Ring-Middle, no index?

[kipsus]

Searched the forum, found nothing. So this thread was born

I usually play all the faster stuff using rmi-rmi plucking technique and that works fine. But with the slower stuff tone becomes more of an issue.

The position can always be shifted, you can plouck further from the bridge etc. But one thing that can't be changed is the shape of fingertips. I mean, my index finger tends to have a lot less meat on it so the sound is always kinda.. snappy, no matter what I do. And different fingernail configuration plays its part here too..

But my middle and ring fingers are almost identical, it's just a bit more difficult to play using only those two (doesn't matter on slow tunes anyway) and it's a bit more comfy than using one just finger.

I know, just do whatever floats your boat, but are there any fellow bassists that forget their index fingers occasionally?

[xafofo]

i don't use my ring finger.. but yea sometimes i just use my middle. my index is also sharper and produces a snappier sound, so when i need a thumpier sound i just use my middle

[Tuvoe]

Originally Posted by kipsus

I usually play all the faster stuff using rmi-rmi plucking technique and that works fine. But with the slower stuff tone becomes more of an issue.

I had that problem at first too, it had to do with the fact that I was doing rmi instead of imr. It felt more natural to me at first but I was told by my instructor when I was plucking from ring to middle to index instead of plucking fully I was instead torqueing my wrist to add a bit of pull to assist with the pluck. This means that I was using a large amount of pull with my ring, a lesser amount of pull with my middle and a full on pluck with my index. This technique is be no means wrong, but since I have switched to an imr plucking technique I feel that my tone is more consistent at both fast and slow tempos. It's may be difficult to switch but if you wanted to it wouldn't take more than a couple weeks, just start slow and work your way up. I'm a big fan of 3 finger fingerstyle; when I try going back to just 2 fingers I just feel naked.

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by kipsus

...are there any fellow bassists that forget their index fingers occasionally?

Yes! r-to-m is an important technique to me.

When I'm playing finger funk - like a disco or soul tune, or a hiphop-ish sound - Not-only does it seem to generally groove better for some things (like... Back In Love Again - a disco-sort of tune - is one I can think of where I use it through the whole song, pretty much), but I get the huge advantage of having that index coming down to MUTE right-after the middle-finger pluck!

..Yeah - it's Back In Love Again: for the main "boop a-doop a-doop doop"-part, all the "a-doops" are ring to middle, to an index MUTE.

Joe

[Blunt]

Myung uses this for some speedy passages and I do occasionally.

Fernando Saunders used this finger combo pretty exclusively If I remember correctly.

[Pilgrim]

Depends. if you learn on an upright bass, you won't ever tend to forget the index finger....but you may tend to de-emphasize use of the third finger, which is the weakest.

In fact, if you read the lessons on Carol kaye's website, she recommends against excess use of the third finger to reduce the chance of repetitive motion injuries.

[bassist 4 life]

John Myung sometimes plays that way, and he can play pretty fast with it.