Observations on playing with a pick

[kmon]

We play rock covers, mostly loud uptempo stuff. Fingerstyle works fine, and sometimes I go through fingerstyle-only phases, but then I'll cycle back to mostly pick(some tunes are always fingerstyle).

Playing with a pick is relatively new for me. Some observations:

1. I like my P bass with fingerstyle. I love my P bass with a pick.

2. Within songs I'll sometimes switch back and forth between downstrokes and alternating while playing the same line in different parts of the song. Keeps things a little more interesting.

3. I feel like I can hit more or less dead-even eighth notes with a pick much more easily than with fingers. I've gotten a lot better at this with fingers but I can nail it pretty well with a pick. Hitting the exact same spot on the string is easier with a pick. That's nice.

4. I have to watch the ergonomics a little more with pick playing. I never have pain with fingerstyle, I've occasionally had some soreness with pick playing.

5. In adopting the pick I had to pay way more attention to what my plucking/picking hand was doing. I think that for years I had let my right hand go on auto pilot with fingerstyle and I had put way more focus on my fretting hand...trying to get the notes right. I've realized this was really bad. In directing the focus back to my right I've recognized some large gaps in my playing with muting/note length/rhythmic accuracy etc...slightly important stuff right?? I think I had just glossed over these deficiencies via willful ignorance and really loud guitar players. The grooves have improved dramatically as a result of working on these areas. I think this points to the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. I've absolutely improved overall as a result of incorporating a new technique.

6. In general I feel cooler playing with a pick, especially when I'm just hammering eighths with downstrokes. Something about the percussive aspect of it brings me slightly, just slightly, more joy than doing it fingerstyle...and yeah I feel cooler.

Anyway...there ya go...

 

[bassicmike]

It's all good!

 

[JRA]

i'm with you on those 8th note "hammering" tunes. i'd like to be better with a pick myself.

 

[kmon]

i'm with you on those 8th note "hammering" tunes. i'd like to be better with a pick myself.

It's fun. Oh another observation: I feel like I can nail more or less dead-even eighth notes with a pick much more easily than with fingers. I've gotten a lot better at this with fingers but I can nail it pretty well with a pick. Hitting the exact same spot on the string is easier with a pick. That's nice.

 

[GKon]

We play rock covers, mostly loud uptempo stuff. Fingerstyle works fine, and sometimes I go through fingerstyle-only phases, but then I'll cycle back to mostly pick(some tunes are always fingerstyle).

Playing with a pick is relatively new for me. Some observations:

1. I like my P bass with fingerstyle. I fu***** love my P bass with a pick.

2. Within songs I'll sometimes switch back and forth between downstrokes and alternating while playing the same line in different parts of the song. Keeps things a little more interesting.

3. I feel like I can hit more or less dead-even eighth notes with a pick much more easily than with fingers. I've gotten a lot better at this with fingers but I can nail it pretty well with a pick. Hitting the exact same spot on the string is easier with a pick. That's nice.

4. In general I feel cooler playing with a pick, especially when I'm just hammering eighths with downstrokes. Something about the percussive aspect of it brings me slightly, just slightly, more joy than doing it fingerstyle...and yeah I feel cooler.

Anyway...there ya go...

I'm totally with you on all counts!

I only played with fingers for years because mainly, I just couldn't play with a pick. Fast forward many, many years. I started learning to play bouzouki for a couple of years, where a pick is mandatory. I didn't play much bass at the time because I wanted to focus on bouzouki.

Shortly thereafter, I joined a band as the bass player/singer. We played a lot of fast songs (Ramones, Misfits, Motorhead, etc). I couldn't play them finger style because I had injured my tendon in my picking hand and playing too fast for too long hurts me. Without thinking, I grabbed a bouzouki pick off the table and played my ass off!!!! I was happily surprised to see I could play with a pick now!

Adds a TON more sound/tonal options, as well as song choices (for me). I like to do what you mention in #2 because it makes is like a fun game with the pick.

 

[JRA]

I feel like I can nail more or less dead-even eighth notes with a pick much more easily than with fingers.

it's the same for me, too. i've used a pick quite a bit in the studio playing parts for others, but i've never depended on a pick for gigging (mostly jazz) --- i'm afraid i wouldn't have the 'stamina' for a whole gig of 'pick only'. that said: i don't have the stamina for a lot of things like i used to have! but i like that 'pick sound' when i hear it played well.

