Right hand technique is a mess - Solutions ?

[BillyRay]

I've been palying for a long time but took a longish break during wich I sold almost all of my stuff and stopped practicing completly. Now that I'm well back into it, I notice flaws in my right hand plucking technique that weren't there when I stopped playing:

a) Rake. I rake. Badly. On the way down and ON THE WAY UP ! I injured my ring finger during my break and have started phasing it out of my playing (it is bent and does not have the same good tone as my two other fingers). When I was using three fingers, it wasn't a problem since I always kept a strict alternance of the index and middle finger and only used the ring fingers to skip strings (up and down). I know this is far from othodox, but it wouldn't throw me off and I always had a "spare" finger for fast/syncopated runs/licks.

Now that I noly use two, I catch myself always using the middle finger first, on any string, making sweep arpeggios and the like sluggish and difficult. This also throws off my 16th phrasing, especially when I want to skip strings.

b) I tend to favor one finger playing during boring passages, especially if I need to sing. I wasn't doing this before and a quick solution is hard to find since I sing a LOT more than I used to. I can't just think about alterning, keeping pitch, rythmn and notes at the same time !

c) Ghost notes. I incorporate a lot of ghost notes, probably to hide the slopiness created by only using the middle finger to transpose strings.

Any exercices to force very strict alternance ? I know to take it slow (Ive started doing that), but I'm looking at specific drills.

[Tenma4]

If you can get the middle finger out of the way, use the index and ring finger. Another set of options would be to use ring & pinky, or thumb and index.

I have a problem with my middle finger. I still use it, but it is about half the speed of my index, no matter what I do. I can still use index and middle, but for faster tempos must switch to something else. I prefer thumb and index like a pick. In the past 9 months, I've switched almost entirely to a pick + fingers similar to Dominique Di Piazza, or some of what Trip Wamsley does. I find now I have the definition that I always wanted, a thicker tone (Gator Grip 1.5 mm green picks), and more tonal variation.

Don't give up! It's frustrating at first, but you can do it with some practice and setting your mind to it. I could hold my own well before the injury, but now I'm hanging with folks better than ever. It took me 9 months of playing like crazy though to adapt.

[BillyRay]

It's my RING finger that is injured, not my middle finger. I'm thinking about switching to pick for shows and rehearsals and only play alternate drills with my two fingers until my problem is under control. It is annoying.

Ha, the joys of being self-taught (on bass). Got instruction for keys and trombone.

[Tenma4]

Woops! Ring, not middle... how'd I do that?

[onlyclave]

I personally don't see a problem with raking as long as you are clean and consistent. It has this bad stigma that it doesn't deserve.

I think if you want to train your hands to stop raking try playing a lot of octave exercises like disco bass lines and mixing up the rhythms. It's pretty hard to rake and jump a string at the same time and if you start very slowly it might clean things up for you.

[BillyRay]

Well, I'm doing this but also taking things CRAZY slow for a few reasons:

a) To lock up my tendency to always start on the middle finger, I'm now forcing myself to start every lick/run/song/exercize/pattern on the index finger. This will clean up the ghost notes and sloppy phrasing.

b) It was painfully hard yesterday for me not to resert to my old habit. the thign is, I can still play 16ths cleanly up to 130 bpm playing like this (scales, esay patterns), but when I incorporate string skipping, octaves or genreally musical playing (not exercizes) the **** hits the fan. Most would not care but I want my playing to be precise and not sloppy.

c) Always nice to keep it slow once in a while. I'm not as tasteful as I once was, partly due to the other band members love for hammering power chords, simple riffs (and I've lost some mastery of the fretboard). This lead me to take more sonic place in terms of melody/harmony but it also made my playing much more busy but also boxy.

d) Lighten up my touch. Way easier to practice a light touch playing slow.

e) Clean up the fingerings. Altough I've always had a good left hand.

So what I'm basically doing is a lot of weird scales/fingerings and playing straight forward root pumping a lot: it makes it easier for me to catch myself resort to the old patterns.

So far it's going well. I haven't tried tackling 16th yet at a speed upwards of 76 bpm and I'm not in any hurry to do so. This will be the most furstrating part, but also the most rewarding. I've noticed my playing was getting more and more effortless.

Any more ideas as to how to help/speed up the process ?

[MrBorisSpider]

Just practice simple patterns and force yourself to alternate digits. Raking is actually a good thing as it conserves energy and motion. If you're going to be doing a lot of sweeping, just use a pick.

[BillyRay]

Not to open the whole rake debate once again, but I'm trying to get rid of it in order to be able to do it or not on command and not be stuck with it.

I played with a pick yesterday and found out I don't have much stamina with it, but I can hang in there. Playign with flats is also probably a factor. They are damn rigid and getting the note to sound out needs a bit more force than with rounds.

[sflajimmy]

a) To lock up my tendency to always start on the middle finger, I'm now forcing myself to start every lick/run/song/exercize/pattern on the index finger. This will clean up the ghost notes and sloppy phrasing.

I have tendency to start on my middle finger and I used to drive myself nuts thinking about this being wrong until I read a lesson somewhere that said it doesn't matter (if you start out on the middle) and the light bulb went on. As long as you still alternate middle/index why does it matter which finger you start on?

[crazyguy832]

^^^
Bingo. It doesn't matter... at all.

It's more natural for me to play M i M i M i ... so I do. Doesn't hold me back one bit.

Makes more sense, imo.

Go tap your fingers (all of them, in a row) on a desk.

Did you start with your pinky and move to the index or did you go the other way? Chances are, you went p r m i. This is the logic behind why I use the patterns I do (2 fingered playing starts with M, 3 with R, and 4 with P).

[Dogbertday]

i also start on my middle finger. I was always told that it doesn't matter.. i'm not too strict with which finger I use unless I'm not getting the job done or tone that I want

[MrBorisSpider]

I agree. I used to drive myself nuts with starting with the index. Now, I don't care much.

[JimmyM]

There are a lot of great bassists who start with their middle finger. Dave LaRue, for one. But BillyRay makes a good point...if you can play using strict alternation, you're not stuck with raking when you need to be SA'ing.

Just drill yourself on it and practice not raking. And practice slowly slowly slowly! Then gradually build speed. Don't try to do it at 200 BPM to start . And then if you want to rake sometimes, do it, but a lot of difficult lines with a lot of rapid 16th notes in a row get a lot easier if you don't rake. You just have to push yourself. At this point, I've gotten adept with SA enough to where I never rake because it's easier for me.

[BillyRay]

The thing that happens if you only can start on the middle finger is when you take a quick 16th rest during a fast phrase, you'll have a tendency to stop alternating and this can break your rythmn/flow.

I know that it does it for me.