Little tip for you all...

[Shaun_Bass0]

...Thought i'd share this with you all as it really worked for me, hopefully can for some of you too.

Bit of background: I've been playing exclusively pick style since I started, and recently thought I really should start to develop a decent fingerstyle technique and learn new things to start becoming a more rounded player. So to do this I took all the basslines from my band's song's (all written with a pick) and start to play them fingerstyle instead. This way I figured rather than learning to play fingerstyle songs, re-learning parts with some pretty fast picking would, overtime, benefit me more as my consitency, accuracy and speed would improve, as would my understanding of my lines and their context within the song.

Anyway, the point of my post is to say that, even though I wasn't intentionally working on it, my left hand technique has also vastly improved as a result of this. I'm quicker, more accurate and capable of longer stretches than I was before. Because I was working on a 1-2-3-2 finger picking pattern, I forced to think more about which finger was picking which note, which in turn forced me to match up what my left and right hands were doing a lot more than when your either alternate/downpicking where all the emphasis is on the rythm of one point of contact (pick) as opposed to 3 (fingers)

Seriously give it a try, songs you know inside out can be challenging again as you're thinking about them in different ways, and personally this has benefitted me more than months of chromatic exercises!

Hope this helps some people, if not I still think its pretty kool!

Cheers,

[spindizzy]

This is to me good advice really. I am the opposite playing with a pick only infequently perfering fingerstyle most of the time. However if I am ever stuck, particularly if it is a more rythmic piece, for a bassline I will sometimes start out by playing it with a pick. This usually forces me to think outside my usual box and also leaves me concentrating on the groove a bit more than technique at that point. Nine times out of ten I will then start to play the part without the pick (except for some lead type parts where frankly I can sweep with a pick and sometimes it helps with crisper better defined notes) as that is when I am most comfortable.

Good advice in MHO.

Spin

[GreenFunkGuy]

When I firsted started trying to play with a fourth finger I was never sure if I should go 1-2-3-2 or 1-2-3-1, why did you choose to go back to the the middle finger (2), and what are advantages of one vs the other?

[Shaun_Bass0]

I tried for a while to go 1-2-3-4, but found out my little finger is pretty useless(!), so tried the 1-2-3-2 option and found it worked really well for me. I found that as well having more consistency in volume and attack, I also didn't have to stretch my 4th finger to hit the higher strings which was causing me to shift between 2 hand positions which was hindering accuracy. Also going back to the 2nd/middle finger is also less of a shift back to the 1st finger, as well as these two are generally your strongest, so most accurate, fingers.

As usual its all subjective and down to the individual player, but the song I used to get this up to speed was "running free" by Iron Maiden. Just listen to the intro bass riff and figure out the right hand fingering by playing it real slow at first and counting each note as the finger you'll be using on your right hand (1-2-3-2,1-2-3-2 etc). Its played in 4's, ie a 1-2-3-4 note count becomes 1-2-3-2 on the right hand fingering, that will be a lot clearer when listening to the actual song!

Hope that makes sense, if not i'll try and explain it clearer if I can...good luck with it

[BradDupree]

I only use my fingers and i play in a metal band but i cant just get the feel for a pick for some reason