Improving Three Finger Technique on right hand?

[AzzaKnoldy]

Hey Guys,
Just yesterday I discovered Alex Webster (The Bassist of Cannibal Corpse). I noticed that he doesn't use a pick, even for really long passages of 16th notes. Then after a bit of research, I realised that he uses a three finger technique, which I have put off learning. Today, I have started with it, using a metronome, and increasing the tempo every so often. What I wanted to ask is does anyone have any tips, exercises or songs to help me learn this technique, and to get it to atleast close to the speed Webster does?

Thanks in advance!

[Mirios]

I believe the fretless metal man Steve Digiorgio also uses three fingers on his right hand. Not positive just assume he does based on some of his lines. Most famous lines are probably on his work with the band Death. Such as ‪Death - The Philosopher - Individual Thought Patterns‬‏ - YouTube

But realistically sitting down, working slower with a metronome is the right place to be. How I did it. I did a lot of arpeggios/scales patterns songs I knew well and really focused on incorporating the third finger. Speed up as you get comfortable.

[kevteop]

It's easy to pick with three fingers but getting the timing to be regular is the difficult part.

Very few people do it without it sounding really sloppy, so my advice would be to avoid doing it live until you can do it properly.

[zackthompson]

Go to youtube and search Billy Sheehan. You can play with the searches like billy sheehan bass lesson, clinic, etc. He tells you everything.

[cnltb]

Originally Posted by AzzaKnoldy

Hey Guys,
Just yesterday I discovered Alex Webster (The Bassist of Cannibal Corpse). I noticed that he doesn't use a pick, even for really long passages of 16th notes. Then after a bit of research, I realised that he uses a three finger technique, which I have put off learning. Today, I have started with it, using a metronome, and increasing the tempo every so often. What I wanted to ask is does anyone have any tips, exercises or songs to help me learn this technique, and to get it to atleast close to the speed Webster does?

Thanks in advance!

Gary willis seems at the very top of the tree when it gets to three fingers on the plucking hand.
There are plenty work shippy videos of him on youtube.

[AzzaKnoldy]

Originally Posted by zackthompson

Go to youtube and search Billy Sheehan. You can play with the searches like billy sheehan bass lesson, clinic, etc. He tells you everything.

Thanks alot! I watched a couple of those videos, and he definitely seems to know what he's talking about. I'll watch them all when I have time later.

[chaosMK]

Whatever exercises I come up with for 3 finger RH, I try to do them both ways. Say you do triplets R/M/I... try doing them I/M/R also.

[XylemBassGuitar]

Originally Posted by chaosMK

Whatever exercises I come up with for 3 finger RH, I try to do them both ways. Say you do triplets R/M/I... try doing them I/M/R also.

Huge +1. It's also good to do note runs in sets of 4, 5, 2, etc...anything that doesn't match up to three. That way you'll get good at all three finger equally and your index and middle fingers won't kind take over.

For example, if you're doing 4 note runs, you'll have to go I/M/R/I and on the next run you'll have to start with your middle -- M/R/I/M, then R/I/M/R, and so on.

[MistaMarko]

Originally Posted by AzzaKnoldy

Hey Guys,
Just yesterday I discovered Alex Webster (The Bassist of Cannibal Corpse). I noticed that he doesn't use a pick, even for really long passages of 16th notes. Then after a bit of research, I realised that he uses a three finger technique, which I have put off learning. Today, I have started with it, using a metronome, and increasing the tempo every so often. What I wanted to ask is does anyone have any tips, exercises or songs to help me learn this technique, and to get it to atleast close to the speed Webster does?

Thanks in advance!

This is a technique I've been honing for a few years now and consider myself pretty solid with it. I made a YouTube tutorial/lesson thing out of a few requests I had, please watch and hopefully it might help!

‪3-Finger Method - Right-Hand Bass Technique Tutorial - (Mark Michell)‬‏ - YouTube

[RedLeg]

fast is slow, slow is steady, steady is fast.

slow everything down by at least half.
focus on right hand evenness and finger pull.
evenness and steadiness is the key

to build speed, take tip from Adam Nitti.
Pick a random 4-12 note pattern; string jumps, position changes, or simple stuff. whatever technique you are stressing
Play it at 110 or 120 at eighth notes 2 -3 times through, on the third time burst it to 16th notes. repeat the whole thing. pretty soon you will be able to burst 2 times in a row. pretty soon you will be edging the metronome to 125, 130, and beyond. Ask adam about this technique, he showed it to my class and it really helped me out. I bet you could add three finger right hand into his technique to build strength and accuracy. I have used this technique to alternate picking.

