Playing very fast with fingers

[ric1312]

Originally Posted by Tomservo17

Play hard, REALLY snap those strings with your fingers, picture it as a form of weight training, do nothing but that for a while and you'll steadily get better. Practice practice practice.

This is probably the worst advice I've ever heard on this forum.

Not only does hitting the strings overly hard kill the tone it actually makes you play slower.

Don't listen to this guy he doens't know what he's talking about.

I play finger style with 2 and three fingers sometimes very quickly.

The key to playing fast is a light touch. Using less effort and muscle will always go faster.

You need to have your bass set up with an action that is low so the bass is sensitive and have the amp loud enough that you don't have to pound on it.

Play the bass don't bang on it.

[shostkontrabass]

All I can say is just give it time. There's no real way that I am aware of to strengthen your fingers into lightspeed shape overnight. It's something that comes from playing for years and slowly building up strength and stamina. I would advise focusing on just two fingers, personally. You should be able to get the speed you want out of just two. The only time I use 3 is when I purposely want the "gallop" sound.

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by Marcus Willett

Or (MUCH more important to me); it's not going to make you a good musician. That point is so often lost, especially with bass players in their (understandable) strives to be accepted/respected by other musicians.

On the other hand a good musician can use any technique to their advantage as long as they know how to use it appropriately.

Originally Posted by Marcus Willett

Going back to the FX analogy...flashy FX in a movie is great...as long as the story is there underneath the flash. That's really my only point in this. Chops for the sake of chops is empty calories...it might be yummy but it will not nourish your musical soul.

I personally agree with you. On the other hand who is to say that music made just for the sake of technique isn't valid, and how do you really define the line between one and the other subjectively?

[Marcus Willett]

Originally Posted by mutedeity

who is to say that music made just for the sake of technique isn't valid

I guess I am

[Traver]

Thanks for all the tips.

One of the things mentioned was to avoid having my picking hand in a 90 degree angle, and this has helped my endurance tremendously (like thrice). BUT! whenever I try to actually play something like that, I end up playing very very sloppy, because my picking arm gets very tense, because I cannot relax it on the bass. And also, because I can not control the angle of the bass with my resting arm, I have to use my left hand (fretting hand?) to hold up the neck, resulting in clumsier movement of that hand. I also heard that you can actually get injuries if you keep playing with your picking hand in a 90 degree angle?

So any further tips on how to actually being able to play without resting my picking hand on the bass?

[whoapower]

Originally Posted by Traver

And also, because I can not control the angle of the bass with my resting arm, I have to use my left hand (fretting hand?) to hold up the neck, resulting in clumsier movement of that hand.

Are you standing up when practicing? When you are sitting down, you are probably holding your bass more than letting it hang from you. Also, once you stand up, your strap length might be different and thus, all the angles from picking to fingering to fretting, will all be different.

[whoapower]

btw, to get rid of the gallop, and become faster at three fingered picking, see if you can find Billy Sheehan's old videos. He talks about this. But to take care of the gallop, use a metronome and go s l o w... go s l o w... no, I mean s l o w and build up.

[bkbirge]

Originally Posted by Traver

So any further tips on how to actually being able to play without resting my picking hand on the bass?

Rest your thumb on the thumb rest, or edge of a pickup or fingerboard, or wherever you can, I usually hang mine on the edge of the pickguard of my P but you gotta do what works for you. Then you can lift your elbow up so your wrist isn't bent so much and still have control of the bass. When you lift that elbow up don't slump your shoulder forward either. Stand in front of a mirror and go slow. Doing this boring stuff is absolutely necessary if you want to be in it for the long haul.

I think at this point I should offer the obligatory advice of "get a good bass teacher". If your technique is bad from the start you're just asking for trouble later on, both with achieving what you want out of the bass and with hand injuries. If you aren't a beginner then you'll need to unlearn some habits it sounds like.