Ok so when I am playing bass i use a pick and I have been trying to learn alternate picking but when I do it it seems hard to keep the beat and I get a lot of scratching noise from the strings I cant really hear it in the amp but I can really hear it when I am just playing anyone have any tips to clean up my alternate picking technique?
Your probably holding your pick at an angle. Hold the pick paralell to the strings Or your using a really thin pick. I like 1.14 mm picks when I use one.
It could also have to do with the thickness of the pick your using.
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Hollowbody Bass Club #121, Hondo Club #002, Official Short Scale Bass Club #018, Short-Scale Six-String Bass Club #001, Epiphone Club #010, can't recall what other clubs I'm a member of here...
I seem to have the biggest problem on the up stroke I kinda get hung up on the string and it messes up my next down stroke and I sometime hit the a string when I try to do it on the e.
I use thin Dunlop .46 / .60 / .73 nylon picks perpendicular to the strings, but only about 1/4" of the pick is sticking out below my thumb/finger. I wish I could show you as it is hard to explain. My palm/side of thumb "rides" over the strings. I'm way better with a pick - not very good with fingers.
Try to choke up on the pick. The less pick you expose, the faster you can play. Also, for really fast passages, don't let the fingers you're not using flop out. Ball 'em up like a fist. Dave Mustaine, who allegedly knows nothing , suggested this. It works.
what ever you do just keep chugging... I was taught that your hand should move down on down beats and up on up beats whether you're hitting the string or not. as was said above... in person I could show you, but it realy helps keep the beat. then you're using your hand to subdivide. It's easier to work on getting that nice steady tone and then when your left hand gets to doing something tricky your right hand is on autopilot and just keeps chugging
... and of course start slow then speed up... then ad syncopation.. then do a running line... etc... etc.... etc...
Try to choke up on the pick. The less pick you expose, the faster you can play. Also, for really fast passages, don't let the fingers you're not using flop out. Ball 'em up like a fist. Dave Mustaine, who allegedly knows nothing , suggested this. It works.
+1 - Exactly ..... Thats what I was trying to say - except that my other three fingers are kinda cupped, and rigid (like I'm holding a baseball), and my pick is pretty much pointed sideways. Once you get it down - you'll be suprised how fast you can get. Good Luck
+1 - HUGE Megadeth fan also.
, suggested this. It works.
