“The Hook”

[Bigtex76]

I recently took up bass. I was quickly told about James Jamerson, the man whom reportedly played bass with his index finger.

But, every piece of video I’ve seen seems to show him using several fingers.

Am I wrong?

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I recently took up bass. I was quickly told about James Jamerson, the man whom reportedly played bass with his index finger.

But, every piece of video I’ve seen seems to show him using several fingers.

Am I wrong?

Look at the right hand. (The one plucking the strings)

 

[Bigtex76]

Thanks for writing. Yes, with his “plucking hand” it seems like more fingers than one. His fretting looks normal.

 

[songwriter21]

There's no way that he played a number of those Motown tunes with only one finger. JJ is a legend, but people never cease making legends impossibly good.

 

[JimmyM]

There's no way that he played a number of those Motown tunes with only one finger. JJ is a legend, but people never cease making legends impossibly good.

I've seen vids of him playing and it sure looks like he only used one finger to me.

 

[Energy]

I recently took up bass. I was quickly told about James Jamerson, the man whom reportedly played bass with his index finger.

But, every piece of video I’ve seen seems to show him using several fingers.

Am I wrong?

Yes he only used one finger but that doesn't mean you need to do the same. It's not his technique that made him famous. Close your eyes and listen to what he's playing.

 

[songwriter21]

I've seen vids of him playing and it sure looks like he only used one finger to me.

The John Bonham of bass....

 

[LeFunk Machine]

I recently took up bass. I was quickly told about James Jamerson, the man whom reportedly played bass with his index finger.

But, every piece of video I’ve seen seems to show him using several fingers.

Am I wrong?

You're NOT wrong. There isn't many videos of him playing and its possible that he used more than one plucking finger in order to produce certain sounds but he mostly used one when playing. To say that he never used two fingers is unbelievable.

 

[Volker Kirstein]

Dunno. Most (65%?) of the time, I only use one finger. However, two is not uncommon.

A lot of the classic motown stuff is one finger-able all day long, so I can see how the Jamerson "hook" anecdotal stories became canon.

 

[Malcolm35]

I came over from rhythm guitar so I started using a pick. The pick gave way to my thumb. About that time I started using the one finger per fret with the major scale box. For some reason my plucking finger mirrored my fretting finger.

After a year or two the fingers started deciding which one would get what. This led to my fretting hand using ofpf but my plucking finger saw the index doing most of the work.

Point of this post, we do kinda grow into what method we end up using.