Make Plucking Fingers Stronger?

[Bassist Matt]

I want to start play bass with my fingers because I've been using a pick ever since I started playing bass. Is there a technique or strategy to make plucking fingers stronger?

[Gyoon]

Look up Gary Willis on Youtube, as well as Todd Johnson's forum right here. They both pluck really lightly, but both sound bad ass.

I don't think that you have to have strong fingers on your right hand in order to play the electric bass well. If you manage to keep your right hand relaxed, you can generate some tremendous accuracy, precision, and speed.

Some guys do play with a lot of tension in their right hand, and they sound great as well, so it seems the choice is up to you. Rocco Prestia hits the strings like there is no tomorrow and he is one of the baddest guys around.

[irishryno]

press down lightly on the string and pull up. don't hook your finger, just let your finger tip push down and scrape. thats all there is to it. work on getting your speed up by practicing the motion on any and everything. you're a bassist, so no one will notice.

[BeerBeer]

Well i have read somewhere in this board and also made that experience myself that playing for a long time just straight easy but relatively fast stuff (for example straight sixteens @ 100 or 120 bpm) until your right hand is really exhausted works well of improving your stamina (of course no exaggerating here, don't play until your hand hurts for and hour afterwards )

playing with or without tension in your right hand is an important decision, really strong exhaustion afflicting your playing should only occur if you play with tension, if you want to get a Steve Harris-like hammer plucking style, thats the way to go

many bass players prefer a lighter style as you can see above, I think if you practice enough Stamina you can play light and hard as you want which improves your variety of dynamics, many players say that this is a great advantage of playing fingerstyle

but there are numerous other ways of plucking the ****, for example John Entwistle used a typewriter-like technique as described above from irishnyo

I also think playing some Slap n' Pop really improves your coordination and overall finger and hand dexterity, especially for the thumb


I must repeat these are only several ways some might do many other stuff ^^

[TheChicken]

The only secret is to practice, but I think that what you're looking for *or at least what you should look for* is endurance, as my teacher says. I practice a lot of right hand, up and down movements (just starting) and he makes me not to pluck the strings too hard.

[unclekebm]

-Squeeze a rubber ball or those exercise sqeeze things
-do push ups with your fingers extended
-counter stretch before and after practicing (push fingers backwards)
-practice practice practice...

[Nashrakh]

+1 on the gary willis recommendation (he gives some really nice tips in those instructional vids).

I never quite got what the fuss was all about, with bass supposedly being an instrument which needs a lot of strength and leads to left hand cramps and stuff.

Actually, guitar is worse to my fingers than bass

[xzzy]

You don't need strength at all for plucking. I guess if you want to sound like geddy lee you might have a justification for bulking up, but in general you'll go a lot further by working on accuracy and agility.

Gary Willis will tell you you've been strong enough to play bass since you were a little kid, and he's right. Once you train yourself to be economical in your movements, you'll discover that plucking is the easy part.

[MusicBokonon]

If you're looking to go three fingers, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj5luoLV2J8 is my advice, although you don't need to take it that fast.

[RMCBass]

Wow, awesome video and advice. Maybe I'll start with three fingers in a near future