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Ok guys, I know this is rough. But here is a miniature clip of me 'playing' my Shen upright. I was listening to Digable Planets and I thought I would learn the riff, which is actually a sample from an Art Blakey tune. My apologies to all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7A1HZpy ... e=youtu.be

Sounds great, Matt. You look right at home on it too.

Have you found that your electrics feel tiny when you switch back to them?

Matt R. wrote:Ok guys, I know this is rough. But here is a miniature clip of me 'playing' my Shen upright. I was listening to Digable Planets and I thought I would learn the riff, which is actually a sample from an Art Blakey tune. My apologies to all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7A1HZpy ... e=youtu.be

You weren't joking when you said tiny! More, more!

Thanks guys. My other basses do feel small for a minute if I play them right after I practice upright, but not awkwardly so. I would liken it to a baseball player practicing swinging a bat with those metal donuts on them before they take the plate. Ha.

And by the way, I do intend to record better audio with my little Zoom Unit. The iPhone mic doesn't do the tone justice.

If anyone has any constructive advice on what I'm doing wrong in this clip, please share. I've been really trying to work on proper technique, but this is still very new to me.

as far as technique goes, I would just say try to relax your right elbow more, looks to me like you're carrying a lot of stress in it.

Bass sounds great tho!

Dude... I don't know enough to give you any advice on technique but I'll just say that was pretty frikkin' sweet... Especially for the fact that it's been all but a few weeks since you got one.

Really good job... I mean it.

Thanks fellers. I appreciate the kind words!

Matt R. wrote:If anyone has any constructive advice on what I'm doing wrong in this clip, please share. I've been really trying to work on proper technique, but this is still very new to me.

Well, hey I hope you don't mind some advice 16 months later, Matt. I guess the upright is no longer new to you. (Sorry, I'm seeing these vids for the first time)

I'm not much of a player myself, but I was taught (by a respectable teacher) some valuable lessons in technique.

The premise is to play more with the forearm, not just the wrist and fingers.

The first thing my teacher told me to do was to do was to lead with my elbow. He had me flappin' my left wing like a chicken, using the elbow on almost every note. The trick was getting the elbow back out there before striking the next note - it's easy to be lazy with it and it takes some consistent effort from the shoulder.

The next thing was to pluck the string with the fingers more aligned to the string (not perpendicular like we do with the electric). He had my index and middle finger kept together and had me wrap the index finger a little bit around the string before sounding the note (putting a lot of meat from the finger in contact with the string). Then, leading with the elbow and wrist, he taught me to "twist" the index finger around the string to sound the note.

Take a look a Ray Brown's fingers at about the 6th second of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmoIvdWJpdQ

Not only does this technique result in great projection, but (more importantly) it results in less fatigue and strain on the fingers and wrist.

I hope this helps - this is fairly different to explain in words.

now that was a tease.