 

[DeepFriedBass]

I feel like it really depends on your skin quality on your fingers. People with soft hands gets lousy tone to my ear, it's when you have hard skinned fingers that can pluck or sort of pummel the strings in such a way that you really get the tone of the instrument. I use a pick in most live settings for consistency and frequency range. FoH can always dial down the pick tone but can never add it, and that tone can mean the difference between being heard or not in many venues.

I still alternate too, and am about as proficient with either pick or finger style, it's a tonal thing. Again, some people's fingers like Geddy Lee, combined with his string attack make it so a pick isn't needed. Most bass players though, kind of like caress the string into a note by swiping up and across with the pad of their fingers, sounds like mud and most bands are muddy. No string tone this way, just bum bum bum boom boom boom. I like 'bloops' 'blaoow' 'blumps' and 'plunks' instead of woofs. No clanks or jangles though, lol.

So I almost always use a pick live, just mixes better if you actually like the hear the notes and not just feel them

 

[kmon]

I feel like it really depends on your skin quality on your fingers. People with soft hands gets lousy tone to my ear, it's when you have hard skinned fingers that can pluck or sort of pummel the strings in such a way that you really get the tone of the instrument. I use a pick in most live settings for consistency and frequency range. FoH can always dial down the pick tone but can never add it, and that tone can mean the difference between being heard or not in many venues.

I still alternate too, and am about as proficient with either pick or finger style, it's a tonal thing. Again, some people's fingers like Geddy Lee, combined with his string attack make it so a pick isn't needed. Most bass players though, kind of like caress the string into a note by swiping up and across with the pad of their fingers, sounds like mud and most bands are muddy. No string tone this way, just bum bum bum boom boom boom. I like 'bloops' 'blaoow' 'blumps' and 'plunks' instead of woofs. No clanks or jangled though, lol.

I hear the difference most dramatically on my P. I get a little more of a pluck happening than a caress with fingerstyle so it's not muddy but of course it's a less aggressive attack than with pick. This tone sounds great on certain tunes(i.e. Weezer/Say it ain't so). But damn, for a Ramones tune and many others that edge that a pick puts on the tone puts a huge smile on my face. There's also something about the physical motion with a pick that I like...it feels a little more energetic than fingers, it involves a little more wrist and arm and just seems to fit with some of the more hard driving tunes.

 

[chaak]

I have never used a pick in my entire 20 years of playing the bass and I have spent incredible time focusing on right hand position for specific timbre and tone and on four finger dexterity and ability to play perfectly even notes.
Now I am part of an original Progressive Metal band and what i dread the most are these passages where i double what the guitar plays and due to the fast nature of these parts i have to use a pick and since i use basses with different string spacings i am struggling to get things right and maybe its mostly due to the fact that i do not like using the pick.Anyway its mostly downstrokes which i believe to not be correct but i am making due and adding distortion is forgiving. I need to practice using a pick more but it is not a priority id rather focus on transcribing solos and studying chord voicings and studying Jazz.

Thank you for your observation it helps.

 

[kmon]

I have never used a pick in my entire 20 years of playing the bass and I have spent incredible time focusing on right hand position for specific timbre and tone and on four finger dexterity and ability to play perfectly even notes.
Now I am part of an original Progressive Metal band and what i dread the most are these passages where i double what the guitar plays and due to the fast nature of these parts i have to use a pick and since i use basses with different string spacings i am struggling to get things right and maybe its mostly due to the fact that i do not like using the pick.Anyway its mostly downstrokes which i believe to not be correct but i am making due and adding distortion is forgiving. I need to practice using a pick more but it is not a priority id rather focus on transcribing solos and studying chord voicings and studying Jazz.

Thank you for your observation it helps.

I'm not good at playing fast period. I tend to tense up when a fast passage approaches, which is exactly the wrong thing to do. Interestingly I'm currently faster with my fingers than with the pick, or at least I screw up less frequently in fast passages with my fingers.

For me speed with the pick, and sometimes I can really get it moving, comes down to relaxing and moving the pick slightly away from the bass so that less pick surface area is hitting the string. Too much surface area means I get hung up and fall behind the beat. It's frustrating but just a feel/practice thing that I need to pay more attention to.

