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Fingering Problems

SurferJoe46

SurferJoe46

Feb 22, 2010
9,057
763
The Bitterroot Mounts, Montana
#1
OK - years and years of 'hooking' and 'thumbing' have led me to a bad habit of not playing with the rest of my fingers.

I'm trying to break a very ingrained habit now and even added a thumb rest to help remind me of new things to learn.

What is the most common fingering to use?

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - etc.

or 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 etc.

I'm having troubles just getting 1 & 2 to work together and keep reverting to just using 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - or going right back to the thumb over and over.

I know - bad habits and old dogs, I guess.

Any drills that you can think of to torture me into submission? :crying:
 
#2
Torture? Play open strings on your bass going from low to high at least 10 times on each string like at around 60 BPM and focus on your right hand making sure to alternate your fingers Index - Middle -Index - Middle (or I-M-R-I-M-R, or I-M-R-P-I-M-R-P, etc). Then play each string once with each finger before moving on to the next string making sure to alternate fingers especially as you switch strings. Then play something like the spider where different notes are separated to different strings and make sure to alternate fingers. Repeat each step as needed until you are thoroughly annoyed and cannot stand it anymore.
 
#3
TheMutt said:
Torture? Play open strings on your bass going from low to high at least 10 times on each string like at around 60 BPM and focus on your right hand making sure to alternate your fingers Index - Middle -Index - Middle (or I-M-R-I-M-R, or I-M-R-P-I-M-R-P, etc). Then play each string once with each finger before moving on to the next string making sure to alternate fingers especially as you switch strings. Then play something like the spider where different notes are separated to different strings and make sure to alternate fingers. Repeat each step as needed until you are thoroughly annoyed and cannot stand it anymore.
Click to expand...

Using just two fingers is gonna give me a 200% increase in finger usage. Right now I can muster the index OK and occasionally toss in the middle.

So -- until I can't stand it any more? :crying:

I will do this for the next two or three weeks and hopefully I can make an improvement in my speed and playing.

Thanks for the drill - that's what I needed. Thanks for caring too. That makes a big difference.

Do you rest the unused finger(s) on a free string to keep it mute? I usually use my palm to quiet them down and it seems as though it's gonna be a lot harder to do that when playing with my fingers now. :eyebrow:
 
#4
The number of bassists who use all 4 fingers on their plucking hand is probably almost nil. Most peoples' pinky finger is so much shorter than their other fingers that it would be extremely impractical to try to incorporate it.

The number of bassists who use 3 fingers is growing, but it's still in the minority. Once you've got the 3 finger technique down you can play blazingly fast. I most definitely do NOT 'have it down' nor will I ever because I rarely work on it. I've played way too long with 2 fingers and trying to play with 3 feels like I'm picking up the instrument for the first time, and it's frustrating and I don't have the patience for it. The only thing I can do faster with 3 fingers than I can with 2 is the 'gallop' because it's basically just like drumming your fingers on a table top. I can play gallops so fast with 3 fingers that it's basically useless because I don't play any music that requires me to play them that fast. The only thing I use 3 fingers for is more of a rhythmic strumming on one note type of effect.

I think most beginning bass players model their playing after their influences initially. If the bassists I liked played with 3 fingers then I probably would have started off trying to play that way too, and being brand new to the instrument it probably wouldn't have felt any more strange than trying to play with 2. Then again, if you started learning the electric bass back in the 50's when the thumb rest was actually positioned as a finger rest and players played with their thumbs, then even playing with one finger could feel foreign.

Personally I think it would be a good idea to get to the point where you're comfortable playing with your index and middle fingers, but if you can play all the music you want to play using just your index finger then there's really no incentive to try to go beyond that.
 
#5
"Foreign" is right! I played the driving bass lines in surf and heavy rock for years before I retired for over 40 years and am still trying to pick up a lot of new things right now.

That only took a finger and the thumb to get all we needed in those days. Sometimes we'd octave up with the thumb on the low note and the finger on the upper to fill the sound a little stronger - but that's all we ever did with chords and multiple strings being played at the same time.

The old amps couldn't differentiate from the octaved notes and just made it muddier and less distinct.

The learning curve is almost completely vertical for me at the mo. All these new things to learn before I die.

I'll be happy getting two fingers to act nicely and play together.

The thumb insists on having it's way and jumps right in when a finger gets confused and that's a very HARD habit to break! After all - it had it's way all these years.

Funny ::: I don't even think about it getting there and taking over until it's too late and it has taken the job away from the fingers. I'm serious here!

[looks at thumb: YOU'RE FIRED!]
 
#6
If it's any consolation, I do play certain things with my thumb, and I have played primarily with my middle finger alone in the past. To this day, I tend to favor it more than my index finger, but I am slowly working on it. :)
 
#7
Thunder Pulse said:
The only thing I can do faster with 3 fingers than I can with 2 is the 'gallop' because it's basically just like drumming your fingers on a table top. I can play gallops so fast with 3 fingers that it's basically useless because I don't play any music that requires me to play them that fast. The only thing I use 3 fingers for is more of a rhythmic strumming on one note type of effect.
Click to expand...

Technically speaking, that's a canter not a gallop.
 
#8
There really isn't a reason to play with 3 fingers for even the fastest basslines. Once you learn how to use two fingers properly, you can *technically* play twice as fast as any pick player, even. A pick is a single surface that strikes the string on both sides. Your fingers are two surfaces that traditionally strike the string from only one side (the pads), but can also be used for two sides. You can play any 4 notes with absolutely blazing speed with this technique.

Just play with two fingers. Three is just silly. Use the backs of your fingers if you need more speed.

There are however, times that I use a traditional PIMA approach to playing bass particularly when I use the top and bottom strings a lot during a particularly fleshed out and harmonized bass line. But these are rare and essentially amount to playing both rhythm and bass at the same time. This is the only place I've ever found a thumb technique to be useful, but others disagree.
 

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