hey everyone, there's a technique I've been wondering about. On the tab for Primus's "American Life" it explains that you should "strum" to play it correctly. I've seen a couple of fingerstyle bassists use this technique before, but I don't understand how it works, so if anyone could tell me, it would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I'm not that great at explaining things, but i'll try. To strum, first you have to fret the notes you want to strum with your frettin hand. To strum you use the back of your fingers in a downward motion and strike the notes that you want to play. To do whats called a Flamenco Strum (which Les uses a lot, but not on American Life) you do downstrokes and upstrokes and you can get pretty fast. Anyway, you can ask a guitarist to show you how to strum too. Hope I helped :)

This is how I strum the bass:
1) Hold your right (or plucking) hand in a fist, pointing towards the ground.

2) Quickly flick your fingers out and downwards, contacting the desired strings with the fingernail tips of your middle and ring fingers.

3) You can strum again on the upstroke by drawing your fingers back up into the "fist" position, which conveniently leaves your hand in the perfect position for the next downwards strum!

A few players, like Stanley Clarke (check out the first two-and-a-half minutes of 'School Days') and Mark King use this technnique.

If you want to see this technique in action, go to http://www.forevernow.com (a Level 42 fan website) and find the video clip called 'Bass Solo Copenhagen' - it shows it quite well.

Good luck, and let me know what you think of that video clip.

David

thanks for the info, the technique in that video clip that I saw wasn't exactly the one I've seen, though, despite being one that looks very useful. Instead of just the fingers moving, from what I've seen, the hand is kept in a fist and the motion is in the elbow. Thank you for your info, because the information will help shed some light on this technique.

hey can you make an exact link to bass solo copenhagen cus i couldnt find my around that site? thanks

Clicking the link below should bring up the video without needing to go to the website at all.

http://www.forevernow.com/realvideo/basssolocopenhagen.ram

This is also a clip that shows Mark King's strum technique.

http://www.forevernow.com/realvideo/Wembleysolo.ram

David

that guy is awesome! is that strumming that he is using is what is referred to as the flamenco strum?