How many fingers do you use?

[Gard]

Originally posted by hk2hunterkiler
Will it help my speed, by adding the extra finger?

Well, as I said before: Not necessarily. I don't use 4 finger technique for the speed aspect of it, but for the flexibility aspect instead (i.e.: string crossing on a wide spaced 6 string). Speed comes from practicing consistently and slowly, with whatever number of fingers you choose to use. In other words, if you wanna play REAL fast, first you have to play REALLLLLLY slow, and preferably with a metronome . An example of what I'm talking about is in my very first post on this topic: I studied with Dave LaRue for several years, he only used 2 fingers, and was CONSIDERABLY faster than I was (still is too). He got that way by working on his accuracy, the speed followed. Hope this helps.

[TheBassPlayer]

i primarily use my index and middle fingers and throw my thumb in when playing some slap bass or classical music. but when i feel like it i will throw in my ring finger and do some 3-2-1s. sometimes i even bring in my pinky and do some 4-3-2-1s. but when i really want to play fast i do some slap-hammer-plucks or slap-hammer-pluck-pluck.

[JHMAVRO]

All ten....
sometimes muteing or fretting with left thumb
fretting with all four left fingers
slapping with right thumb
plucking or strumming or popping or whaterver the other four.