Despite the fact that the typical electric bass 'only' has four strings, it poses several challenges to my coordination. Just like many other string instruments, it requires that your right and left hands do very different but related tasks. On bass, the most common technique has the right hand plucking the strings, and the proper form is to alternate between index and middle fingers when you pluck..
You might be amused to discover just how difficult that can be when you're still a novice. It's a very common struggle for novice bass players to master; most of the time you're so wrapped up in whether the left hand fingers are landing in the correct positions on the strings that you don't give much conscious thought to the right hand.
So a few months back, during a particularly rocky and uncoordinated lesson with my bass teacher, Jim felt the need to straighten me out about something.
His words of wisdom:
"Ultimately, you're the boss of your hands. Your fingers have to do what you tell them to!"
Lucky for me, I took that statement the way it was intended - humorous and...true.
I can't say that my fingers are listening to me (yet), but every now and then, when I remember to check my form while playing, those words come back to me and completely crack me up!
The humor helps take the edge off the frustration sometimes.
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