Gary Willis and his three fingers

[wishface]

I don't know how many players play the way he does. It's interesting as his reasoning seems entirely credible in terms of hand position. That aside, I notice he uses three fingers and I'd be interested to know if this techique/position works if you only use two fingers (I, M)

 

[Les Fret]

Not sure if many players use his exact right hand technique. I don't think so. It is more his personal technique I think. It works great for him obviously but I never really liked it for myself. I don't see the point in holding the ring finger on the G string for example. I know it is for muting but you mute that string with your left hand anyway so I never understood why that is necessary.

 

[JohnArnson]

When using my fingers to pick the strings of my bass, which I don't do all that often more, since I much prefer the aggressive sort of tone with a lot of emphasis on the initial attack a pick gives me, I use a combination of just about any technique there is, double thumbing, holding the index and thumb together using the edge/nail of the index finger as I would a pick, classical acoustic guitar finger picking, as well as, for bass, more traditional 2 and 3 finger picking.

Not sure if that covers how Gary Willis in particular does it, not really familiar with him, but yes, when using my fingers to plug the strings of my bass I sometimes will use 3 fingers.

 

[Les Fret]

When using my fingers to pick the strings of my bass, which I don't do all that often more, since I much prefer the aggressive sort of tone with a lot of emphasis on the initial attack a pick gives me, I use a combination of just about any technique there is, double thumbing, holding the index and thumb together using the edge/nail of the index finger as I would a pick, classical acoustic guitar finger picking, as well as, for bass, more traditional 2 and 3 finger picking.

Not sure if that covers how Gary Willis in particular does it, not really familiar with him, but yes, when using my fingers to plug the strings of my bass I sometimes will use 3 fingers.

That's nice but has nothing to do with the topic...listen to Gary Willis first!

 

[franklindayala]

I don't know how many players play the way he does. It's interesting as his reasoning seems entirely credible in terms of hand position. That aside, I notice he uses three fingers and I'd be interested to know if this techique/position works if you only use two fingers (I, M)

I use the Gary Willis 3 fingers exclusively. Mayor advantage is that it's easy to make string change easily and for songs that are slow tempo I use only one finger.

Another thing that Willis talks about is the position of the wrist in the plucking hand (not bending it) and it has helped me a lot. I had a very bad tendinitis in that hand and if it wasn't for this I wouldn't be playing at all. Also a difference in volume of each note helps you with expression.

So the answer is Yes definitely.