Upright vs. Electric Bass: An Educator’s Guide

Two of the greatest bass players on the planet, John Patitucci and Linda May Han Oh, share stories and strategies to help students and teachers navigate the electric-acoustic divide. Plus: Gear advice and accessories picks.

For bassists, life typically begins in one of two ways: on upright, through school orchestra programs, or on electric, at home. Each of those instruments and pathways offers more than enough challenges for a lifetime, yet there’s often a natural interest in pursuing both. Making that commitment is the start of a journey like no other, and John Patitucci and Linda May Han Oh know that better than most.

Patitucci, best known for lengthy associations with jazz icons like Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter, extensive studio work and numerous leader dates, is considered a touchstone in this area. And Oh, who’s come to prominence through her forward-thinking albums and fruitful associations with guitarist Pat Metheny, pianist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Dave Douglas, among others, is a model in this category as well.

Each took time away from their busy schedules to discuss the best strategies for navigating the acoustic-electric divide. Patitucci was just coming off a stint with pianist Jon Cowherd at the Village Vanguard and prepping for the February 2025 arrival of his new album, Spirit Fall, featuring Chris Potter and Brian Blade. Oh, also on the move, had recently completed dates with Iyer’s ECM Records trio, and was readying the release of “Optical Illusions,” with vocalist Michael Mayo, a charity single she wrote for the victims of gun violence.

Electric Origins, Acoustic Developments

Patitucci, 65, grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and started on guitar, inspired by his older brother. But things didn’t click with that instrument: “I’m left-handed, my guitar was right-handed, and with a pick in my hand it all felt very uncomfortable,” he explains. His brother suggested electric bass, and Patitucci found his fit at age 10. “I thought it was amazing, seeing that as soon as I held it I could use my fingers on my right hand. It felt more connected and it was just more natural for me.” Largely an ear player at first, he was drawn to the music of Motown and other radio staples of the day.

Oh, 40, was raised on the opposite side of the world, in Western Australia, and started out as a woodwind player. But a fascination with Flea, Jaco Pastorius and James Jamerson eventually led her to electric bass. Much like Patitucci, formal training wasn’t really a consideration at first: “I was just playing along with records and jamming with friends in high school,” she says. “I didn’t really think so much about what challenges were there. I did shed a lot of things—some of the slap things from Flea and some general technique—but I was just trying to emulate what I heard on the records.”

Both musicians would go on to take up the double bass, find inspiration in the swinging art of Ray Brown, and pursue classical studies in college. And both quickly came to the realization that upright is a different animal.

“All of a sudden, the physicality of the acoustic bass was really sobering,” Patitucci shares with a laugh. “I couldn’t get around the same way I did on the electric. The electric was like a race car, but the acoustic bass was like a semi. So I had to really knuckle down and practice a lot of scales and arpeggios.” For three years, Patitucci immersed himself in intense studies of fundamentals, etudes and the sort of repertoire staples favored by solo-bass giant Gary Karr—Bloch, Eccles and more. In the end, this period gave him the technique he needed to pursue his many and varied passions.

Oh also found herself digging in on double bass. “It required a lot of slow technique work, especially in my left hand, just to build endurance on the instrument,” she notes. “It’s a very different thing. Pizzicato requires a bit more of a big arm movement, which is something that takes work to develop when you move to upright. On electric bass I feel like you need to be a lot more precise with rhythm and groove, in the sense that you can hear everything so immediately with the way that the attack happens. You can sustain the note for way longer [on electric] too. On the upright, you have more of a natural decay and less control over how long you can sustain the note, so that’s something to contend with.

“Upright bass requires more stamina and time to really get the intonation there,” she continues. To get a handle on intonation, Oh advises anyone making the transition to upright to have a strong left-hand focus on the fundamental spacing of fingers. Getting comfortable with the varying thickness of the neck of the double bass is also essential, as is learning to gauge the distance to where the instrument’s neck meets its body.

Oh on Third-Finger Strength & Muting

Both bassists currently serve on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music, where they frequently help students who are new to doubling on electric and upright. They also work with students who are facing unique challenges on either instrument. Oh, citing the difficulties she sees in double-bass students crossing over to electric, notes the “importance of working on the strength of all of the fingers”:

The use of the third finger is a big one. A lot of upright players use a system where it’s a fingering of one, two, four, and you don’t really use the third finger up until around thumb position. As a result, when I see double bassists transferring to electric bass, the third finger is often quite weak. So we do a lot of drills using the third finger, doing hammer-ons and pull-offs with the third and fourth fingers—bebop heads like “Donna Lee,” and just developing exercises to work that out.

On top of that there’s dealing with the third and fourth fingers as they relate to playing fourths. So, for example, when you’re playing G and C on the electric bass, you might want to use your third finger on the G and your fourth finger on the C, which you probably wouldn’t do on upright bass. So it’s just trying to incorporate those sorts of exercises to make sure you are developing your third finger. 

Muting is another focal point of Oh’s electric teachings:

On upright, most of my students, and myself, have the thumb on the back of the [neck] and have one or two fingers plucking the strings with the side of the finger. That positioning creates an L shape that wraps around the fingerboard to create a natural mute of the lower strings on acoustic. That’s not so on electric, so you need to think about whether you’re going to mute with your thumb—[what is called] the floating thumb idea—or do it Jaco Pastorius-style, using the fourth and third finger for the E and the A.

Patitucci’s Art of Vibrato

Patitucci firmly believes that both electric and acoustic bass are serious disciplines that require focused attention. But he’s also quick to note “the benefits in cross-pollination,” as he puts it. One of the crucial topics he discussed is vibrato.

I had a student come to a lesson who’s exclusively an electric player. He writes some nice music and had this beautiful melody he was trying to play. But he didn’t really know how to use vibrato. I’m very acquainted with vibrato from my double-bass playing with a bow. So I was trying to help him learn how to use vibrato on electric, which I learned from my brother, who was a classical guitar major in college. There’s a way to use vibrato and change speeds—you push the string into the fingerboard and then you move it around from side to side.

But if you’re not used to doing that—if you only play electric bass—sometimes you’re pulling the string up and down. [That bends the pitch,] but that’s not the same as vibrato. Also, vibrato has many speeds and you can do a lot of things there, like hitting the note straight and then warming it up with vibrato. I learned all of this from playing classical bass, and also playing electric bass while being taught by somebody who played classical guitar.

Buying Into Bass

Today, Patitucci and Oh are gear gurus. But they’re quick to note that they started as beginners on student-level electrics, upgrading as their education and careers evolved. (Patitucci’s first quality instrument was a 1972 Fender Mustang, recently refurbished.) Their advice to students—and to educators whose students need equipment guidance—is that gear ultimately comes down to what’s practical. Oh in particular stresses the personalized nature of these decisions: “Everybody’s different. Everyone comes in different shapes and sizes as well. So what works for some people may not work for others.”

Patitucci, a longtime Yamaha artist, explains that it’s relatively easy and affordable to start on electric bass. “There are a lot of entry-level instruments that Yamaha has that are solid and really well made,” he says. “And there are a lot of other makers with nice instruments at a good price point. So there’s no reason why you can’t get a decent starter electric for a few hundred dollars.” As for double bass, he says there’s more to consider because of the elevated costs. Quality carved basses come with a significant price tag, and plywood is really for relative newbies. A hybrid of laminated construction with a carved top can be a happy compromise and a way in for the aspiring mid-level double bassist—and their budget.

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