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Playing with a pick easier than with fingers???

#21
Spino said:
Throw away your pick and pick your nose if you must pick something .Fingers are much more versatile and give a much better / varied / dynamic sound .
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Some music doesn't want better, varied, dynamic sound. Some music requires steady, hard-nosed, gritty sound. How are you going to get this tone with your fingers?

YouTube - Pixies - Debaser.mpg

Give it your best try.

I don't know why some people resist a useful technique just because they have a superiority complex about it.

Anyway, my personal take on playing with a pick is that I play with the thinnest picks possible. I can't do it with 0.5mm because that transfers way too much vibration to my wrist, but I can comfortably pick at 0.6mm or 0.7mm. I definitely think that gives me a better and fuller tone.
 
#22
This finger/ pick debate come to life every second week.... Speed vs dynamics and so on, there is examples for amazing players playing this or that, as for the music I love to listen to, well, Chris Squire, Mike Rutherford, Greg Lake are amazing players which use 99% pick. Geddy Lee, Tony Levin and John Wetton (in his youth) master fingers.
I like pick better due to the tone. I fing finger playing easier to master, but stick to pick in order to be better with pick.
 
#23
I can pick fast with consistent tone and accuracy, but prefer fingering. Not sure why. My picking technique was taught to me by *gasp!* a guitarist! I held my pick parallel to my strings and kept getting caught on the strings when going fast. He showed me to angle it and scrape the string instead of picking straight on it, now I can tremolo pick my E string faster than most guitarists I know can on their guitar. It's about practice and developing a technique that works for you.
 
#24
Music_for_life said:
Hi, I am playing with my fingers for more than 10 years, I can play fast with two fingers, at 145 bpm 16th notes with a metronome with consistent endurance. I play in a power metal band and progresive metal, and in some new songs we are needing some more speed. I started practising with a pick and it wasn`t as easy I tought it should be. I also like the agressive tone of the pick for some songs.
Do you think playing with a pick is easier??
It is very difficult to get a lot of spped with a pick and make it sound good??
What do you recomend me to practise??
Click to expand...

I am a finger player, however, there are some songs I've played that I simply cannot (no matter how hard I try) play effectively and smoothly with my fingers. Examples would be "Had to Cry Today" by Blind Faith (esp the intro riff), and "Diving Duck Blues" by Taj Mahal. Those are just 2 examples off top of my head.
 
#25
BigOldHarry said:
I figure that if you started on electric guitar, pick would seem natural.

As I started on piano, fingers seem natural to me. I've tried playing with a pick - it has its uses.... but I don't like it. I much, much prefer fingers.
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I went piano, cello, guitar, and then bass. You'd figure I would have gravitated toward a pick moving from guitar, but I took to fingers immediately. I thought bass was "supposed" to be played that way, and only used a pick when I wanted that sound, like for covering punk songs. Since I'd moved from guitar, pick was pretty easy, but I always preferred fingerstyle for tone, rhythmic feel, versatility, and the more tactile experience.

But a couple of years ago, I developed a joint problem in my right index finger, so now I play with a pick almost exclusively. The full transition was harder than I expected, but I've found I can get a huge variety of sounds. Touch is everything. Aside from one near-reggae track my band plays, I'm pretty happy with the sounds I can get pickstyle, and even that track would be fine with a pick on my five. I don't mind it as much as I did at first.

That said, I'm working on using my middle and ring fingers to get back into fingerstyle. It works fine much of the time, but the relatively weak, uncoordinated ring finger needs serious work!
 
#26
Well, bass is my first instrument. I fumbled around back and forth between picks and fingers and got pretty decent at each. Then after watching the efficiency of right hand technique on a banjo, I decided to try that.

Now, I use a thumbpick plus my fingers and a little bit of fingernail to match the tone of the pick. Between all those techniques and slap/pop/tap an palm-muting I got pretty much any tone I need.
 
