i was watching a few dream theater, and bill dickens videos. and johny myung and him were both playing incredibly fast, and as i looked at there picking hand (not a pick :rolleyes: ) they were playing with 4 fingers.
do you?

i try to, yes, but i cant ;)

it would be an awsome technique to master though, and impressive as anything!

If you want to be able to play fast four fingers isn´t a must. It is possible to play blazingly fast with two fingers, not to meantion three.
At least what I have noticed. But it´s always one finger more and it will probably give a great help in patterns where you have to do insane string crossings.

What pattern do people usually use in four finger technique?

43214321
or
42314231
Perhaps?

Tell me if you know.

Complete Overkill if you ask me.

And btw, Myung only plays with 3 fingers. Watch is inst. video :)

I used to play with only two, but I trained my ring finger up for some faster picking if I need it.

I've seen a few exercises involving taping your fingers to develop strength for your other fingers, but I just can't ever use the pinky to fingerpick. It feels too awkward to me.

I can!

But don't. I dunno, it just never really settled for me. I learnt to play with 4 fingers just to see if it opened any more doors for me (in a musical sense ;)), but it always seemed that when I employed the ol' pinky it was more as a token "let's play with 4 fingers" thing as opposed to "let's bump it up a notch". I find that playing flat out with two or three fingers makes fully distinguishing notes (as a listener) is hard enough, so flat out with four isn't going to be super good. Plus, it's just not a huge benefit in speed, although it might be if you're playing something fast on the E,A,D or B,E,A strings and then just do a high note, e.g. an octave or summat.

Anywhichway, it's not all that and a bag o' chips.

Mark.

I actually started on classical guitar before i saw the light, but when i play around on my own i play with four fingers (actually index,middle and ring and thumb) i play the e or a string with my thumb and the other three for the d and g string, but here we're kind of talking four fingers for speed, but i still use two or three fingers for speed playing and i can play as fast as i need to.
Charlie

actually yes, i play with four a lot, however not in the same way as you mean i think.

i use my thumb, and first 3 fingers, usually not all at once but sometimes for chording and stuff it works well. mostly i stick to the normal two fingers or those two + the thumb. that is all.

Bill Dicken's biggest thing is hammering as hard as he pops. check out the DVD, it's pretty good - he gets some amazing speed alternating lefthand hammers and righthand technique, kind of like alternate sticking for drummers

i play with 2 unless i'm playing Toys go Winding Down (Primus), where i use three

myung plays with 3.

i play with all four and my thumb. i used to play the banjo. so for a lot of melodic stuff and some fast tech stuff, i play with all 4. it feels more natural for me to shred with all my fingers, rather than just two.

I pluck with my thumb, and first three fingers.
any combination.
Not all four at the same time.