Cool Technique show me yours?

[fleafan]

start by (with the back of your nail) picking the very right hand side of your string (the tight part) and slowly move up to the looser part it sounds pretty cool and many people ask me what effects pedal i use for that and all i do is smile

now tell me yours.....

[top028]

occasionally, I pick up at the 17th fret on my fretless, and with some vibrato on the left hand to get some boomy upright tone...I am sure every one has done this though...

[furtim]

A little bit off-topic, but it's a funny story. In stage band, I was getting a little bored an needed to keep my fingers moving, so I just started scratching my string with my fingernail while the amp was on (I was turned down pretty low at the bass, though). So the trumpet girl near by turns around and says "Whoa, Rage." I assume she meant RATM. I was rather confused. After all, I was just screwing with the string, not playing anything. =)

[Christopher]

Tom Morello (Harvard Emeritus) of RATM does a lot of turntable impersonations using pick slides and a mountain of effects. It probably works better for guitar than bass.

One neat trick which Victor Wooten seems to get a lot of mileage out of: play an eighth- or sixteenth-note ostinato on the D and G strings using standard right hand technique and tap out a bassline simultaneously with the left hand. (You don't have to limit yourself to playing open D or G on top.)

[Phat Ham]

Vic plays an wicked version of Amazing Grace on the album Live Art. He uses harmonics for the melody and normal fingering technique for the bass line.

Personally I love playing false harmonics a la Jaco. The harmonics come out better if you use a bit of compression and/or overdrive/distortion.

[Conartist]

I once used a violin bow on my bass and it makes a really cool sound. With the help of a distortion pedal and the neck hand on some high notes. I think you can interpret some RATM sounds. I haven't tried it yet but I'm hoping for some feedback.

[gmstudio99]

Originally posted by Phat Ham
Vic plays an wicked version of Amazing Grace on the album Live Art. He uses harmonics for the melody and normal fingering technique for the bass line.

Yeah...I love playing that on my bass...I've even moved the harmonic part up to over the pickups instead of over the frets. (Although then you can't play the bass line simultaneously.)

As an alternative to, uh, alternate tunings, I like using multiple capos for weird stuff...Kyser clamp on capos, especially on a Jazz thin-necked bass, can be used to capo just 2 or 3 strings at a time...creating some cool drones and open voicings.

I have sound samples of that on my mp3 site...check out "alex's song"...the capo is on the A, D, and G strings at the 14th fret...the E string is completely open.

http://www.mp3.com/prlj/


-GM

[fleafan]

i dig playing that song with harmonics exept i cant seem to find one note (maybe its because i have a 4 string and he has maybe a 5 )

anyway if you know what to play for the highest note in the song i have tried it the middle of fret 4 on the G string but it to hard

please tell me thanks

[GlassBullet]

from what i remember, morello is one crazy guy. you can choose to unplug your guitar chord and play with that as a pick, or have a switch board between pickups and get a whole lotta feedback.

[fleafan]

whats the point of unplugin' your gutar cord?? you cant hear the picking (very well)...

[Phat Ham]

If I recall correctly Tom Morello has a pickup toggle on most of his guitars. This simply toggles between the two pickups. He also has separate volumes for each pickup. He dimes one volume and puts the other on 0. Then he uses pick scratches and toggles between the pickups to get that on/off sound of a DJ scratching.

[Hans]

Here's a good one. Really simple!

fret a G (3rd fret E string) and rather than plucking the note, hammer the string with the tip of your index finger exactly 12 frets above the fretted note. You will hear a harmonic an octave as well as the original note. Now play a simple funk pattern hammering the notes in this way.

[ytsebri]

I picked this up off of a bassist in Japan. You use your index and middle finger from your pick hand. You barely hit the string as fast as you can at the saddle on the bridge. If you strike it just right, you get no attack. So it sounds like a note from a keyboard. If you can keep it up, you can have unlimited sustain.

[Christopher]

I've seen Stanley Clarke do something similar to get "sustained" notes on the upright without a bow.

[CS]

Play a root and fourth on the upper 2 strings now hammer a root and fourth with your plucking hand, move your left hand down the fretboard.

With your plucking forefinger hit the high C sharp on the G string and bend up to D. Hammer off whilst having a fretting finger on the 11th fret but already bent up to the G, now release the string back to F sharp. Watch people look round.

Jaco rip off time. With the plucking hand palm hit the strings and slide down towards your fretting hand vroom is the sound I saw it on a video with the Brecker brothers on brass.

Play a root fifth octave chord but play the root with your fretting hand and the others with your plucking hand. Now slide the root down in pitch but the others up, work out your own ending points.

These are all flash tricks designed to impress other musicians, members of the opposite sex and put off the drummer.

[gweimer]

Here's a cheap parlor trick, but I always had fun with it. When you have an open E (or B, for you 5-stringers) coming up, rather than pluck it, swing you hand over the neck, and hit the open string right about the 1st or 2nd fret. Kind of a cheap windmill, but it does work.

[Nicolas Handjoko]

Hi, I really like this technique, it is quite simple.

The technique is: I used the side of my right hand to mute all of the string of my 4-string bass. I place it(the side of my right hand) very close to the bridge or above the bridge pick-up. Then I play it with my thumb as a pick.

It will produce the sound like an upright bass.

Its good using this technique when you play a cozy songs or a swing-jazz/bebob songs.

[MrGump]

Ready?Put one foot on the base of your mike stand.Now with your hip/stomach(whatever)you can push your bass against the mike stand and use it to play a note on the G string,or a note on the lowest string.And still be able to play with your left hand on the fretboard,and right hand in the traditional place.You can even take it one step further,and get an E-bow,and mute all the strings your not playing,with your right hand,while using the mic stand like a slide ,to create a "bowed"fretless effect.
I admit it! I did alot of acid back in the day!!

[thayer182]

this is really just products of some experimentation I've been messin around w/. I play a lot of chords on my bass. although I really have no clue about musical theory. u start talkin all that pentatonic stuff, and sixteenths and stuff, and I will just be confused. about the only real chord I know is a fifth (power chord). anyways, I do this little thing on the G and D string. I strum the 2 strings, letting the open D drone while I fret different notes on the G string. I came up w/ this cool lil tune using the higher frets on the G string using this technique. try it out and see how u like it

G--11--11-11-11---11-11-11-12--12-12-12---12-12-12
D--0----0---0---0----0---0--0---0---0---0---0----0---0--0

(pay no attention to how many dashes are between the 0's on the bottom, I was just trying to make it even)

[Turock]

>anyway if you know what to play for the highest note in the song i have tried it the middle of fret 4 on the G string but it to hard




Try playing that note up by the ninth fret on the g-string.