Hey Bottom Dwellers, this is my first installment of Bassic Training. I see a common problem when people are starting out and it's a habit that's hard to break , I call it run away fingers. It's when your fretboard fingers run away from the fretboard if they are not being used to hold down the string. To check if you have this problem play a C major scale starting on your A string 3rd fret. If by the time you get to your G string your finger starts rising off or ducking under your fretboard, you got run away fingers. The reason this may be a concern is that by the time you would like to play fast passages, your strumming hand will out pace your fretting hand.

There is an easy exercise to correct this problem. Play an ascending chromatic scale on one string using one finger to a fret shifting back to your first finger every 4 frets. Start with the open string and go until you run out of frets, then do the same for the next string. When doing this, make sure your fingers don't jump off or duck under your fretboard. This may be hard at first, but keep practicing it. You'll thank me in the long run.

Orin