The One-Finger-Per-Fret-Controversy

by Ari 22 Apr 2017 11 minute read

One-finger-per-fret or not?

Almost every week I get questions about the one-finger-per-fret system of fingering. Why am I using it and advocating for it in most playing situations? How can it help you? What about upright fingering?

Enjoy my article on notreble.com in which I go into all these questions and more, with pictures.

In this article I talk about the advantages, disadvantages and the one big enemy – tension.

I have seen a lot of confusion and misinterpretation come from one-finger-per-fret done incorrectly. Do it correctly where appropriate, make it a healthy habit, and watch its powers unfold under your finger tips when reading, improvising, grooving. Have a small hand? I have tips for you there, too. My hands are tiny, so I speak from experience.

Enjoy

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    Bassist, author, educator.

    Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

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    Hi. I'm Ari.

    As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

     

    As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

     

    One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

     

    When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

     

    That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

     

    I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

     

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