Alright 1st off im new here and im not sure if this is the right place for this so sorry if it is not.

I have been playing bass for about 8 months now and i have seen my skill grow from nothing to something and i feel pretty good about my playing but there's just one thing. my picking method i use is fingers and i can play comfortably at about 110 BPM but that is too slow for me. i want to be able to play triplets and 16th's cleanly and smoothly but there is no way my fingers are letting me do this. when ever i want to play faster song such as Megadeths holy wars or lamb of gods hour glass i just cant get up to speed i can fret all the notes easy but my plucking speed it just way Way to slow.


so im wondering what can i do drills or exercises that will improve the speed and technique of my plucking so i can play not only faster but cleaner too.

all i would like to be able to do is play faster and cleaner so i can keep on getting better with out the speed increase i feel like i have hit a road block in my playing.


any help? drills? ideas? anything?



Thanks alot, luke

Practice slower. Much slower.

+1... it sounds counter intuitive but practicing slower does build up your speed (and above all it increases clarity).

start very slow and then build it up once you master it at say 60BPM ...then move it up one knotch on the metronome and master it there (mine is 63BPM) ...then keep moving it up one knotch at a time... it'll be slow but by the time you get up to where your limit is now, you'll be playing clean enough where your hands can increase speed without giving up all the notes..

also try doing this with scales or even just on one note. I like to set the MEtronome at about 80bpm and play quarternotes until they're completely even, then eighths, then triplets, the 16ths, then 16th note triplets, then 32nds... and i just see how fast i can go keeping everyhting even. eventually you can work in duple triplets and pentuplets and whatnot too..

welcome to the bass world... it sucks... great philosophers have spent lifetimes analyzing why we all stick around so long

Practice slower. Much slower.

+1... it sounds counter intuitive but practicing slower does build up your speed (and above all it increases clarity).

Slow is the way to go!

Yes, slower is the way to go, but also focus on the movement for each pluck. It should be as small as possible, and please notice that that doesn't mean it necessarily need to be a weaker pluck. Also as you pluck, simultaneously move the other finger up to the string you just plucked so it's ready for the next pluck immediately after the first pluck. Play in this way staccato quarter notes, then eights, eight triplets, sixteenths, whatever.

Also practice endurance by playing sixteenths at a tempo that is just slightly below the the limit for what you're comfortable at. You have no use for 16ths @ 140BPM if you ran out of endurance immediately.

Alright guys thanks :)


I guess I'll Work on playing 1/4 1/8 and 1/16th notes to a metronome and play them until i can do them all clean and in time, ill start slow and move the speed up when i can master all cleanly.