 

[Darth_Linux]

for me, when doing covers, if the original bassist used a pick, I use a pick. If they didn't, I don't. I like to get the original sound as best I can, even bringing a P and a J so I can get the right tone. I don't have a MM . . .

 

[Keger Jupit]

4. I have to watch the ergonomics a little more with pick playing. I never have pain with fingerstyle, I've occasionally had some soreness with pick playing.

I don't know exactly what soreness you're experiencing, but if it's like mine, it's in your picking hand? I don't use a pick all that often, but thru guitar playing, I discovered these. Dunlop Max-Grip picks. I was always clenching picks too tightly because they can be slippery. NOT THESE!! They cured what ailed me, & the little ridges work! No more monkey-claw

 

[Adjectives]

I play with a pick in 2 bands, and fingerstyle exclusively in another. It really depends on the sound you're going for. My pick bands. New Metal cover band (Called Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2), and my pop punk originals band. My ska band's sound lends itself to fingerstyle much better, but there are still a few songs I use a pick on. I tend to alternate between pointed, and rounded dunlop tortex greens (.88). The pointed ones are great for metal 8th and 16th note runs!

 

[Williethump]

Great thread.
Learning bass 24 months now, 100% agree picks are needed for some tunes: but arthritis tells me 'no pick for you!' Love the plectrum sound but there it is.
Plus I need to feel the strings. Hovering over the board painfully pinching a plastic pick (say that three times fast) left me 'lost in spaaaaaaace'.
Even owned a Sir Paul clone bass once and tried thumb-picks. No joy there either and I still couldn't figure (I almost tapped/typed 'fingered') out which string I was hovering over at traffic pattern altitude preparing to land.
So kudos to you lovely pick pickers, attack on, pick style.

 

[kmon]

for me, when doing covers, if the original bassist used a pick, I use a pick. If they didn't, I don't. I like to get the original sound as best I can, even bringing a P and a J so I can get the right tone. I don't have a MM . . .

ya I do a little research and pay attention to that too. That and other factors determine what I do.

 

[kmon]

I don't know exactly what soreness you're experiencing, but if it's like mine, it's in your picking hand? I don't use a pick all that often, but thru guitar playing, I discovered these. Dunlop Max-Grip picks. I was always clenching picks too tightly because they can be slippery. NOT THESE!! They cured what ailed me, & the little ridges work! No more monkey-claw

View attachment 3606447

Ya I use the same picks lol...the 1.00, not the .88s. I've gotten past the hand cramping due to holding on to the pick for dear life. The grippy picks help a lot with that.

The pain is more a wrist thing, I now adjust the bass a bit so that my wrist stays a bit straighter and that seems to take care of it. I also need to take it easy a bit when I haven't played with a pick for a while.

 

[DeepFriedBass]

A lot of metal bassist hang the bass low so their arm is totally straight and that reduces fatigue when playing a lot of notes quickly. Always have to have my hand mounted somewhere at all times so I know where all the strings and pickups are

 

[vvvmmm]

I use Dunlop nylon .73's and they can also be used, played softly enuff, on fingerstyle parts.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

It took me a while to even approach mastering a pick, I started out fingerstyle, but now it’s probably 95% pick, because that’s what sounds best to me on a Ric. My fingerstyle has suffered because of it, I’ll admit. It does force better technique as far as left hand accuracy, and particularly muting, you can cheat a little fingerstyle, the duration of finger contact is much longer than a pick. I have huge admiration for fingerstyle players capable of really consistent 1/16th notes , that’s pretty difficult. I also feel like a pick gives you a really uncolored string sound, the whole range pops out. You can dial out some treble if you want to, but it’s all there. The fact that it’s always been frowned on as somehow “lesser” than fingerstyle always seemed ridiculous to me.

 

[BigJohnAZ]

When I started playing bass, I used a pick because I played guitar already. When I do use my fingers, I play "Geddy Lee style", just the index finger 99% of the time. Geddy's style morphed into a flamenco-ish style later on, but in the beginning it was just the index finger, mostly. I guess that was Jamerson's style as well.

One bass player I love is the Legendary Joe Osborn, with a J Bass, flatwounds and a pick. I love his tone and punch. I try to play that way. I'm still a hack, but I try to emulate his style when I play my P/J.