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Bummer.  I already do this and I still suck lol.

I’ve accidentally done this correctly my entire career and thought I was wrong. I’m floored

Crazy, that's how I naturally play and I've always thought it was "wrong" because everyone else seemed to rest the thumb on the pickup

I didn’t know ‘floating thumb’ was an actual technique, but it’s something I’ve always done just to keep the open strings from ringing out. Thanks for the vid.

I figured the floating thumb technique out when I got myself a 6 string bass. Suddenly  I could not keep my thumb on the pickup anymore, and I had to find a way to mute all those low strings. When I eventually returned to a 4 string, I kept it since it was now more confortable for me.

That bass is such a beauty.

Somehow I pick up a floating thumb technique automatically when I started playing bass.
I even didn’t know that I could put my thumb on the pickup. Thumb on the pickup was always uncomfortable for me and I felt hand isn’t mobile enough.

I became proficient at this when I started playing a 5 string.  It's a great way to keep the strings that you aren't playing quiet....

Wow. Since getting my five-string,  I have seen many videos on floating thumb but nothing clicked until yours. The rotator cuff of the shoulder---gym nerd here--rolling forward made all the difference and made the floating thumb immediately feel more like a natural position. Thanks!

Anchoring on the pickups always felt unnatural to me. Floating thumb is definitely the way, though typically my anchor point is the E string. You really don't need to move the thumb any lower than that unless your fingers are tiny and you can't reach the G from there. The weight of my arm is mostly concentrated on the meaty part of the forearm. Another bonus of floating thumb is it's a perfect muting mechanism!

I was fortunate that when I first moved to a 5-string, I needed to learn how to mute and I learned this technique simply for string muting, which made it not feel like CHANGING a habit - it felt like being a new skill, so psychologically, I didn’t have to break a habit.

That is a good technique to learn.

For 30 years, I have a thumb rest on my P bass to play over the pickup or play closer to the bridge using the P pickup as a thumb rest or I use the neck pickup on a Jazz or J style but play between the 2 pickups. I use my fretting hand for string muting rather than my plucking hand.

The floating thumb is the the best way to relax the hand plus you can use with the 5 string when you absolutely need to mute the strings. Best advice ever. Been working on it for the last 6 months feels much more natural now. Kudos

Like many others, I learned this a long ago when I started playing 5 string and needed better muting.

One thing that still confounds me is this: doing a pedal or a shuffle (think the song Some Kind Of Wonderful by Grand Funk Railroad) on the A string (say, the D in that song) has your fingers using the E string as a backstop. But if you're playing the E string (the G in that song), there's no backstop. Of course, if I'm playing a 5 string, the B string is there, but have the same problem if I'm pedaling the B string.

The idea of keeping the hand light and the thumb not tight against the string or Pickup was a revelation for me, it really lowered the tension and allowed me to play much freer

I've been picking with my thumb mostly, so this is a whole thing already

I did this since day 1 since I started out with a 5 string and doing an online course teaching 4 string. So I always have to mute more. This was the easiest and most flexible solution for most cases

I've been trying to learn floating thumb for awhile and this video helped it click for me. Felt the relief and the speed almost instantly! Thanks!

I figured this thumb issue by myself not a long time ago and tried to correct it and it is really hard if it is already part of your natural playing motion, now by seeing this video i finally confirmed that is the problem, i'll do my best to change this way, few tries and it feels different, it's all matter of practice and habit