)

Excellent!!!! This is exactly what I need to GRADUALLY incorporate into my practice routine!!! Thank you sooooo much for posting this video!!!

tempted with picking the bass up again after many, many years. was barely a noob then and there's so much to learn.

great stuff ! thanks for the knowledge

In fact as a righty like you I’m both knees: for anything jazz I use the left knee with a foot stool too, but for soul funk with slap, it’s more convenient for me to switch to the regular right knee posture. Anyways, it’s ALWAYS flat wrist with floating thumb most of the time, I ended up with a cramp in my right arm in a 2 sets/3 hours blues gig, yep… only blues. So I worked hard for 6 months or so to get the flat wrist floating thumb technique spot on and natural. Worth the effort, everything got better, my stamina, my technique, my sound, my precision when having to speed up my solo on bop gigs. Anchored or floating thumb, I use both, anchored for octaves (disco funk blues), I think that mixing muting techniques while keeping a flat wrist at the same time is valuable.

I watch this brilliant tutorage and I think, 'I don't listen to enough of JG's music!'

a few things i noticed: you're one of these guys with a freakishly flexible thumb. look how much it is able to bend. mine looks straight no matter how hard i try to curve it. this means that i don't have as good of an anchor point. i still do anchor, but when i play the G string on a 5-string, my thumb is kind of more the floating variety with a light anchor point. also, it was weird getting used to holding my thumb against the B string when switching from 4-string to 5-string. On a 4-string you can just anchor on the E and A strings and be good. On a 5-string you have to hold the top part of your thumb against the B string, which feels weird at first. This also forced me to pull my arm off of the top of the bass a lot of the time. To get used to this you have to build up your shoulder strength/stamina. I stretch my shoulder, especially if it starts barking at me when I'm playing and it helps a lot with not needing to rest it on the top of the bass. True floating thumb guys don't really rest on the bass at all from what I've seen and they don't really anchor. They just slide the entire thumb along the strings up and down.

I play five string primarily. I use my pinky to mute up and down and set my thumb on b or pickup . But i will give this a try for sure.. truly enjoy the content.. thank you Janek..

This is a great tip that I wish I'd heard earlier in my bass playing journey. Do you find the left knee playing position difficult with a jazz bass? I mainly play a jazz bass, and I've always found the body shape too big to sit comfortably with it on my left knee.

Good ideas here!

Thanks janek. I’ve been playing around 20 years and had a whole load of techniques, never had an injury but have always been very conscious of bent wrists on both hands. I’m trying to adopt a lighter touch with floating thumb lately to try and increase my stamina/speed . By floating thumb I’m more where the side of my thumb is resting on the strings to mute when not playing but not necessarily anchoring it. Think I’m seeing some progress as you know it takes a while before it starts to become natural.

Thanks for the great video, haven't been playing for long but have been using more of a "hanging wrist" technique. Going to work towards a technique more akin to your suggestion as I am noticing so discomfort in my hand and wrist when I play. It's probably a sign to adjust before it becomes something serious.

Nice! :) Thanks!

This video (and the other last week "Sight reading for Bass") couldn't be coming out at a better time as I'm rekindling with the instrument after a long hiatus. Clear, concise, well produced video presenting your picking hand approach, all clearly explained with the associated rationale and benefits. Can't ask for more... I will certainly give those a slow and patient try out! How do you handle muting on descending runs, fretting hand taking care of business? For fast octave lines between two non-adjacent strings (à la funk or disco), what would be your approach with your thumb anchoring? Thanks for putting out such great content!

Спасибо Яник, было очень интересно!

Classic bass playing position works best for people primary using the "CASH REGISTERS" like Justin Raines, but it is a bit hard to play solo on high note registers

Great video! ❤I haven’t been playing the bass for very long, but while putting it on the left knee put my right hand in a better position, it feels a bit awkward for the left hand in the lowest register. I have to experiment with it for awhile I guess.

More technic video please janek

Been away from the bass for a while and I need to brush up on this in particular. Maybe it's a good time to reset and try a different, healthier posture.

It took me about a month by practising using the right leg position, and about two months with my muting technique. Thank you for all your awesome videos Janek. Would there be any chance on your next gig/tour that you could record a live video of your trio playing live.

Hey Janek, nice video, any chances on getting a left hand technique video?

I’ve heard the technique called ‘floating anchor’ or ‘moveable anchor’

Such a great video. I know you dont typically play with a pick but how can we mute effectively when using a pick? I find I end up trying to do some weird palm mute thing

Please do a follow-up video explaining that with your RH technique is supinated and uses the right (outside) part of the fingers, and is basically opposite that of upright bass where your hand is pronated to use the left (inside) part of the fingers. Does that make sense?

