Thumb Position Technique Basics

This video is the tenth in a series of jazz instructional videos featuring Chris Fitzgerald, assistant professor of music theory and jazz bass at the University of Louisville School of Music. This installment covers a number of issues related to thumb position technique. Each topic is indexed by a video time marker below for ease of reference. Future installments will cover various topics including an ongoing series of videos on walking bass line construction,advanced thumb position topics, tune learning strategy, melodic soloing, and more. For more information and bass-related content including articles, sound files, and videos, please visit chrisfitzgeraldmusic.com .

Due to the length of this video (44 minutes), it has been indexed on screen by topic so that specific topics can be more easily found. Clicking on the time code beside each indexed topic below will automatically start the video at that point. The sequence of events topics in the video is as follows:

0:00 Thumb Position Playing Example
3:06 Introduction
4:04 Definition of Thumb Position
6:10 Why Thumb Position is Useful
9:16 Thumb Placement on the String
13:06 Developing the Thumb Callus
14:49 Locked Thumb and Leverage
21:01 Chromatic Position
24:14 Finger Shape: Curved vs. Collapsed
28:38 Disclaimer
30:14 Fixed Position vs. Free/Vibrato Position
40:00 Conclusion and Bb Scale
43:08 Outtro