Bass fingerpicking, anyone use 4 fingers ?

[Nag]

Yeah most of it is in the title

I started out as a guitarist, but I wanted to play bass as well. Recently I started getting more into fingerpicking, I only use pick if I NEED the pick tone or if the pick really makes the stuff 200% easier to play...

There's some extreme metal (mostle black/death) that's just way too fast for my fingers, and usually the bassist in these bands uses a pick (because 16th notes @ 220 bpm for 8 minutes = ouch). So yeah my 3-finger picking is getting better, faster and more accurate but there are things I doubt I'll ever be able to play.

Now I do have a pinky on my picking hand, and it feels kinda lonely when I'm playing bass, and I don't think I've ever seen bass lessons for 4-finger picking. Is there anyone out there doing that ? Since the pinky is shorter and further back, I can understand why people usually don't use it, since it's hard to find a comfortable position to be fast, accurate and strong with it, but it would be interesting to push the technique a bit further

So yeah if you use it and have some tricks 'n stuff, would be nice and fun to share !

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Billy Sheehan, probably the fastest finger picking bassist you'll find, used three fingers and there are a couple of videos out there where he explains that while the fourth finger is capable of plucking the strings you'll actually get more speed out of properly sequencing your three stronger fingers.

Also, the construction of the human hand is going against using all four fingers in that if you move each digit individually you'll notice the pinky and ring finger are connected in a way as to not be fully independant.

If you want to see some alternative uses of all four fingers look up Gary Willis and his "planted finger" style of resting fingers individually on assigned strings.

 

[Nag]

Max, how do you ACTUALLY manage to snipe all my threads like 10 seconds after I post them

and for the rest, yeah, will check out

 

[Nmaster]

I use all four fingers for picking, I didn't watch many lessons, but I just practiced it. For hours and hours. I saw Origin recently live and really observed their bassist play because he uses the same technique. But i'd definitely check out the lessons that were also mentioned.

It was really funky at first for me because I have kind of small hands and I couldn't quite reach the strings very easily with my pinky, but I feel a lot of it has to do with the angle/position you rest your thumb at. I sort of almost "scoop" my hand when I'm rolling off of the third (ring) finger and continue through with my pinky. It'll take some time definitely for it to become as dexterous as your other fingers, but it's worth it in my opinion! Dat speed!

 

[Chokey Chicken]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meKxa_oedh0

At about 5:20 in that video, he explains a method of getting stupid fast playing without using a pick. Not the typical kind of picking, but it works.

 

[FretSpider]

I use 3 fingers and can keep up with a lot of double bass drummers, note for note. Actually, I can even do a "proper" Steve Harris gallop with 2 fingers.

I'm a big fan of death metal, black metal, etc. I'm talking guys who have or had played for bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Mayhem, Borknagar, Darkthrone, Children of Bodom, In Flames, and Dark Tranquility, to name a few.

What I do is instead of actually plucking the string, I tap it like a drum. It takes a lot less time to tap it than to do a full pluck. It took me a bit to get it right...time in the woodshed with a MP3's and a metronome.

Hope that helps some.

 

[Winspear]

Yeah only when using string assigned fingers in a typical guitar fingerpicking position for slower type work. With the typical bass 'vertical hand' and multiple strikes per string it really doesn't work well I guess.
The dude from Beyond Creation (incredible fretless player) plays with that angled hand style which is interesting. Never paid attention to if he used his pinky though. He has some videos up, incredible technique but not at all conventional for metal.
I've gotten up to 8th triplets at around 220 I think, with 3 fingers. I don't think more is necessary If I did want to 16th trem to match I'd use a pick, but I think 8ths is going to sound better in the mix anyway.

 

[FretSpider]

Forest is completely insane on bass. I'd kill to be able to play like he does, but I'm working on it!

After listening to Beyond Creation, that REALLY put me into creative mode and hit the woodshed to upgrade my skill set. I'm not quite where I want to be, but I'm close.

 

[Necris]

The pinky is more or less useless for most people. Mine is too short to really use in any real capacity beyond rasgueados.

I use my Thumb, Index, Middle and Ring fingers (in that exact order) and I can do 16ths above 220 when properly warmed up, for my needs it's useless speed but I can do it.



Examples of the technique:





And some fast arpeggios if that interest you:



A tutorial on it I found:


I don't do "ghost notes" like Garrison does, but you can, at that speed it doesn't really make a huge difference in sound to me.

Upsides:
You can do things that aren't feasible with 2 or even 3 fingers with this technique.

You can do 3 finger technique this way, just omit a finger in your picking pattern and you can do 3 finger technique if you feel that is more comfortable for triplets. (I'd reccomend learning to do it with 4 anyway though. For groupings of 5 I tend to go in a pattern of T-I-M-R-I.)

Once you get used to it it feels effortless and you can play complex lines at high tempos for extended periods without getting tired.

Your The T-I-M-R pattern will keep you from performing accidental triplets with your Index, Middle and Ring fingers. This is something which a lot of bassists accidentally do when playing 3 finger technique (which is generally played R-M-I) possibly because it's a more natural motion for the hand. Unfortunately when that gets locked in to your muscle memory it's a hard habit to break yourself free from.
The T-I-M-R pattern avoids that. You can try learning it T-R-M-I, but you may run into the accidental triplet problem again, and have your rhythm sound more like "Triplet-da, Triplet-da, Triplet-da, Triplet-da," than "1e+a,2e+a,3e+a,4e+a" like it should.


