[grahamstoney]

Hi Bass-lovers,

I've posted before about my frustrations with the many errors in Yousician's fingering on all instruments; but I'm noticing a pattern on the Bass that's making me wonder if some of these fingerings are deliberate. The early video instruction on the Bass path talks about the One Finger Per Fret rule, which implies that if you're moving to a note on the same fret as the last note but a different string, you wouldn't move your hand and you'd use the same finger, like moving from a D on string 3 to A on string 4. But here's the fingering at the start of Lazy John, which changes fingers making this move:



It changes from finger 4 to finger 3. It makes more sense to me to play both the D and the A with finger 3, in accordance with the One Finger Per Fret Rule. But I notice this kind of thing a lot on the more complex songs which makes me wonder if a real bass player would actually do this? If so, it would be good to have a video explaining it!

Any comments from experienced bass players?

Cheers,
Graham

[RedHotFuzz]

I was just about to post how frustrated I am by Yousician's bass fingerings when I saw your post. I'm not a pro bass player (hence the fact I'm using Yousician), but I did take formal lessons for about a year-and-a-half. I was also taught the one-finger-per-fret rule. I assume that's a common, foundational approach. Yet Yousician tends to veer from it wildly, and then back again. Sometimes it will follow the rule. Then it will have you skip a finger when only moving up one fret. Then it will have you switch fingers while playing the same fret but dropping strings. If I play 10th fret 3rd string, then 10th fret 2nd string, then 10th fret 1st string in sequence, I should be using the same finger. Yet Yousician is telling me to use 3 fingers. Talk about inefficient, especially on the small 10th fret. There's no room that far up the fretboard to be juggling fingers on the same fret while dropping strings.

They really need to stick with the one-finger-per-fret rule and the basic concept of moving the same hand position up and down the keyboard. I feel like trying to follow Yousician's fingering is making me a worse bass player, not a better one.

I don't know if an actually bass player tests these fingerings before Yousician releases these songs, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

[Jiiri]

One feature I've suggested and I wish they'd implement is an option video of just both of a professional bassist's hands playing every song. doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to implement, and it would allow me to see how a song is played when I'm having a technique issue that the video lessons don't cover.

[kyrosteinius]

Hi,

I do not have an great experience but I think you miss the point.
There is no best way to play an instrument.
You move between differents techniques depending on what you play.

Regards,

Julien

[grahamstoney]

There is no best way to play an instrument.
You move between different techniques depending on what you play.

I take your point that how you play can depend on what you play, and I'd like Yousician to teach what good bass players actually do.

But in the cases I'm talking about the fingering suggested by Yousician in the songs is violating the One Finger Per Fret rule that Yousician teaches in the videos. If there are cases where it's best to deviate from that rule, which appears to be the case on the more complex songs, it would be good to have a video explaining that so that we could learn when and how to use the different technique required depending on what we play.

The problem at the moment is that I can't tell if Yousician is suggesting a different technique, or if the fingering suggestions really are in error.

Cheers,
Graham

[RedHotFuzz]

This issue is continuing to DRIVE ME INSANE!!! It's not gotten better over time. Seriously, it's almost to the point I feel Yousician is useless to me and I should stop investing $$$ in it. One-finger-per-fret isn't a commandment from God, but it is standard bass gospel that every new bass player should be learning. But Yousician exercises and songs CONSTANTLY violate the rule in some of the most absurd ways possible. They want you to switch fingers when going up or down a string DESPITE STAYING ON THE SAME FRET. They want you to use finger 4 for a note that is only two frets away from the note you just played with finger 1. They'll switch fingering patterns/positions on you when a portion of a riff repeats. It's just so frustrating. I wish I could just turn the colors off entirely if they aren't going to keep their fingering consistent with the one-finger-per-fret principle they teach at the beginning. Do they have real, actual people play these songs on the bass to review the fingering before approval or do they rely completely on algorithms to do it for them? Do they even care if it's fundamentally correct???

[pktracey]

I understand it can be frustrating if, say, you are playing a yellow note on the first fret of the first string and then you see a magenta note and your brain immediately goes for the 4th fret without registering the number, which might be a 3.

In a way, I think it's a happy accident that some of the fingerings break the "rule" because your brain is relying too much on the colors to choose which note comes next.