Your left hand knows the line. You’ve got the fingerings and you know where every note is. Then you try to play it as fast as you want, and it comes out with a stutter, like you’re not really getting the notes out. So you go back and work on the left hand some more.
If you want more right hand speed on upright bass, that’s the wrong hand to blame. Speed comes from the right hand. Here’s how I think about it, and the exercises I use to build it.
Speed comes from the right hand
We’re very attentive to our left hand, because we think it all comes from the left hand. Then we’re like, wait a minute, why can’t I play this thing as fast as I want to play it? It’s because you’re not paying attention to the right. Your left hand develops faster than your right.
We always assume that speed comes from the left hand because the left hand is playing the notes, but speed actually comes from the right hand.
Cole Davis
Most left hands are good. Every time I see a bass player’s left hand, I’m like, yeah, that looks good. When a fast line has that stuttering sound, the reason isn’t your left hand. It’s that you’re only focused on the left hand and not the right.
So the work is on the right hand, and it comes down to one thing: alternating. Speed, especially in terms of playing eighth notes, comes from alternating your fingers. There are three ways I build it.
Drill 1: Alternate through a scale
Take the C major scale. I know it’s very boring, but this is really going to help you, I promise. Play it with your right hand alternating one, two, one, two, one, two. One is your first finger and two is your middle finger, and I pay special attention to start with my first finger.
Here’s a fun game: see how fast you can do it. Then see if you can do it even faster.
Drill 2: Steal the drummer’s paradiddles
Another thing I do that’s really great is drum paradiddles. You know how drummers do right, right, left, left, or left, left, right, right, or right, right, left, right? You can do that with one, two.
Call your first finger “right” and your middle finger “left.” So left, left, right, left becomes two, two, one, two. Play that pattern over and over, then try it speedy.
That one’s hard to do fast, because you have to do two, two, one, two. But with practice, you’ll develop the dexterity to alternate and use your right hand to create speed.
You can run the patterns through scales, too. Take the F major scale and play it right, right, left, left, so one, one, two, two. You’re probably thinking, wow, that’s really boring, why would I want to do that? Keep reading.
Drill 3: Choose right-hand patterns for melodies
When I’m playing a melody, I actually pay as much attention to the right hand as I do the left. As much as you’re choosing fingerings for the left hand, you also have to choose patterns for your right hand.
Take “Billie’s Bounce.” It’s a Charlie Parker song, and if you ever did high school jazz auditions, this was the most common tune. Everyone played it. I think it was a requirement. We had to play “Billie’s Bounce” for our high school audition tapes.
When I play that melody, most of the time I’m basically just alternating. But in one spot I do something that’s kind of like raking, for you electric bass players, so I can hit that note with a more precise articulation.
That isn’t set in stone. It’s just what I’m feeling today. Maybe I’ll play it with a different articulation the next time I play the song. What matters is that I made a choice for the right hand, the same way I made one for the left. Because I’m paying attention to my right hand as much as my left, I can play the melody without that stutter.
So the next time a melody won’t come out at tempo, don’t only ask which left-hand fingering you’re using. Ask what your right hand is doing, and choose a pattern for it.
Try this today: 10 minutes of right hand
Here’s the answer to “why would I want to do that.” If you do this 10 minutes a day, your speed will increase exponentially. You’ll be able to play fast before you know it.
- Pick a few major scales. I used C major and F major above.
- Alternate. Play each scale one, two, one, two, starting on your first finger.
- Add a paradiddle pattern. Run the same scales right, right, left, left (one, one, two, two), or right, right, left, right, or left, left, right, left, whatever it is.
- Play the speed game. See how fast you can do it. Then see if you can do it even faster.
- Finish with a melody. Take a tune you know, like “Billie’s Bounce,” and choose a right-hand pattern for it the same way you’d choose left-hand fingerings.
That’s speed, and that’s where speed comes from. It comes from alternating the right hand, from the dexterity and independence of the right hand more so than the left.
These drills come from my lesson in Lennie Tristano on Line Up. If you want a warmup routine to fit them into, start with The 15 Minute Warmup for Upright Bass, and when you’re ready for more upright technique, there’s The New Simandl.
Grab the C major scale tonight, start on your first finger, and give your right hand the attention you’ve been giving your left.
