Bass technique question.

[Musician78]

Ok, I have played guitar for eons at this point. I have played bass off and on over the years and am pretty good with a pick. Now I am a bassist in a band and want to play with my fingers instead of a pick. But it doesn't feel right and those fingers are all clumsy... unbelievably so... what are some good techniques to improve my horrible fingerpicking?

[Duncan_Wood]

Too funny -- I'm just the opposite. I switched to guitar two years ago (after 20 years on bass) and the pick feels so foreign in my hand.

Start by putting your first two fingers together and make a U with your thumb, like picking up a 6-pack. Then rest your thumb on the neck pickup and brush the E string with your two fingertips, alternating. Start with quarter notes, use a metronome etc., all the good practice habits you used on guitar.

If you want to play triplets, you can add your third finger to the mix, but that's later on.

A good habit I learned was to use just a little more volume than you need when practicing. You'll tend to use more subtlety in your attack.

I'm up for more questions if you got 'em. Hope this helped.

[Musician78]

Sweet, thanks. I am sure I will inevitably have more questions regarding this.... like this one: What would be a good tune to practice with? Do you ever use your thumb??

[Duncan_Wood]

Yeah, I'll post a fundamental bass technique tomorrow. Easy, and based on the 12-bar blues. Bed-rock bass stuff, and will help you work from string to string.

As for a practice song, "Bad Religion" by Godsmack is a good song to start with. Leg your fingers work to the groove and get your technique down. Good luck man.

[horns666]

Hey Bro..Dude..I got fuggin' Bass down like Louis Johnson's and Jeff Berlin's love baby! I don't play anymore..I'm bored with it. But I've put it down for years at a time and I still get better eveytime I picked it up..it's just a natural part of me. :think:

I first learn with a pick when I was young because my friend was a much better guitarist than me at that time. The dude in my ol' VH trib..now with Clevo-John's Preist Trib. He's still covering shit like a canary. That's just natural for him.

Listen man..it's like anything else you put time in..and more importantly your heart. But MOST important is always practice with a record, or any kind of metronome, click..whatever. Because the Bass MUST be at one with drums. You gotta lock that shit in and grroove. It doesn't matter what method you use or most comfortable with. I can play with a pick, ALL fingers (especially thumbs)..slap..tap..or pud! Just get as good as you can or want to. Anyone that says bass players can't groove with a pick is an ass. ....Phil Lynot..Lemmy...Squire....McCartney..Ellefson ..Newsted
...are examples..I'm high..but's there's many more.

I actually p[refer a pick in studio for rock and metal because the attack is sharper and just "tighter" overall. I played the same tracks in the studio with my finger and pick..and the pick just sounded much better in the "Metal" context of the band. So go with withever siuts the music best..there is no "right way" IMO! As long as you have grrove and meter..and how your tone fits in the band live or studio..that's the ticket.

But if you want to play with your fingers..just start practicing. I drove my parents nuts wherever we went because I always was "Groovin" my fingers on tables and shit..constantly. I still do that..so it wasn't a "phase"..

[horns666]

Haha..this was bassically me from '85 to '95..for eight hours a day..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PCfirZSde4&NR=1

I didn't know how to slap..just like you don't know how to play with your fingers. Dude..now it's second nature.

Good luck!

[Endrik]

what's the mystery here, any idiot can play a bass, the easiest instrument in the world

[Musician78]

Wow.... perhaps you need to re-read my first post. But thanks.

[Musician78]

Bill, thanks for your input... Half the reason I want to play with my fingers is that it generally looks cooler... the other half is so that I can get into slap and produce funky sounds. Bass can indeed be tremendously boring... but it can also be a fundamental part of the overall sound. Flea is far from boring. And Victor Wooten.... oh my word... he does shit on bass that I can't do on guitar. But as someone said... any idiot can play it because it is the easiest instrument in the world....

[Duncan_Wood]

Try this pattern: A-A-A'-A'-G-G-E-E

Play that shape in the A/D/E 12-bar blues pattern to get your rhythm down and get used to string skipping. Feel free to rest your thumb on the string above the one you're playing. It'll give you a resting place and it will also mute it from unwanted sounds.

I love playing bass with fingers. I like the direct connection to the instrument. Plus you can pick two or more strings at the same time. You can also mute any string at any time 'cause you can assign one finger per string. The result is a very subtle and sophisticated attack.

Granted fingers don't fit all music styles. Speed and thrash is probably better with a pick, but for all else your fingers are the best. And I'm not saying that just because I'm a HUGE Steve Harris fan.

BTW, slap is a TON of fun. I can do some, sounds really cool. Used to really piss off my metal bandmates tho.

[Musician78]

Sweet, thanks! I simply can't believe how difficult I am finding it to not use a pick.

[horns666]

Hey man..Endy was being exquisistely sarcastic!!!

Trust me..he LOVES da bass!!

I know, bass became very boring for me..especially when playing rock or metal covers. Even Maiden who was an early influence. Even after learning a bunch of that...well..pfffft.

That's when I turned to players like Tony Levin..Louis Johnson..Larry Graham..etc. I never listened to Flea. But we obviously came from the same school. Don't get me wrong..I like him. ..especially in The Big Lebowski..

[Endrik]

Put your palm on the table. Raise your fingers and tap them together against the table but so that they would hit the table at slightly separate times, like flams in drumming. You'll see that you automatically hit the table first with the pinky, then the ring finger, then the middle finger and lastly the index finger. This motion is the most natural for your hand and that's where the speed and strength comes. Remember this. This is the key why it's physically possible to play faster with fingers than with a pick. That's why flamenco players kick our ass on the guitar.

