Vertical Navigation in Supportive Fingering for Composite Chordophones
From “Tutorial¨ by The Bass Handbook
[…] leave all your fingers in position on the E-string except the one that is moving across the to fret a note on the A-string. Remember to take it gently, have patience. […] Carry on across the strings until you end up on your G-string (or C-string for six-stringers). Remember, its easy to cheat on these exercises by lifting the fingers that should be held down. That would not be supportive fingering, and would defeat the whole point […].
This passage describes how to navigate the fretboard vertically, i.e. how to find a note across a single fret, while using supportive fingering. As described above, the following describes the conventions for such vertical navigation (Ashton 2005, 131):
- Have most fingers laying or barely hovering over the E string or B string (for background, refer to 20240831190951-Musical_Alphabet)
- Have a finger nearest to the note one wishes to get to travel across the fret to that string, while those other fingers are kept where they are
supportive_fingering composite_chordophone chordophone_strings composite_chordophone_frets chordophone_position_markers fingering plucked_string_instrument_frets strummed_string_instrument_frets music musicology bass bass_guitar notes musical_note strings string_instrument chordophone chordophones fingering
bibliography
- Morrish, John, ed. “Tutorial.” In The Bass Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering the Bass Guitar, 1st ed., 121–238. San Francisco, CA: BackBeat, 2005.