Sting's Bass Style

[Luke S Mouse]

Hey, does anyone know any exersizes to get your hand in shape for doing that classical guitar fingerstyle Sting does?

[Rickenbassist]

bump! I'm curious about this as well.

[Clef_de_fa]

If you want to learn to play like a classical guitar player ... you need to learn their plucking technic and their fretting hand position to "get it"

[TN WOODMAN]

I thought Sting's skills were achieved through his purported hours of tantric sex.

[Rickenbassist]

he's debunked that rumor seriously

[Epidrake]

I thought he started that rumor and his wife debunked it.

[Rickenbassist]

he said something along the lines that he can have sex for 9 hours and included in that 9 hours may be dinner and a movie

[maxgrant]

Jesus did this thread go downhill fast!

[Rickenbassist]

you've no idea, but seriously though does no one have any insight about this?

[Luke S Mouse]

I suppose not. Although I didn't expect for a thread that has remained dormant for so long to drop down into the trenches of tantric sex so quickly. The magic of Talkbass. lol

[mc_muench]

The best way? Learn classical fingerstyle guitar, for a classical guitar-like bass playing style.

AH! Zombie thread! Where's my 12-gauge?

[Rickenbassist]

I would say its a lot like Travis Picking . . . which I guess is virtually the same thing. In Sting's case though it looks like he doesn't use his index finger that much but favors his middle and ring fingers. I've watched several concerts now and wait for close ups, and it seems like his index finger is stationary

[Luke S Mouse]

Originally Posted by Rickenbassist

I would say its a lot like Travis Picking . . . which I guess is virtually the same thing. In Sting's case though it looks like he doesn't use his index finger that much but favors his middle and ring fingers. I've watched several concerts now and wait for close ups, and it seems like his index finger is stationary

Is their material readily available on the internet about this technique? Sounds like a pretty interesting alternative to the world of picks, fingers and slappers.

[Luke S Mouse]

*standard two finger technique that is

[Rickenbassist]

Youtube live concert footage and some live dvds. i just wait until there's a close up. If you search for "Mr. Sting best of back to bass" you'll see his technique clearer

[iamjoncoates]

I use a technique simillar to this. I spent a year playing guitar before I saw the light and switched to bass. When I intially first started playing bass guitar, my plucking hand technique was a slight adaptation of my existing fingerstyle technique.

Sting switches between the "rest-stroke" and "free-stroke" techniques used in fingerstyle/classical guitar playing. Rest-stroke is very simillar to bass guitar technique, while free-stroke has you curl your fingers towards the palm of your hand instead of bringing them to rest on the string below. This video does a good job illustrating the two techniques: Classical Guitar Lesson: Rest Stroke & Free Stroke - YouTube

I had to alter this technique slightly for bass. Most of the time, I usually used my index and middle fingers for plucking, and my thumb and the palm of my hand for muting the lower strings. I would ocassionally use my thumb and ring finger for plucking when I played chords, or used palm muting.

Eventually, I ended up switching to a more traditional rest-stroke technique - while the free stroke yields a sharp, punchy tone, it has less fundamental than the rest stroke (at least when I do it, it does). I still use this technique for palm muting (to get a tic-tac tone), and for chordal playing.

[Rickenbassist]

I pretty much play the way Sting plays because it feels more natural. I was a pick player primarily for 18 years, but now I mostly use Sting's technique. Its more versatile in my opinion anyway. I've only seen Sting use Rest-Stroke and Free-Stroke when he's actually playing guitar. When I saw him in concert this passed October he played Message In a Bottle on a classical and used that very style. When he's playing the bass though you can see he's using his thumb and middle finger, and sometimes the ring finger. Only on more staccato parts did I see him use his index finger. There are certain parts in Seven Days, and on After The Rain Has Fallen that you can hear what I'm talking about. Songs like Synchronicity II and Heavy Cloud No Rain will he use a more traditional style of finger plucking. On songs like Next To You he'll hit the strings as if he's using a pick, but its his finger nail that's striking the string.