Thanks for another great Saturday morning lesson. Even though I'm already aware of the content that you covered, I still gained deeper insight into the concepts. I was personally never introduced to muting when I began playing and instinctively learned to use my fretting hand to do most of the work and my picking hand to cover the other areas. When I was introduced to picking-hand thumb muting it opened up a whole new level of play. It was shown to me as the 'floating' technique, and it has become so ingrained in my playing that I have to make a conscious and awkward effort to not use it. My thumb doesn't float way off to the side, but rather sticks pretty closely to my index finger. As you describe the anchoring technique to be of greater value for you and floating to be clumsy and less useful, I submit that having hitchhiker's thumb potentially plays a big role in that difference. I have zero hitchhiker's thumb and find the anchoring technique to be barely doable and significantly less efficient than floating. I can do a 'halfway-between' technique where I anchor very slightly while floating, but find it very difficult to anchor with the kind of firmness and precision that you demonstrate here. The laws of the YT comments section will no doubt dictate that there will be at least someone who chimes in to contradict me, and so be it, but my personal experience is that having a straight thumb means that full-on anchoring as shown here is an impractical technique which is best improved via floating. Cheers!

I do this and rest strokes and I'm not sure which is better because different people say different things. Right now I'm using rest strokes resting on the B but I was using floating thumb.

I went from a 4 string to a 6 and had to change my rh technique to the floating thumb in front of the index and middle plucking fingers to effectively mute the low b and the e string. It was a bit awkward at first but it's a technique that I've found myself using on the 4 string without thinking about it now too. Its a better way to improve speed when crossing strings for sure. I've had a go using your rh style, Janek, with the thumb and plucking fingers kind of pinching togethe over the stings. You make the muting and articulation sound and look effortless. I struggle with not having hitchhiker thumb-ish and watching your rh you do make some use of that, so it doesn't translate so well for me. Having said that, I did use examples of your playing on other videos as a reference to changing from a 4 to a 6 string bass. As you say, I looked at how you play and took from it what felt right to me. I do think being able to palm mute with the rh and pluck with fingers and thumb is something I ought to learn how to be more comfortable with as it lends itself better to more dynamic playing. Ha! You make it look easy 😅 Great video on this, showing the varied ways of string muting, even the methods you don't use your self 👍

Great lesson and technique focus. Does your bass sit at the same place with and without a strap? When you have the strap on and sit, does your bass rest on your knee? Seems like I've seen videos of you sitting using a strap, maybe that's when you don't have a foot rest? Thanks.

Go!

Perfect timing, just past week I was checking your two older videos about right hand to avoid my Marcus angle style, tried to apply and to my surprise the adaptation was immediate. Now I just have to figure out how to deal with the tone difference. Feels more spongier with less attack than before, not sure if some callus still need to develop. Any tips on that?

Great vid! I can never get comfortable on the left knee, mostly when I’m playing in the lower positions. My torso also twists while I’m playing this way. It looks very ergonomic when you do it, and seems very good for right hand technique (which I’ve had issues with). Do you think that the left knee style just doesn’t work for me? Or should I keep trying until it’s comfortable?

Thanks for making this! Have you tried using a cushion on your left leg?

I have my bass strap adjusted so that my bass stays at the same place on my body no matter if I'm sitting or standing. That gives me one less thing to worry about.

I struggle with this technique. I think because my thumb does not bend back at all. So I can never get comfortable placing it on the strings. I usually just keep my finger on the bottom string. Been trying to stretch myself by learning new techniques but this one is difficult. Do you have thoughts for people with weird thumbs like me?

Excellent content. Just asking, more than obvious I guess you play seated for the comfort, hands positions etc. any other reasons why?

I'm going to switch back to your approach unless I'm playing a really fast descending pattern across all strings

I have been super curious about your over-left-knee technique because I have right forearm pain. I have tried it with a couple basses but I find that the basses want to tip away from or toward my torso. one way or the other. How do you keep the bass vertically stable? Is it uncomfortable for your left hand to play by the nut for an extended period of time? Very grateful that you are addressing this topic because I have a hard time playing pain-free.

...and what about the first 5-6 frets? You didn't touched them with the left leg position :) The floating thumb is a really good technique 👍🏻

I noticed that when you are talking about your thumb resting on the string below what you’re playing, when you are going through the chromatic thing at the beginning, your thumb actually floats when playing the E string instead of landing on the pickup. Is that something just subconscious that you do? I have tried to use the floating thumb more as kind of a dragging mute as I go up the strings instead of just the string below, just curious if that’s something you do as well

what about the lowest notes? that looks like it must be a stretch, it looks like you’re mostly playing above the seventh fret…. maybe that’s most natural for your music?

Even though your right wrist is straight, your lower frets end up being quite far and your left wrist seem to bend quite a lot when playing on the lower registry of the instrument.

Also do you ever feel like your bass is trying to dive over your left leg in your seated position?

❤

What are your thoughts on fret wraps for muting ?

But you also use your thumb to play, which is something I need to learn as well. If you play root, octave would that be thumb and middlefinger instead of index- and middlefinger....? 🤔

What about mostly pick players?

Does your back ache at all sitting up like that, with it over your left knee?🤔

Janek, why do we see your beautiful F-bass so rarely... ????

How dosent your left legg fall asleep when you sitt like that? I gave it a shot, but i felt like my leg fell asleep

I alway find the dinosaur hand very painfull to look at, so as flat as possible for me.