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Playing with 3 fingers, is it really necessary?

#41
I seriously reccommend 2 finger. The only time I would ever use three is if I were firing triplets at 200bpm..

Other triplets can easily be done with two.

Using 3 messes with your accentuation and can seriously degrade the quality of your sound. It does not help you play faster, just helps you with triplets.
 
#42
Also, if one ever needs to play triplets at blinding speed, a good M I (BI), M I (BI), M I (BI) technique works best. (BI) = back of the index finger. I find it best to actually pull this off with a sharp downward thrust of my index finger. You pull it up for the 2nd pluck and stab is straight down for the third. If you need quadruplets, do the same with the added middle finger.
 
#43
Is playing with two fingers really necessary? You could just use the back-and-forth index finger technique for speed (easier to do 16th notes than with 3 fingers).

Is playing with one finger really necessary? Why not play with your teeth? Or your foot?

Personally, I use whatever technique I think I need for the musical context. Chord arpeggios - thumb for lower notes and other fingers for higher ones. Relatively simple grooves - one finger. More complicated or staccato grooves playing across strings - two fingers. Particularly fast 16th note passages across one or more strings - either back-and-forth index or three fingers (more used to using three nowadays). 16th note triplets or 32nd note passages - three fingers.

But that's just me. YMMV.
 
#45
jarrhead said:
Using 3 messes with your accentuation and can seriously degrade the quality of your sound. It does not help you play faster, just helps you with triplets.
Click to expand...

That's why we humans invented something a few thousand years ago called practice, so we can overcome disadvantages and maximize advantages in whatever activity we partake in. In this case, you can practice accenting notes evenly with all three fingers. Some bassists like Billy Sheehan play with such consistency it sounds like they're just using one.

And I beg to differ on the "it does not help you to play faster" bit - I found playing straight 16th notes on one string much easier using three fingers than two, if that's what the song requires. If you can condition your two fingers to play at blinding speed, then you can go a step further and condition your three fingers to go faster. Is speed absolutely required? Absolutely not. But to say it doesn't make a difference in speed is rather ignorant, IMO.
 
#48
jmattbassplaya said:
Not to toot my own horn but I`ve yet to meet anyone who can play faster than me with three fingers than I can we two (cleanly at least).
Click to expand...

How fast can you play? 16ths at ... BPM
Can you make a video showing it?


Grayson C. said:
Also, if one ever needs to play triplets at blinding speed, a good M I (BI), M I (BI), M I (BI) technique works best. (BI) = back of the index finger. I find it best to actually pull this off with a sharp downward thrust of my index finger. You pull it up for the 2nd pluck and stab is straight down for the third. If you need quadruplets, do the same with the added middle finger.
Click to expand...

For quadruplets... what's the order of the plucks?
M I (BM) (BI)? Or something else. This technique doesn't seem logical to me at all :confused:
 
#51
mbc3512 said:
I try 3 fingers and it's like playing a new instrument.
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I just started 3 fingers about 6 weeks ago, and I`ve been playing for about 15 years. It did feel weird to me; when I tried to throw the ring finger in there, the song would completely fall apart :D But it didn`t take long at all to get used to it. I can throw a ring-finger-pluck in there without even thinking about it now. Pick some slow and midtempo stuff and practice; once you`ve got it down on slow stuff, applying it to faster songs shouldn`t be a problem
 
#54


Heres a great video of Tetsuo Sakurai. He uses one finger for alot of the song, but switches between 1, 2 and 3 fingers throughout when it's necessary. Notably at about 2:55 in the video and near the end. Their are alot of great shots of his right hand. Though the overall picture quality of the video is a bit poor...
 
#56
Willem said:
For quadruplets... what's the order of the plucks?
M I (BM) (BI)? Or something else. This technique doesn't seem logical to me at all :confused:
Click to expand...

Exactly! This technique just feels really awkward until you can get a circular motion going. But I got it down really fast. I remember discovering it one night in my dorm room last year, getting all excited and showing my musician friends (who were also impressed and a couple learned it), and then having the technique down to a functional level within 3-4 hours. Right now it feels just as comfortable as a standard M I M I M I to me. The wrist movement is pretty important here or else you won't get the angle correct. Your wrist sort of oscillates in a circular/right-left motion. I will try to make a vid to show you.

Also, I can routinely play 64th notes with this technique (though I guess that's a meaningless way to describe it). Truthfully the hardest part of playing fast is the left hand technique, not the right hand.

Alternatively, one can play triplets with M I (BM) instead of M I (BI). I just find the latter to be most comfortable to me, as the index finger gets this awesome thrusting motion going on. With triplets, the wrist movement is not as important, I think.
 
#57
CYDbass said:
what order do you play in? Thumb, Ring, Middle, Index is the way I was taught, but maybe reversing the order of the fingers might work too?
Click to expand...

I rarely use T for tremolo - mostly for chords, or soft lines.
But I know it is a legit flamenco technique; and yes, the order (T)-R-M-I works for me much more naturally, than I-M-R.

Another nice flamenco tremolo technique: one finger (I am most confortable with middle). Hang it perpendicular to the string, and just skim the string with your fingertip (no nail) back and forth as fast as you can. Attack will be rather weak, though; good for subtle/quiet tremolo.
 
#59
I've used three fingers (and thumb, even pinkie to pluck false harmonics) for maybe 17 years and it certainly has benefits. Speed gain on one string is marginal, which I don't care much for anyway. Speed across strings, muting and a better control over the hand in general is much improved.

I'm a big fan of Gary Willis' approach. Check out part 2,3 and 4:
 
#60
I am trying a lot of different techniques currently ( though mostly I'm a pick bassist ). I've been trying to learn 3 fingers in case I need to play something fast, but for now, 2 fingers is a lot less confusing for me.

On the other hand, when I play "Another One Bites The Dust" I usually use 3 fingers just because it fits and it's more fun :P
 

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