Fingers and pick?

[AdmiralBumblebe]

Anyone rollin with fingers and a pick(s)? How do you handle it?

[rosstanium]

practice practice practice!

[Haruni]

You need to apply some country guitar styles to the bass. It's a great idea. Also, if you own a 5 string, you should try practice some flamenco strummings.

[AdmiralBumblebe]

I guess I was somehow not clear. I didn't say fingerpicks, I said fingers AND a pick.

As in, switching between them during a song.

[BigOldHarry]

During a dong?

Okay, we know what you mean (I think...)

When I briefly used a pick, I'd just jam it under the pick-guard... but none of my current basses have pickguards, so I think I'd just hold onto it with my pinky/ring finger while I was using my fingers...

[Nick Kay]

Learn how to play three-finger style, to increase independence of your ring finger. Hold the pick in a regular thumb+forefinger or thumb+forefinger+middle manner, and play finger style passages with the middle and ring fingers. Having a good understanding of floating thumb techniques helps, too. It's actually a fairly common technique on electric guitar - look up hybrid picking.

If you have a beat or two of rest between finger style and picked passages, you can palm the pick and hold it there with your ring finger. This makes an easier transition from standard finger style, but I have a tendency to drop the pick when I'm switching, so I just stick to hybrid picking.

[Vamposaur]

Joe Payne from Divine Heresy does it best in my opinion.
Such a fantastic bass player.

[dohead]

I actually play both and its great because i play a lot of songs that have agressive rock riffs then go into slow melodies and pick doesn't always work with melodic parts and fingers don't sound too trebley for heavy parts.

I fixed the problem though.. the solution...

a thumb pick.



that way you can switch between the two without the pick falling to the ground.

[RMCBass]

The thumbpick it's an excellent advice, unless you play some realy fast attacked notes, like in Hardcore-Punk or metal

[NKBassman]

I usually keep a stack of picks on top of my amp and just grab one when I need it, but at the last show I actually stuck some to the bottom of my bass with masking tape.

I switch to picks when either (A): The song benefits from the tonal difference, or (B): My right hand gets tired. We play a lot of super fast aggressive stuff, so (B) is more common.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by AdmiralBumblebe

I guess I was somehow not clear. I didn't say fingerpicks, I said fingers AND a pick.

As in, switching between them during a song.

I never do it during a song. Usually one approach works for an entire song. But if you want to do it, you can either do what Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick does and put some white tape on your mic stand and stick picks on it, or you can get a pick holder for your mic stand. If you don't sing, then maybe put some doublestick tape on your bass and put a couple picks on it. I've tried the thumbpick and didn't like it, but it's also a viable option if you can deal with the thumbpick.

[RexNFX79]

I do that occasionally and I just keep plenty of picks on the micstand and when I go from pick to fingers, I drop the pick and grab another from the stand when I need one again. If I have no vocal duties, I usually just stick the pick in my mouth. Make sure they're clean!

[xzzy]

Pick holders are the standard way, just drop a pick and grab a new one when you need it.

Otherwise you have to find a way to play with the middle and ring fingers while holding on to the pick. I've heard of people holding it against their palm with either their pinky or their thumb, but this isn't a very natural motion and needs a lot of practice.

[Trapezius]

I use the fingernail on my index finger whenever I need the "real" pick sound, insted of the fingerpick sound I usually have. Makes smooth fingerstyle impossible, tho.

[Jefenator]

Tonight I actually switched back and fourth between fingers and pick for different passages in a song. It's super easy to do - pick noob that I am - with my favorite pick stash spot, which is wedged under the bridge J pickup. Very handy.

[southernrocker]

I pull a pick out for midnight rider and down on the corner. So that's just 2 out of 45 songs that my band does.

[bucephylus]

Originally Posted by Jefenator

Tonight I actually switched back and fourth between fingers and pick for different passages in a song. It's super easy to do - pick noob that I am - with my favorite pick stash spot, which is wedged under the bridge J pickup. Very handy.

+1

That's where I stow mine.

[Jefenator]

Originally Posted by bucephylus

+1

That's where I stow mine.

Alas, the Musicmaster and the '51 RI don't have a J bridge pickup. (Or any other handy spot to stash the pick.) So I'm back to square one, there.

[BahamaBass]

right now i have a keychain with light and pick holder. i just decide which song to pick or not pick.depends on what the band wants. if they like the pick sound on the song I use a pick if not then just fingers. then some songs like blues sound great with an upright bass sound so I break out a cleaning cloth and stick it under the strings by the bridge.

[KPAX]

I don't switch between fingers and pick in one song. That sounds like more trouble than it's worth but hey, maybe you're on to something. Players slap and pluck in a song, why not pick and pluck?
I play in a cover band so I play pick songs with a pick and non-pick songs with fingers.
I just keep a few picks on my cab.
It's weird, I don't even think about it. I just grab the pick or set it down per the next song on the list, with no thought - like it's part of the song.

Originally Posted by AdmiralBumblebe

I guess I was somehow not clear. I didn't say fingerpicks, I said fingers AND a pick.

As in, switching between them during a song.