Mark needs to transfer all of his old videos into a blue background before he dies. I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW MUCH BETTER THIS IS FOR MY EYES. I can actually focus on mark’s hands with this. Who’s with me?
As a professional saxophone player, former band director who is now studying electric bass (1969 P-Bass) I find you are one of the very best and thorough instructors I’ve come across. Thank you for your patience and clear understanding of how to communicate. Nick P.
Nice exercise, thank you.. My wife just asked what video i was looking at, when i said it was about the “ Best finger exercise she started to a bit suspicious…. 😂🤣
I killed flying fingers in like 10 minutes . I took my time and played "thriller" slowly making sure every time I used my pinky, rhe other 3 fingers were also on the string . It was hard at first but after a few minutes, it became easy and now I have no flying finger issues at all. Pretty cool.
Great exercise. You can use to improve musicianship by naming the notes while playing them. I do it in my head when I do a similar exercise for warm up.
Thank you Mark for a nice exercise to obsess on. No flappy hand for me. I also wanted to thank you for your video of the Bach G Major Prelude. Inspired me to learn the piece. I got it just about ready, I'll be posting it when it's there!
Glad I found this exercise in your previous video when I was first starting on bass. Super helpful to build the small hand muscles needed. I like doing this exercise going from 1st fret to the 9th fret, to work on my hand stretches along with strength.
Nice one I started to do a very similar one a few weeks ago, I do it as a warmup when I’m practicing or playing outside and overall everything just feel much better.
I did not know that you are located on the Isle Of Wight. I have a good friend who lived there, Mr. Charles Bawden. He was a Headmaster of a school there.
This is like bel canto vocal exercies... for bass! Nice, easy to remember progression, and then repeat w/ hammer-ons?! Brilliant, part of my warm-up routine now. Using this for cello practice, too. Works just as well. :D Thank you!
hello Marc, i am very happy with your website and your videos. i would like to thank you for the hard work you do again and again to surprise your fans with educational exercises that are still fun. really great. thanks. PS and on your website i can not leave compliments because on the website i can not leave anything.
Thanks Mark, still the best bass exercises on youtube in my opinion. Really appreciate it. Are there good exercises for improving timing apart from practising with a metronome? Recording myself helped me realise that I was not perfectly in time (I could visually see the time difference between the beat and me in an audio interface). The chorus of "If you have to ask" by the Chili Peppers is strangely hard to play with perfect timing.
Hello Mark, thanks for the great content. I should also mention that the blue background looks much better. I have a question regarding the curled fingers: this technique does not allow any fretting hand muting. So, how do we mute the higher strings? Or is fretting hand muting not the scope of this exercise?
This is one of those great "simple" exercises that are super helpful if applied regularly. You can also do this same exercise in the reverse order as a descending pattern. 1. Pinky to ring finger (4-3) 2. Pinky to middle finger (4-2) 3. Pinky to index finger (4-1) 4. Ring finger to middle finger (3-2) 5. Ring finger to index finger (3-1) 6. Middle finger to index finger (2-1) Then, in place of hammer ons, you can use pull offs. Combining this with Mark's original exercise gives you every combination and permutation of a 2 finger control exercise.
@@DON112751 Use the underside of the fingers in the left hand for strings higher than the one you play (D and G string) and also use the thumb of the right hand for strings below.
I've played on stage many times,but for some reason when ever I try and record myself, my fingers get twisted! Practice 👍🏼, Record 👎🏼...kinda effects my channel! Lol
Can I also suggest something? So instead of just using fingers 1&2 in the plucking hand all the time.... How about using 2&3 / 3&4 then 1&3 / 1&4 then 2&4???? So something like this: *** EXERCISE ONE *** FRETTING HAND = Fingers 1 & 2 (for frets 5 & 6) Along with: i. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 2 (up to fret 9 then back) >>> Repeat Exercise One but this time with >>> ii. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 2 & 3 (up to fret 9 then back) iii. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 3 & 4 etc... iv. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 3 etc... v. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 4 etc... vi. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 2 & 4 etc... *** EXERCISE TWO *** FRETTING HAND = Fingers 1 & 3 (for frets 5 & 7) Along with: i. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 2 (up to fret 9 then back) >>> Repeat Exercise Two but this time with >>> ii. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 2 & 3 (up to fret 9 then back) iii. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 3 & 4 etc... iv. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 3 etc... v. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 1 & 4 etc... vi. PLUCKING HAND = Fingers 2 & 4 etc... I've been practising this and it's quite interesting!! Obviously not to everyone's taste but for those who pluck with 3 or more fingers it might be quite helpful😁 What say you??? 😊
As someone with small hands and a short pinky. My pinky won't reach the E string when performing exercises that use all 4 fingers. I have to substitute my ring finger as the "fourth" finger or the "4". The only way I can reach the E string would be to bring my thumb over the fretboard...and I know that it's not okay to do so. Is it OK to use the ring finger (3) to substitute as my number "4"? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you! :)
@@rodoherty1 I do 5 string videos from time to time but the bulk of bass players use 4 string. I like to only use 5 for 5 string specific vids otherwise beginners can get a little confused. But I will have more 5 string videos coming up.
