I'm not sure if anyone other than Greg can answer this, but I'm asking here so that:

a) Others can chip in if they have ideas.
and
b) Others with the same thought, now or in the future, can see the answer(s).

I don't think it's been asked or answered specifically before?

I'm just embarking on "The Stick Book". Since that pre-dates "The Great Unified 3-Fingered Bass Strategy" (TGU3FBS) it quickly introduces exercises using 4 fingers on the bass side.

Is there any updated guidance on how to treat those Left Hand pinky(finger 4) exercises in light of TGU3FBS?

Do them anyway? Skip them? Adapt to use ring(finger 3) instead?

Righto, Dave!

The fingering changes quite a bit for those exercises on page 2-4 and also 3-9.

Generally, here's how to finger the scales:

If you're playing 4 notes on the first string of the scale it's: 1-2-1-3 1-2-1-3

If you're playing three notes on the 1st string of the scale it's 1-2-3 1-2-1-3 1
(If you want to practice the skip, then use 2-1-3 for the 1st string)

If you're playing two notes it's 1-3 1-2-1-3 1-2

For the G Major stretch,
3-1-3 2-1-2 3-1-2 3-2-1 3-1-2 3-1-3 1-3-1 3

For the Blues on 3-8 you basically substitute the 3rd finger for the 4th, sometimes the 2nd for the 3rd as in the 4th note of bar four in the D Blues.

At some point I will revise that book, but there is much to do!

Hope that helps

Super response Greg. Thank you

Understood. With a little help from a white ''correction pen'' & a fine black 'gel' pen those exercises now have ammended finger symbols in my copy.


Understood. 2 for 3 where the 3 was previoulsy followed by 4 (which has become 3).

For the 'Bass Warmup' on page 2-4, I redrafted the bars using 4 as follows
4-3 => 3-2
4-2 => 3-2
2-4 => 2-3

and for 'Bass "Stretch"' on the same page I chaged each 4 to a 3, plus a couple of 3's changed to 2 as per the Blues above.


And, as I recall you mentioning somewhere (Maybe on Bob Culbertson's Zoom?) the economics of publishing for the Stick are an 'interesting' challenge (small market using a range of tunings).

The changes you describe are straight forward & easy to apply. I vote you concentrate on other tuning editions for 'Tapping into Bach'.


Spot on as usual. Thanks again:)