#27
SMILEYSIXX said:
I can pick fast with consistent tone and accuracy, but prefer fingering. Not sure why. My picking technique was taught to me by *gasp!* a guitarist! I held my pick parallel to my strings and kept getting caught on the strings when going fast. He showed me to angle it and scrape the string instead of picking straight on it, now I can tremolo pick my E string faster than most guitarists I know can on their guitar. It's about practice and developing a technique that works for you.
Click to expand...

I can use a pick reasonably well, and I often like the sound of other bassists playing with a pick, but I don't so much enjoy the sound or feel when I'm doing it myself. Although, now that I have a GB Streamliner and a P bass the pick sounds a lot better to me. I don't like a thin tone.

And that scraping the string sound instead of picking, man do I hate that sound. :hiding:
 
#28
Personally I find using picks and fingers about the same level of difficulty. I guess I'm ever so slightly faster at tremolo stuff with a pick, but not by much. I use 3 fingers a la Alex Webster and can get up around 200bpm 16ths with that. I prefer the sound of fingers. Also, I ALWAYS drop picks. So...I guess using a pick *is* harder since you have to hold onto them. :D
 
#29
Bass is my first, and almost only instrument. I started with fingers, but quickly started playing heavier stuff like Pantera, Megadeth etc. and found that a pick gave me more speed and a cleaner attack. Some people can finger as fast as some can pick, but as a rule; the pick is faster. It's basic physics, it's a smaller object moving in smaller increments. Metal is where the pick is naturally at home on the bass. If I were to ever do jazz, blues or anything else, I'd go back to fingers.
 
#30
smeet said:
I can use a pick reasonably well, and I often like the sound of other bassists playing with a pick, but I don't so much enjoy the sound or feel when I'm doing it myself. Although, now that I have a GB Streamliner and a P bass the pick sounds a lot better to me. I don't like a thin tone.

And that scraping the string sound instead of picking, man do I hate that sound. :hiding:
Click to expand...

If you do it with just the tip of the pick and attack right through, you never even hear the scrape.
 
#31
The pick gives a much more precise, defined attack. I prefer uses one for certain pieces. Metal players usually prefer one to play constant 16ths. As for fingers, you can get funkier and I find is easier to make string crosses. But again its all about preference.
 
#32
I think it all has to do with your comfort level and how you started. When I started, a guitar player taught me all the parts because he didn't have a bass player and I could read music. He taught me with a pick, so I learned with a pick. In my band, I play most songs with a pick. I've taught myself finger-style over the years, and play that way when I sit in with the life-teen band at church though, just seems to fit better.
 
#33
Music_for_life said:
Hi, I am playing with my fingers for more than 10 years, I can play fast with two fingers, at 145 bpm 16th notes with a metronome with consistent endurance. I play in a power metal band and progresive metal, and in some new songs we are needing some more speed. I started practising with a pick and it wasn`t as easy I tought it should be. I also like the agressive tone of the pick for some songs.
Do you think playing with a pick is easier??
It is very difficult to get a lot of spped with a pick and make it sound good??
What do you recomend me to practise??
Click to expand...

don't mean to be a troll... but :D
Start practising your spelling, and go from there. Sorry, I couldn't help it.

To answer your question..... practise Boath pick and fingers :bassist: Itill come in handy some day.

:hiding:
 
#38
The pick works better for some things but fingers are better suited for others. I never tried but I bet that a pick could be used to play faster on a single string but I wouldn't want to do too much string skipping with one. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by increasing your pick weilding chops.

And to those who dismiss pick playing entirely I give you this to think about YouTube - D'yer Mak'er by Led Zeppelin
 
#40
Some jobs require a pick, others require finger-style and yet others give you the choice.
If you use a plectrum, one good exercise would be the mandolin type tremelo which gives rapid speed notes in a row on the same string. Of course Flamenco guitar tremelo is a specific fingerstyle system and involves other strings and thumb but that would be over ambitious for bass. Both techniques allow versatitilty. After 45 years or so I have a definitive knowledge of the bass.
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