Play with fingers, or fingers & pick?

[CauliColin]

I'm just curious to see which would be more suited to my playing.
For the record, I play Metallica and RHCP usually.

[jaywa]

Well the cover band purist would say you use whatever the original artist used, on the original recording. In which case:

Metallica - Fingers for Cliff Burton era, Pick for Newsted era, and not sure which Trujillo uses.

RHCP - Slap or fingers

I've played in a bunch of cover bands and I try to follow that rule as much as possible but sometimes for me it just doesn't work out. For example, "Barracuda" by Heart was recorded with a pick but I use my fingers because my pick technique simply isn't up to it. Beatles stuff was all recorded with a pick but I use my fingers because I can get the tone closer to McCartney's that way (pick is too twangy).

It really depends on how close you want to get to the original artist's rendition but if comes down to that or which technique you can execute better, I'd say go with that you're better with.

[theduke1]

The thing about playing is develop your own sound, play from the heart and not off the page. I am left handed,but play right handed (long story) so my picking is poor at best, so I play with fingers. I have never been told that I should be playing a certain song with a pick. Do all your music to the best of your ability and its all good!

[DenisKrestsov]

For Metallica use pick, more attack and bite, for RHCP use fingers get that warm thumpy sound

[CauliColin]

I'll see what I can do.
Btw, Rob Trujillo uses pick & fingers.

[Slax]

Originally Posted by theduke1

The thing about playing is develop your own sound, play from the heart and not off the page. I am left handed,but play right handed (long story) so my picking is poor at best, so I play with fingers. I have never been told that I should be playing a certain song with a pick. Do all your music to the best of your ability and its all good!

I'm left handed and play righty also. For starting my right hand was way better at picking than fingers. It took a lot of devoted time to get my right hand plucking to surpass my picking.

[Russell L]

Depends on what you can do. There is a wealth of tunes that I can't play because I don't play slap, for instance, but I don't care. Not my thing anyway. Some songs require that you do certain things. If you're wondering whether to cover them the way they were originally recorded, then you must do it their way. Or, do like me and just play finger style and get what you can. Being a guitar player, you'd think I play with a pick, but no. Very rarely.

[CauliColin]

I did start playing with fingers, switched to pick whilst my blisters healed up, then went to fingers again, then they callused.

[jordy_on_bass]

I'm a lefty playing a righty bass, I personally believe it gives me a slight advantage over rightys playing righty bass as my more dominant hand is doing the fret work. But having my non-dominant hand doing the picking/plucking has never really been an issue, I am ambidextrous. When I first started, I played pick and then moved onto using fingers. I use both nowadays as I believe being a good bassist means you can do both. I even switch between fingers and pick during a song, depending on what I feel like doing. I usually just put the pick between my teeth. Most people think its improvising, I call it mood swings lol.
I have seen bassists play RHCP covers with a pick and later metallica with fingers. When you are in a cover band, I don't think any of the audience really cares how you play - as long as it sounds good!

[Omer]

I use my fingers because that's what I like. If I try to use a pick, it gets embarrassing really quick.

I don't care how the original sounds - I mean, I do, but sometimes I notice that my fingerstyle playing gives a different feeling to the original, which I like. If I want some kind of attack sound, then besides messing with the EQ, I play it near the bridge in a way which resembles a pick sound, a bit. I've also been experimenting with hitting the strings with my nails, which is kind of like a pick, for instance. Really, there's tons of different sounds that you can find using your fingers alone.

By the way, I'm kind of self taught, which I think is an advantage at times. Sometimes I take a look at instructional videos, or ask my friends to help me out, but mostly I try to figure it out myself. It gives me freedom to experiment with technique.

[AmadeusXeno]

I say learn finger style, pick, and slap&pop. Then use whatever feels right for YOU. I like taking a cover and make it my own with a different playing style and added fills. If I want the origional version I'll play along with a cd.