Geddy Lee's 1 finger plucking

[i2k]

On Rush-Grace Under Pressure Live video, I saw Geddy pluck his Steinberger only with his index finger, and only uses his second fingers when necessary. Still, his 1 finger did better than my 2 finger...:-(
Any comment on this folks ?

[gruffpuppy]

james jamerson played that way also, i find it gives a smoother tone than the two finger galop. but i all way forget to use just one. sometimes i will put the two fingers together and use it as one. geddy also seemed to keep his nails long so he could get close to a pick tone.

[i2k]

I did that too for a deep & smooth tone. But I'm still don't understand how Geddy pluck that fast with only 1 finger. Anyone can recommend a good exercise ?

[MJB]

Get the January 01 issue of BassPlayer and read the Geddy article. He plays the opening riff on My Favorite Headache this way, practice the riff over and over. When I read the article I thought it would be awkward but its really pretty easy, sounds cool too.

[reedo35]

Originally posted by gruffpuppy
james jamerson played that way also,

Yeah, They called Jamerson "The Hook" cuz he only played with his index.I'm still amazed at some of his lines.

[PetZombie]

I use my index and middle fingers one at a time, depending on which string i'm playing, and it's a lot more comfortable for me. I've only been playing for a year, but i can keep a steady and quick speed fairly easily. If i don't play for awhile i can definately notice it in my endurance, though. The song i used to practice this technique was "Bambi Slaughter" by Nirvana. It's played with a pick, but it's great for training individual fingers.

[PetZombie]

Lately, i've also been looking into playing with both sides of my fingers. Fingernails can make doing that sound pretty nasty, but if you file them down enough and hit the meat on both sides it works quite well.

[neptoon]

yeah, really...how the heck does he pull that off??? i like to watch him play that riff from YYZ with one finger...that dood rules

[Rockinjc]

I love the one finger thing myself (just like picking a booger). Watch a good upright player if you want to know where the two sided plucking thing comes from.

Still I like how triplets go with three fingers and what can be done with the thumb in addition to fingers.

jc

BTW - ik2 and PetZ... Welcome aboard!!!

[i2k]

Originally posted by neptoon
yeah, really...how the heck does he pull that off??? i like to watch him play that riff from YYZ with one finger...that dood rules

And don't forget...he does that all the time while singing. Only one guy can do those 2 jobs at the same time as good as Geddy : Mark King of Level 42.
BTW, Geddy is a traditional guy. He said once that he like to saw other players using such pyrotechnic like tapping, 3 or 4 finger plucking, slapping, etc, but he never used that because he can't find a good use of that fancy stuff. Why bother to use lot of fingers if 1 finger did well ?

[ThePaste]

Originally posted by i2k

And don't forget...he does that all the time while singing. Only one guy can do those 2 jobs at the same time as good as Geddy : Mark King of Level 42.

You don't like Les Claypool or Sting?

[i2k]

I like Sting. He's a good bass player with his super effective basslines. But he never (or rarely) did a complex basslines while he singing, unlike Geddy or Mark did all the time. Another great bassplayer/singer is John Wetton of Asia/King Crimson.
For Les, I don't listen much of his work with Primus.It's hard to find Primus materials in my country.

[mayfairmistress0]

i do that. i find it easyer to keep up with an alternating rythem that way (only using the middle finger occasionally on accentuated notes or different strings)
as far as speed is concerned, i think im pretty good (for sombody who hasnt been playing that long)
i can keep up with daphne descends (the smashing pumpkins, off adore) using only my index.