[J_Walton]

I've been working on this technique for a few years now (and I'm still not even a tenth of the way to mastering it) but I did do a fair bit of googling and youtubing and it seems that there are two ways you can go about it (excluding thumb use): Option a) ring, middle, index middle, ring, middle, index, middle e.t.c. Option b) ring, middle, index, ring, middle index e.t.c. I know that both Steve DiGiorgio and Steve Bailey employ option (a) to great effect, however I tend to agree with Billy Sheehan's philosophy that this method results in your middle finger doing twice as much work; hence I go with option (b). The issue that I find arises is the persistent triplet feel, which can only be eliminated with hard practice (it's worth mentioning that the first method doesn't seem to exhibit this kind of issue).

The other factor to consider is whether you are utilizing rest stroke/raking technique. If you play with free strokes it's all good, but for my playing style I really like to use the rest strokes and rakes to bring out the groove (plus it *can* allow you to play some devilishly quick passages with practice). The issue that arises (at least for me) lies in string skipping. Say for example that you wanted to play the lower C on the G string followed by the lower C on the A string. In this instance you can't rake without creating a noise instance in between the two notes (which can sound great in the right places). This means that one of your other fingers must be ready to pluck the second C. If the first C is, say, played with your ring finger, you might consider skipping the middle and playing the second lower C with your index, as your index is shorter and closer, and the muscles are more independent of your ring finger. Or you might not. It all depends on the size of your hands, general dexterity, and willingness to practice something potentially uncomfortable long and hard in order to create a natural feeling technique. I should also note that if you play the first note in this example with your middle finger you'd have no option but to rake through or use a "close" finger... Something I'm still learning bout and working on.

[paganjack]

SLOW DOWN to start and get it really really consistent. Then gradually, gradually gradually move up in tempo. If you can record yourself sometime DO IT. It's painful sometimes, but it is so worth it.

Focus on shifting the beat with your fingers. I start with the ring finger, so it goes like
R m i r - M i r m - I r m i - R m i r

And so on, it's weird feeling at first, but it begins to feel more natural.

[J_Walton]

Originally Posted by paganjack

Focus on shifting the beat with your fingers. I start with the ring finger, so it goes like
R m i r - M i r m - I r m i - R m i r

Ditto, that's a great exercise that really helped me a lot.

[Fergie Fulton]

I'd like to point out that having a specific starting finger (dominant finger) is a pointless endevour in some of the advice posted on this thread.

Lets assume that you start on the same finger (dominant finger) and develop this further...what can you expect?

What you will develop is the starting finger "looking" for the strong beats in the songs you play. In metal music that uses galloping times sigs, not so much an issue, but in other forms it will be if you want to be true to the practice you put in.

1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 or 3-2-1-3-2-1-3-2-1-3-2-1 are the same thing but the strong beat is in a different place in relation to the finger playing it.
Look in either example and you will see 1-2-3 or 3-2-1 fingering in each, the reality is the beat is in the same place it is the fingers that have changed, they just start on a different finger to emphisis the beat. In either above you will also see elements of 2-3-1 and 2-1-3.


In a 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2 we get closer to a true three finger technique. As you can see in the fingering it does not matter where you start the finger , (look in to the middle of the sequence and pick and starting point) as the next finger will follow it regardless, what matters is where the strong beat is.
This is one of the first hurdles to clear in working on a three finger technique, is to allow any finger to play any note on any beat. To give an example is you play a song in straight four 1/4 notes to the bar, and put the strong beat on the 1, then at the start of each bar you have the beat on the starting finger.
That is 4 notes in the bar one for each finger, but what if we introduce a rest, or a 1/2 note then we only have three notes to play so by rights the strong beat will appear on the middle finger now. Introduce two 1/8th notes the we have in effect five notes now so the strong beat will appear on the middle finger also. This is one of the flaws of a 1-2-3-1-2-3 or 3-2-1-3-2-1 fingering, is that the stong beat will always change, even in simple straight fours.

Because music is not always in fours the idea to develop a technique that is secure or dependent in this is the weakness to any three finger technique. As in two finger techniques players will rake or double hit to put the starting finger back on the beat, so three finger players will skip or re-set the dominant finger every chance they get. A true three finger technique starts on any finger, and lets any finger, play any note on any beat. To that end the brain must understand what is going on and accept that there is no dominant finger to play strong beats, but any finger that arrives on a strong beat can play it.

I do not see this as a problem for anyone, but just making anyone aware that it is there, in case they decide they want to start on a true three finger technique ( non dominant finger), rather than just gallops or a following 1-2-3 and variations of it technique.