Downsides:
It's quieter than two fingers (duh,). You're trading a bit of percussive attack for (greatly increased) speed.

For T-I-M-R You have to get used to a pattern that goes against what your hand naturally wants to do (T-R-M-I). It feels perfectly natural to me now but I imagine for someone just starting with the technique it could prove to be quite frustrating.

You're going to start at very slow tempos and you'll need to work at getting each finger sounding roughly identical for it to sound good. I don't see how that would be any real problem unless you demand instant results/gratification. Starting slow will allow you to knock out getting your fingers sounding similar before you gain speed (if they don't sound similar at high tempos it would likely sound like a clusterfuck).

You need finger control, if you don't have good control over your fingers you may accidentally hit an adjacent string you're not playing and make it ring out. This sounds awful if you're trying to play 16ths on a single string.
(Hint: Practice the technique on A or D string on a 4, E, A or D on a 5 or E, A, D, G on a 6, that way you always have to be mindful of not hitting adjacent strings when playing on a single string.)

 

[jonajon91]

That last video you linked is one that I saw a while back, I think it's completely worth subscribing to that guy for bass videos and jazz group videos. I think he and Erland Casperson share the title of best bassist.

As for fast right hand playing, I use three fingers, but use one twice. Straight semi-quavers become; ring finger down, middle finger, index finger down, index finger up so I strike the last of the four notes with my finger nail. Obviously slowed down, the tone of the last note would be much sharper (something more like a pick bass tone), but when playing at 220BPM the slight changes in tone are not there.

 

[Konfyouzd]

I only use 2 fingers... It reminds me of alternate picking. I've tried three and it feels awkward so far. I'm also not particularly fast on bass...

 

[stevexc]

My pinky's too short to easily hit the strings. Plus I get as fast as I need to with three fingers - or at least, I've never tried to play something and thought "damn this would be easier with my pinky".

I use 2 fingers 80-90% of the time, and bring in the third for the odd occasion when I need it.

 

[Nag]

basically, the challenge for me would be to play "Night's Blood" by Dissection with fingers. as for 4 fingers, just wondering if it was more common that I thought, but apparently it's not so oh well. I'll have to work on 3 fingers more

 

[JoeyW]

I used to play with 4 almost more than I used just my Index and Middle. I never had the problem most people tend to get with their pinky being "useless" as mine are pretty long on both hands.

However, I came to the conclusion that playing with just my Index and Middle are WAY more efficient for a multitude of reasons. As independent as I could get all four of my fingers on my right hand (maintaining a raking method as well), the Index and Middle will always be faster and stronger due to the muscles they're attached to- and just how your hand is structured and sits against the bass. You'll get a less even sound with 4 fingers since the distance between your Index finger and your pinky is much greater than the distance between your index and middle fingers. I guess I just don't see the advantage. For slapping its a different story though, I try and use as many fingers as possible!

I should clarify that I'm speaking from my own experience with all the techniques I personally use i.e.- raking, floating thumb, I hit my strings pretty hard. Not everybody does those things haha

 

[RGM8]

There's a technique on the Tosin Abasi Prog-Nosis video that he got from Victor Wooten to play Animal's as Leaders' An Infinite Regression:

Prog-Gnosis with Tosin Abasi: How to Play the Thumb-Slapped Intro to "An Infinite Regression" - YouTube

Evan Brewer, Victor Wooten and a lot of good players us it, Brewer can get some seriously good percussive tones out of it as well as some really quick string changes out of it too.

I've been learning this technique flat-out for 8 months and I'm getting some great results, I was getting good results after about a month of easy going practice, its a great technique once you get comfortable with it.

 

[Veldar]

I've seen people do Thumb, Index, Middle and Ring before.

My general view is that if its to fast for me I'll play more of a bass line then copying the guitars, but I have very limited death metal experence.


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[yingmin]

 

[TheEmptyCell]

I don't play much in the metal genres where constant 16th notes are called for, so maybe my opinion is moot, but I attempted to learn 4 finger picking (I-R-M-P) and the pinky was just too weak to make it work.

I could see how T-I-R-M would be much better, but I'd rather play a bass line that's less complicated and still interesting. At a certain point, it just becomes mushy.

When I do need a rapid succession of 16th's and I'm not already playing with a pick, I use a back and forth motion with my middle finger. I think I read that Geddy Lee or Claypool does this, so I gave it a try. I actually pick faster this way than with a pick.

 

[Solodini]

Try using the pinky to index rather than the other way around.

 

[cGoEcYk]

I've seen people do Thumb, Index, Middle and Ring before.

This is how I roll. If I have to play super fast 16ths on my low strings where I want a nasty attack on the down beat. I find that having very strong and well defined attacks really helps in terms of what bass brings to the band, kind of enhancing the top end definition of the kick and adding a certain kind of slam/punch that guitar isnt really capable of.

T-R-M-I

It involves a little wrist rotation and IMO works great... not much fatigue and it's pretty easy to be accurate with it. You can use the technique for all kinds of rhythms if you want to get a slap accent in there.

I've experimented with using my pinky but I think it's too short and since I play aggressively it's not too powerful either. Maybe with like years of development... dunno.

Most of the time I use my 3 fingers for everything but incorporating thumb brings in an accent that you cant get otherwise and that helps on low notes which are where definition is more of a challenge in general IMO.