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Fingerstyle: alternating with mixed note lengths

P

phnx

Guest
Apr 27, 2015
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0
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#1
Hello :)

I'm a guitarist transitioning to bass. When picking on the guitar, my right hand usually follows the rhythm when alternate picking, e.g. I will play

1/4 1/8 1/8
as
down (empty up) down up.

Does this apply to bass fingerstyle as well?
I.e., would I play above rhythm as
Index (empty middle) index middle?

Or is it more common to always alternate, regardless of timing?
 
#2
I would say play it however you like, whatever feels good to you. I almost always alternate (no "empties") unless there's a long gap to "reset". I keep trying to get my right ring finger up to speed as well, not very successfully thus far (on bass, at least, all 5 work ok for guitar fingerpicking, but that's a rather different hing). With fingerstyle, there's normally not a whole lot of tonal difference between index and middle, unlike down/up pick strokes on guitar.
 
#8
it shows. Anyway, going from the front to the back is always difficult. I was never a big fan of alternate picking because of the lack of efficiency and loss of feel, that said, I transitioned to bass and it was always nice at first to have a since of rhythm which translates to the highs and mid highs on bass...the sounds your ear instantly hears in a live monitoring setting as a click. The further I got along the easier it was to dial these back into a tone that worked better for me. When I am learning a new riff or writing something I will start with what I am trying to accomplish and practice the way that it is easiest for my brain to make my fingers do it.
 
#12
On guitar, I tend to consistently strum up-down for subdividing tempo especially for funk-style percussive strumming. Certainly I could use all down-strokes especially for certain music like metal when I want to make sure the low-strings are hit first.

For bass, I'm pretty inconsistent when it comes which fingers are used for plucking:

||: (Q) (E)(E)(Q) (E)(E)|(Q) (E)(E)(Q) (E)(E) :||
||: (2) (1)(2)(2) (1)(2)|(2) (3)(2)(1) (2)(1) :||

Sometimes I might start with my index (1), instead of my middle (2). I add in my ring finger (3) sometimes when I feel like resting my other fingers. There's absolutely no actual planned set process when I pluck other than what string I may have to play next, and where I want to strike the string. So if the second note is an octave higher and I want a brighter sound, I'll use my ring finger to play closer to the bridge, then back to the index and middle to pluck closer to the neck on the lower strings.

I might do ghost notes, barely plucking the string, if there are off-beats as a means to subdivide the tempo. Such as if the second note was a eighth-note rest instead.

Now that I wrote it out, it just seems ridiculous, but that's the technique I use.
 
Last edited:
#13
phnx said:
Hello :)

I'm a guitarist transitioning to bass. When picking on the guitar, my right hand usually follows the rhythm when alternate picking, e.g. I will play

1/4 1/8 1/8
as
down (empty up) down up.

Does this apply to bass fingerstyle as well?
I.e., would I play above rhythm as
Index (empty middle) index middle?

Or is it more common to always alternate, regardless of timing?
Click to expand...
I've recently been working on learning to play with a pick after 15 years of playing exclusively fingerstyle. One major reason I'm attracted to pickstyle is exactly what you said about guitar: i.e., alternate picking with a strumming motion that follows the rhythm, with downstrokes on downbeats and upstrokes on upbeats, as per Carol Kaye (whose bass pickstyle technique is considered by many as something of a gold standard). I really enjoy the way that physical motion matches up with the rhythm, especially on certain kinds of grooves. (Maybe this is because tapping my foot to the rhythm doesn't work for me at all.)

In contrast, I've never heard of anything analogous to this for fingerstyle: I think it's much more common to just maintain more-or-less strict alternation. I've actually tried playing around with this, to see if I could find some way to carry over the downbeats/upbeats thing into fingerstyle, but I haven't found anything that works. I'm staying with strict alternation for fingerstyle, irrespective of note lengths.
 

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