Plectrums

[Tedthulhu]

Hi, all.

I'm not trying to start arguments about styles or personal preferences, so let's please not go there. That said, I the a bassist who plays entirely fingerstyle, and basically has since I picked up my first bass in the early 1990's. Here's the thing - I literally cannot play worth a damn with a pick in my hand. It's just so utterly counterintuitive to me that I mangle any attempt to use a plectrum. My hands feel natural and correct. A pick in hand feels almost like putting thick gloves on my hands and attempting to play. I know there are some (though not as many as one might expect) bassists who switch freely between picks and fingerstyle, I am just not one of them. It's simply alien to the manner in which I play my basses. I have tried experimenting with a pick, but it always feels just wrong to me, personally. Has anyone else run into this mental block? It's not like it bothers me in any meaningful way; I like playing with my fingers and always have. But that's solely my personal opinion. To note, I primarily play metal and funky styles and yeah, I slap when slap technique is appropriate. But I honestly play about 90% straight fingerstyle. To my plectrum-loving fellow bassists, what made you choose to use a pick as your primary form of attacking the strings? I know that you can get "cleaner" sounding attack with a pick, but beyond that, I don't really understand the appeal. Further disclaimer - I started as a bassist, not a guitarist, so that might have a fair bit of influence on why I never bothered much with using a pick, outside of experimenting and playing around for the heck of it. I know a fair number of bassists who started as guitarists and just kept using a pick because that was what they already knew. I am not one of those. Lol. So tell me, do you use fingers, a pick, or both for your primary mode of play, or a mix of both? What would you say the upsides to playing with a pick are, compared to playing fingerstyle? I'm honestly curious. Apologies if this is a question that's been asked a million times, it's just something that's been simmering in my head for a while so I wanted to ask the community of bassists at large what their thoughts were. Maybe I'll learn something! Thanks for reading my giant block o' text.

 

[Gorn]

I also suck at it. One time I tried to get good. I played simple exercises and songs and got decent at it after a few days. Then I lost the pick I had and haven't touched one since. Play scales for ten minutes and I bet you'll surprise yourself.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

I play 90-95% of the time fingerstyle. Some songs ask for a pick, sometimes the BL asks for something to be played with a pick (as in Springsteen's "Born to Run).

Besides the obvious (the sound is different), I find I'm... "more rythmic" with a pick, if that makes any sense. Maybe it's just the sharper attack.

I'd love to get better with the pick and love when I have to use it because it's a chance for improvement, but fingerstyle is my weapon of choice.

 

[ClaytonCroft]

I'm also a fingerstyle trying to get better with a pick. I find myself with an absolute death grip on it and tire out pretty quickly. And it took quite a while to "find" a comfortable wrist angle to get the pick striking more flat to the string and less scrape..

Keep at it, I suppose. It's good to have more tools in the box, as the song sometimes just sounds better with the pick, especially with upstrokes.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

Yesss, the "scrape" and the attack angle...

The "Bobby Vega" grip surely made me a better pick player.

 

[gln1955]

I use fingers for >90% of what I play. I came to bass from guitar, so picking was not foreign, but how I use a pick on bass it different than how I pick a guitar. Using a much heavier pick, adjusting to the force needed to move a bass string, spacing of the strings, muting, etc., were all things that took some practice to be totally comfortable. It's worth spending some time with a pick each time you practice, just to have the technique available if you ever really need it.

 

[Plectrum72]

I play about 60% pick and 40% fingerstyle. I try to do what the song calls for, but sometimes I just like the pick attack better so will use a pick when it doesn't matter. I'm also a big fan of Duff McKagan and John Paul Jones (among others) so I kinda wanted to develop both techniques as best I could.

Edited to add I came from Saxophone to Bass in high school using both styles and didn't pick up Guitar until I was in my 40s.

 

[Bent77]

Mostly a pick player these days, but I certainly did not start off that way

I do find that it makes it easier to learn to play a song that you wanna learn that’s been played with the pick. Gives you a new song to learn while you’re trying to learn the new method.