At start the most important thing is to get the bass sounding good purely as a rhythm instrument. That means your timing has to be good. Start playing along with drum beats or metronome. Play at different speeds but also it's good to approach it like this. If you have a drum beat first try to play only notes over kick drums, get it really tight, then add one note more over a snare hit, get it tight, then add more and more. Start with less notes, get them sound really tight and even and then add more. Do this with each finger and then with two or more fingers combined. Of course the most important is to get your index and middle finger in shape as most of the playing is done with them. But each finger you use should have individual strength and speed.
You need to build up the strength. Make sure that the attack is even with each notes. You have to control the dynamics. And play with balls. That's how you get a good tone, punch and it helps to make the band sound good. With few strong punchy notes you can fill a lot more than with gently played roll of wussy sounding 16th notes. Most of the legendary bass players are very heavy handed. The most influential electric bass player James Jamerson only used his index finger because it had so much control and power that he could pull everything off with it.

It's also very important where you play. Near bridge, near pickups, on the neck etc. Each position gives you distinctive tone, try to play where the tone fits in the context of a specific song.
Another thing is to play the string with more hitting motion with the fingers, that way you can archive more percussive sound.
Thumb is also important, it makes the tone really mellow which suits certain musical situations perfectly.
When you play with the thumb then also try palm muting the string, it gives you a mellow and percussive tone.
Another way to get a muted and percussive sound is to use your fretting hand. You can just lay your fretting hand on the strings to get ghost notes or you can get a palm muted effect if for example you want an A note on the E string then fret down the 5th fret on the E string with your index finger and lay your middle finger over the 6th fret without fretting it down. Rocco Prestia of Tower Of Power played like this. He had incredibly busy bass lines, a lot of 16th note runs while playing really really heavily while muting the notes. His sound was so percussive that he could make 16th note runs incredibly groovy. It's all about how you play not so much what you play. Many fusion cats copied this technique... Jaco, Manring etc.

Anyway, the you should get these techniques sound really tight. Then you can start playing behind the beat or ahead of the beat depending of the context of the music and the feel of the song. Playing behind the beat you can create more deeper dragging groove, playing ahead of the beat you can add a lot of tension.
Then you can start experimenting with rhythmic placements. Each player has an different rhythmic placement and quarter note feel no matter on what instrument. That's how you usually can tell if the bass player is a white or a black dude, no joke, rhythmic placement comes from your personality and the culture you are surrounded with. Also by that you can tell if the feel is more Afro-American or African. You can tell if the feel is of English session ace or Brazilian fusion cat.
There's more than just straight quarter or eight note feel. There's so many microcosms in between. The reason why I think Tony Levin is the most unique sounding bass player is because of his placement of rhythm which is extremely distinctive. You can tell it's him instantly, he only needs to play a couple of notes which he mostly does with Peter Gabriel. Just listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6BesY5Doec there's very little "straight" feel at all but it's pure genius how just those little microrhythms can create such an unique feel.

When it comes to slapping then timing is even more crucial. It's hard because a good slap sound comes from playing very hard while being in the pocket. Just look at Louis Johnson. It's freaking nuts! But it's sad to hear and watch players who slap gently, it sounds like crap.
Slapping and popping is approached like drumming. Slap on low notes is like the kick drum and pop on higher notes is like snare. That's how Larry Graham developed this method because at the time he didn't have a drummer. It's good to start like I mentioned before, just start with one note, get it tight with the beat, then add another one etc.
You can also can get a "slappy" tone when hitting the strings with your other fingers really heavily. Or using Funk Fingers like Tony Levin.
There's also double thumbing technique which allows you play slap bass at incredible speeds. Graham also developed this but Victor Wooten took it to another level. There's also freaks like Bill Dickens. But the regular way gives you phatter and punchier tone, Louis Johnson never used double thumbing even at ridiculous speeds, he just wanted to sound heavy and there's no match for him in that category.
Also ghost notes are very cool in slapping just like in drumming. They give that special spice even though they are very subtle.

But now coming back to finger control. Remember what I first wrote. If you want to play fast then that motion is the key. You can play faster with fingers than with a pick but it also takes shit loads of more practice.
To understand the logic put your index finger and thumb together like you'd hold a pick. Then "pick" (without the pick) against the corner of a table for example. Do this really fast. Then do it with the flam-dragging motion with your fingers mentioned before. Do it really fast. That should give you a clue why this is the faster way.

When we pick, the motion comes from the wrist and/or arm. We use our bigger muscles which are looser and easier to control. That's why we can master picking more easily. Fingers have smaller muscles and smaller muscles move faster. But it takes more control.
When you look at the drummers you can see that great drummers can get incredible speeds by playing with extremely lose wrists but the absolute fastest way is to use the fingers. There's this technique called push/pull or open/close or The Buddy Rich technique which allows you to play with one hand as fast as with two. You push the stick down with the thumb to get the first hit and with other fingers you pull the stick up and get another hit and then repeating the motion. Very few master it but it gives you incredible speeds.

Now on the bass dragging-pulling your fingers in the motion, first the pinky, then ring, then middle and finally index for quadruple feel or ring, middle and index for triple feel.
Use that motion, then for example use ring, middle, index, middle, repeat. Then ring, middle, index, middle, index, repeat. Then ring, index, middle, index, repeat.
Use different combinations to get a different feel and whatnot.
Also with only two fingers it's possible to play faster than with a pick, the same logic applies but it's much harder of course.

A lot of practice, a lot of analyzing but if you devote your time to it you can do whatever you want with the bass.

[Musician78]

Wow, sweet. Thank you very much! Sorry about being a bitch in my post, lol.

I appreciate everybody's input. I can't believe the level of difficulty I am experiencing trying to get that hand to work properly.

[Endrik]

Well, you are welcome I guess but obviously I haven't fully answered all your questions yet... specially when it comes to what tunes to practice and whatnot. Let me get back to you on that.