Techniques you've picked up subconciously..for better or worse

[heath_the_great]

well myself ive noticed 2 things, 1 good 1 bad,

Good:
ive noticed i have the full on right hand jaco technique happening, about a year ago i borrowed the jaco technique video, (borrowed cos i cant justify forking out $70 on the dvd) and i watched it about 10 times that week and i tried to do the right hand technique but couldnt get it happenin but over the last coupla weeks ive just looked at my right hand and gone whoa...not as fast as jaco yet..but one day

Bad:
ive also noticed that when i slap some faster songs like tommy the cat, black ice, count zero etc etc ive noticed that on my right hand (again!!) ive been anchoring my pinky on the body for more leverage and i cant seem to pull off those songs as good if i dont anchor my pinky down.....well i see this as bad

[Ozzyman]

I used to rake... I nkow better now

[Lenko]

I thought raking was good; Glenn Letsch even had a couple of BP columns on that topic...

[heath_the_great]

rake if it feels good to you, personally, i rake, really, theres no tonal difference if you play the same line if ya rake it or not...so whats the big deal

[dTune]

What exactly is raking...? is it me or the language...

[heath_the_great]

say you have a line to play

Jaco Pastorius - Blackbird
g |-6----7----9------------
d |--7----9----11----------
a |---0----0-----0---------
e |-------------------------

instead of alternating 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1 to play each note, with finger 1 on the Dflat on the g string you pull your finger down to play the other notes on the d and a strings..then use finger 2 to play the next 3 notes then back to finger 1

[dTune]

Right. I use that too. I always found it a lot easier, and it became a problem after i started using three fingers...

[GrooveWarrior]

I anchor my pinkie when I am slapping those songs too. Another bad habit is relying on minor pentatonic too often for fills.

[anomalybass]

A few weeks ago I noticed that I rest my ring finger on the same string as my thumb when I'm not plucking w/ it...Anyone else do that?

[l0calh05t]

Originally Posted by Ozzyman

I used to rake... I nkow better now

There's nothing wrong with raking as long as you still play precisely (which is harder when raking than when playing normally).

One thing I do/learned subconciously is to mute with my right hand ring finger and pinky when all of my left hand fingers are occupied doing something else.

[werbo1]

bassically using only the first and third fingers of my left hand...tryin to fix it

[tucker]

well, ive been playing for about 7 years, ive picked up so many techniques without even knowing it. like the doublr thumb vic uses, i didnt even know how to do it and ten i just kept listening to him and getting it down. just last night i found out i can get slap sextuplets. its really easy. its kind of like fingerpicking but with a much harder attack on the strings. ive found that ive also been plaing two handed piano like playing style on the bass, chords and lines all together. it sounds great. ill post it when i can get enough do re mi for a mic. But my right hand is so much better than my left hand. so now im not working on technique. a little advice to those who are into all the technique. work on your fret hand first cause you're going to hate it when you have your right hand doing a **** load of stuff that your left hand cant handle. basically its like a balance beam. try to keep everything even. im right handed so my playing balance beam is like this /. it sucks cause im good with my left hand but its so elementary.

[TOOL460002]

i didnt own an amp for about 8 months and developed the terrible habbit of anchoring my right hand on the neck. finally cleansed myself of that, though.

raking- it's simply more efficient and for myself, at least, more natural feeling- id have to try not to do it.

[khay0s]

Originally Posted by TOOL460002

raking- it's simply more efficient and for myself, at least, more natural feeling- id have to try not to do it.

I'm the complete opposite. Although, I must admit that I find myself doing a 122 or 211 often instead of 121 when playing on successive strings. In the end, if it sounds good and comes natural then thats all that matters.

Leigh

[Gamm]

I'm a little late on this one but sometime, without even noticing it, I used to do a major 2nd with my index and my last finger ( the little one ). Reflex, bad habit, call it what you want

[geoffkhan]

Originally Posted by Ozzyman

I used to rake... I nkow better now

Dude, if you've ever seen Jaco play, he rakes so much! I rake a bit, but not nearly as much as he does.

[buzzbass]

Good- I started using 3 instead of 2 fingers on my right hand to try and make trplets more even. Now it's gone to using all 4 fingers on my right hand for certain things. I never made an effort to bring in that 4th plucking finger. It just happened. I couldn't even tell you when it happened. It's sort of like a "tapping your fingers on a desk" motion starting with the pinkie 1st.

Bad- No matter what bass I play, I MUST have a pickup or thumb rest to anchor my thumb on.

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by buzzbass

...Bad- No matter what bass I play, I MUST have a pickup or thumb rest to anchor my thumb on.

Yup.

I used to have to play like that, but just for the last few months I've been trying to remember to make myself always trail-along, muting unused low stringswith my thumb. I'm glad I am - it's getting very natural feeling now, and not only am I playing cleaner because of the muting, but my three-fingered triplets are coming-around now - I think not having my hand spread open like that lets me control that ring finger better. That's how I've often caught myself anchoring: I'll think "Eesch! What was with that triplet?! Ohhh, I bet.. yup, I'm anchoring that thumb again."

It's much more immediately noticeable when I'm using all the gain that comes along with compressor-plus-distortion! I'm working on super-cleanly played analog-synth sounds (don't have a sweep filter yet, but what I get from this sustainer-into-ODB is a killer 'oscillator' tone), and not much takes away from a Moog sound than to have sypathetic string vibration mixed-in with your notes.

Between the roll-down Scrunchie nut mutes, lefthand slop-muting, and righthand thumb-trailing, I'm starting to get some real clean control over those strings!

Joe

[geoffkhan]

Originally Posted by buzzbass

Bad- No matter what bass I play, I MUST have a pickup or thumb rest to anchor my thumb on.

Um, that's not bad. I've seen a lot of good bassists anchor their thumb on a pickup. Personally I anchor my thumb on the lowest string, which allows me to use my thumb to pluck the lowest string if needed.

[EmmSee]

Victor rakes all the time... everyone rakes. 'Cept Billy Sheehan.