My band has some songs I need to use a pick for, but for decades I have always played fingerstyle.

i'm finding my pick playing lacks all the subtle unconcious control my fingers have. Dynamics are incosistant, the strings are ringing too much, and for some reason the left hand stuff seems harder too.

so i need to get my pick chops up to snuff pronto.

any reccomedned exercises? love to hear from other finger style players who subsequently learned to pick well....

Learn some basic picking techniques from a guitar lesson and apply it to the bass. Play some Tool songs, he uses a pick for everything.

'Anything you can do, I can do better!'

With that said, you can probably play any pick-bassline with your fingers just as well, so why the heck not?

play with a metronome a lot

find a set of excersises that involve different aspects of pick playing e.g. string skipping, triplets, ect...

pick one of these excersises and set your metronome to a tempo at which you can play it very comfortably. then bump the metronome up 3 bpm and try and play the excersise. whn you reach a speed at which you can no longer play the excersise perfectly, bump the metronome down 5 bpm and play the excersise until it becomes very easy. You should do this at least 5 times a week. If you want I can post the excersises I use.

I'd actually like to see those exercises. I want to get better with a pick as well, and I know about practicing with a metronome, but I want to develop a regimen for it.

Sarbecue Boss has got it. It's a whole different feel, almost like starting over learning from scratch for the first few hours. It will even throw your timing off (that's why your left hand is having trouble, something's not right in the finger/ear/brain loop). Start slow with a metronome and do your standard exercises and songs.

You might want to ease back on the treble if the pick attack gets annoying.

Just to clarify, you guys are talking about alternate up/down picking and not straight downstrokes, right?

You should be comfortable with both. Straight downstrokes has a sound and feel that can't be duplicated by alternate picking. Alternate picking takes more practice, though, so that's where you should concentrate most of your time.

Ok, because I don't have a problem with straight downstrokes (mainly it's a matter of developing stamina to keep going with it). I'd prefer to even out my alternate picking and do it unconsciously since I use my non-dominant hand (right) to strum. Raking and string skipping are especially difficult.

here are the excersises i have been using recently. These are great for developing pickstyle, but I use them for fingerstyle practice as well

John Pattatucci's Spider

------------------------------
------------------------------
------7------8------5------6--
--5------6------7------8------
run through that pattern with each string combination

E+A, A+D, D+G, E+D, A+G, and (take it slow and don't hurt your wrist) E+G

The chromatic excersises I practice
----------------------------7-8-9-10-
-------------------7-8-9-10----------
----------7-8-9-10-------------------
-7-8-9-10----------------------------

I play that one in several different positions, and ascending and descending

This is the hardest one for me, I am playing as triplets at 130 Bpm. Basically, this is a 1-3-5 starting in C, playing the 1-3-5 of each mode in C(or any key), so in effect what i am diong is playing a 1-3-5 of Cmaj, Dmin,Emin Fmaj, Gmaj, Amin, Bflat5, and Cmaj again
so it looks like this

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---2-5-------7---------9----7--10-----9--12-----15--14-----------15-----14---17-
-3------5--8----7--10----8---------10-------12----------14--17------15---------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a pointer also, when playing these excersises, always maintain an up down pattern, never have two ups or downstrokes in a row

Thanks for posting those exercises, Sarbecue Boss. I want to learn how to pick and these exercises look like a great place to start.

yeah, i too have the same problem. i totally suck with a pick, but i'm good at fingerstyle and slap and even tapping lol.

i found that using a really thin pick helped me... i hear all the bass guys using thick picks, but i completly hate them.

Something I do when I play with a pick is to anchor my hand in someway shape or form. You know how some guitar players anchor the back edge of their hand over the bridge(usually metal players I've seen) or how some grab a hold of a higher string with their pinky? If you have never noticed it, check out an accomplished player sometime. Anyway, watching them really help my picking a lot, it helps keep your hand in a certain location and limiting how far it can travel in both directions. But once the style is figured out your hand will move just has freely with a pick as it did with just your fingers.

Yeah Tyron. I've noticed that in my picking endeavors. It is much, much easier to anchor somewhere. The funny thing is I never see this being outlined in my guitar books or anything.

first thing, thanks Sarbecue for those excersises they look pretty cool.

I generally find myself using a very similar position to what I use when I play my 6 string, just laying the edge of the palm over the bridge.

Don't "anchor" on anything for picking. Bad habit. What most guitarists are doing with the edge of their hand near the bridge is muting, which is an important part of the picker's sound.

Don't "anchor" on anything for picking. Bad habit. What most guitarists are doing with the edge of their hand near the bridge is muting, which is an important part of the picker's sound.

I didnt mean anchor your hand as in plant it on the bridge and dont move. What I meant was to put yor hand in a comfortable position and then, in someway, shape, or form, anchor your hand so it reduces unwanted movement. Even simply putting your pinky on the G string for stablility helps a bunch. I'm not saying they are habits that need to be kept forever but they do help when trying to figure a new style out.