My take on Right Hand Technique

by Ari • 1 Aug 2019 — 1 minute read

Floating thumb? Three-finger Gary-Willis style? Raking? Pumping eighths?

The right-hand does not only pose several opportunities for sound variations, but it is also crucial in relieving the left hand from overgripping and plays a vital role in the overall set up to reduce tension and allow the music to flow.

So, this is an important video because you will:

Learn about the three points of contact and control
Realize how to take a load off the left hand
Understand when it is okay to bend your wrist
Optimize your speed and acuity by using the best angle and finger positioning

This video is the best preparation for my upcoming Talking Technique (#64) called “The Alternator” – a twister of a drill if there ever was one. Can you play the entire drill while keeping your fingers alternating throughout? It’s a blues of sorts and it will get your right hand sorted!

And here is “the Alternator” exercise – Grab the PDF here

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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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