4B. Position Playing And The Close Position

"Can't Get Enough" detail 2

The bass line of "Can’t Get Enough" includes a few difficult parts like this one:

The index finger is hopping from string to string in this passage. Always at fret 3, it fingers the C on the A string, the G on the E string, and finally the F on the D string. This is called position playing: each finger covers a fret, and the index finger determines the position. In the passage above you’re playing in the third position, i.e. your middle finger covers fret 4 while your ring and fourth fingers cover frets 5 and 6 respectively.

The line below is a variation of the passage above. The F is fretted by the middle finger:

This is a close position with two fingers covering a single fret as opposed to the normal or wide position where the fingers cover one fret each. Close positions facilitate fluent playing by reducing the amount of string hopping.

In the close position the fretting fingers cover three frets only, and the ring and fourth fingers move forward one fret. The close position should be used only temporarily, and the bass line permitting you should always revert to the wide position again. Moving from a close position to the normal position and vice versa involves fret-hand stretching and contracting. Practice these motions with the exercise below:

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