Different ways of holding the pick can also make it a lot easier or a lot harder. I like to use a pic that has a hole in the middle because it makes it easier to hold onto without giving it a death grip.

 

[Lo-E]

I, too, started on bass and played only with my fingers for years (decades, actually).

In the last few years I’ve started taking pick playing much more seriously because I like the attack for a lot of the music I’m playing lately. I’ve mostly got the hang of it now but it’s still very much a work in progress.

One of the things I found was the that the shape of the pick makes a big difference to me. I find certain shapes much easier to use than others. I also find that picks with some sort of texture are a lot easier to hold onto without gripping it too hard.

As I get more comfortable with it, I’m enjoying it more and, in turn, I find myself using a pick a lot more than I did only a year or so ago. I’m still primarily a fingerstyle player, though.

 

[SactoBass]

When I started playing bass in 1972, I played fingerstyle only. As my playing skills improved, I wanted to start playing YES music because I was a diehard YES fan. Since Chris Squire used a pick 99% of the time, I told myself that I should start learning to play with a pick. It took me a while to get used to it, but once I became comfortable with it, I loved playing with a pick. Like many things, once you start doing something on a regular basis, it becomes the new normal. I reached the point where it became equally comfortable playing with a pick or playing fingerstyle. So I now use whichever fits the song the best.

 

[tremor100]

I do both pick and fingers mostly for tonal reasons.


First off in terms of learning how to play with a pick its just something similar to fingers where you have to keep practicing until you find something comfortable to you. Everytime ive tried to teach someone guitar or bass.. you tell them how to hold the pick with only a bit showing ect, and usually its this super akward clumsy raking through the strings instead of striking them.. and ultimately most people vary how they play with one anyways, some people play more with this arm vs wrist ect.

For me the biggest difference is the tone and attack you get. When you get good at it its very even and crisp. Some people will say you can get similar attack with kind of "slapping" or being more agressive with your fingers, but i disagree.. i actually hate the sound of clacky finger style and its part of the reason when i play with fingers i usually mount towards the bottom of the bridge where the strings are more tought to avoid the click against the frets ect.

 

[MCS4]

I play a lot of both. They both sound and feel different. Certain parts are easier to play on one or the other. That means for any given part, either pick or fingers will sound better and/or make the part easier to play. It's not any more complicated than that for me.

When I first started playing bass I was already playing a little guitar, and I came of age in the 90's/00's alternative rock/metal/punk etc. where lots of bassists I was listening to were playing with picks, so playing with a pick some of the time seemed natural.

 

[J Wilson]

I use either a pick or fingers depending on which sounds best to me in this or that song.

Me, I can't see slap/pop at gunpoint, so we all have our own dead spots, but it doesn't keep me up nights.

 

[dbflats]

I played exclusively pick style for a while in the early 80s but that was an abberation, having been all finger style both before that and then since. But I do use a pick on guitar and there what I like to do is use a rounded corner and choke way up on a thin .73.

Tried it on bass for just a minute the other day and yeah, sounds cool. But I'm sure I'm all fingers for the remainder of my bass playing days.

 

[idoker]

I learned guitar AFTER I studied the bass. A majority of my bass playing is done fingerstyle. Playing with a pick, for me, just offers another way to produce a different tone and feel for whatever music I'm playing.

I guess it takes sometime to learn, just like any other technique. And, it's just another tool one can use to create with.

 

[toastw]

I am your exact opposite, your Bizarro Tedthulu.

I am a guitar player first, who picked up the bass far too late in life. I can't slap. I'm working on finger style at home, by myself. But when I play with a group or attempt to record something, I've decided that for now, it's 100% going to be with a pick. My finger style is too sloppy. And I find myself thinking about whether my elbow is sticking out, am I muting the strings with my thumb, did I alternate fingers or use the same finger twice ... aaaaaahhhhh! With a pick, I'm way more confident -- and competent.

When I can freely play finger style without that worry and stress and all that thinking while I play, I'll put the pick down. But it's my right-hand crutch and I'm leanin' on it.

 

[Five or Six]

Hi, all.

I'm not trying to start arguments about styles or personal preferences, so let's please not go there. That said, I the a bassist who plays entirely fingerstyle, and basically has since I picked up my first bass in the early 1990's. Here's the thing - I literally cannot play worth a damn with a pick in my hand. It's just so utterly counterintuitive to me that I mangle any attempt to use a plectrum. My hands feel natural and correct. A pick in hand feels almost like putting thick gloves on my hands and attempting to play. I know there are some (though not as many as one might expect) bassists who switch freely between picks and fingerstyle, I am just not one of them. It's simply alien to the manner in which I play my basses. I have tried experimenting with a pick, but it always feels just wrong to me, personally. Has anyone else run into this mental block? It's not like it bothers me in any meaningful way; I like playing with my fingers and always have. But that's solely my personal opinion. To note, I primarily play metal and funky styles and yeah, I slap when slap technique is appropriate. But I honestly play about 90% straight fingerstyle. To my plectrum-loving fellow bassists, what made you choose to use a pick as your primary form of attacking the strings? I know that you can get "cleaner" sounding attack with a pick, but beyond that, I don't really understand the appeal. Further disclaimer - I started as a bassist, not a guitarist, so that might have a fair bit of influence on why I never bothered much with using a pick, outside of experimenting and playing around for the heck of it. I know a fair number of bassists who started as guitarists and just kept using a pick because that was what they already knew. I am not one of those. Lol. So tell me, do you use fingers, a pick, or both for your primary mode of play, or a mix of both? What would you say the upsides to playing with a pick are, compared to playing fingerstyle? I'm honestly curious. Apologies if this is a question that's been asked a million times, it's just something that's been simmering in my head for a while so I wanted to ask the community of bassists at large what their thoughts were. Maybe I'll learn something! Thanks for reading my giant block o' text.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I started on guitar. When the bass was pushed on me I was immediately a finger style player. I never once used a pick. I can play anything I want and have never struggled to do so. As long as I can still play songs like "Dark Side", (Cafferty) without effort, I'm good. Style is individual choice.

 

[FullumMusic]

You've been playing a certain way for 30+ years. You've done all your formative learning, practicing, training, and working using that way. It's perfectly reasonable that a completely different playing technique doesn't just immediately translate over to your current skill level of your primary playing technique.

If you want to incorporate this foreign technique, you'll have to spend some dedicated time almost learning from scratch, doing the most basic plectrum exercises over and over for as long as it takes to become proficient at it. And i'm talking about the insanely boring basic stuff. Then after that the basic+ stuff; then the intermediate stuff. Each taking an amount of time.

When you first learned fingerstyle, you didn't learn it in one lesson and play proficiently. You practiced very basic stuff for months and months until you were proficient enough. Same's gonna go for learning with a pick.

 

[wompwomp]

over decades of guitar and mandolin i've made a study out of using a plectrum,

on bass my main approach is thumb-and-forefinger fingerstyle, I find it to be the best of both worlds you sort of end up with two picks in a sense plus you retain some of that *boompiness* of fingers. I'll switch back and forth between trad two fingerstyle and t-n-f.

what I really like about either using a pick or t-n-f is you engage the thumb way more fully as a counter to the index finger. I find it to be more efficient, cleaner and frankly reliable than the tradly two-finger approach.

the pick you choose is going to impact everything so it is worth shopping around

 

[braydensharrar]

It’s just a different sound, think of it as another took in your belt. I, too, play with fingers most of the time but nothing sounds like a pick. IMO It’s ideal to be proficient in traditional finger-style, playing a pick open AND palm-muted, palm muted with fingers (thumb/pointer) and slap to be a well-rounded player.