raking

[kikstand454]

I'm mostly an alternating, 3 finger player.
but I do rake.....and two of the times I do, have been mentioned here.

Money and good times bad times.

The bassline behind pages solo in good times -just feels better (easier?) raking.


Learn both.....and use your knowledge wisely.

 

[JimmyM]

You people make my brain hurt.



Let's examine a couple quotes here:

"Raking is generally easier for passages like this one, but you have to be careful to keep the timing straight. You'll be tempted to rush when you rake, so fight that tendency."

Tempted to rush when you rake? Absolutely. I hear it in a lot of players who rake. I do it when I rake. I know very few people who don't.

"Rakes can be really useful and often the logical choice. As an exercise, you should try to do the same pattern with strictly alternating fingers."

And when I've tried this exercise, I have preferred the way I play alternating every single time. My time is better and my consistency is better.

"I am trying to practice not raking, but so far that's killing my rhythm and speed."

Golfers who have been told by a teacher to change up their swing will almost always get worse before they get better, but after diligently practicing it, the improvement starts happening. So your quote tells me you should practice it even more, and one day it'll click for you, and if you totally stick with it, it won't be too long...could be as soon as a couple weeks. We get discouraged sometimes when we don't see immediate improvement and we revert to our old ways unless someone stands over us with a stick and whacks us on the head. Consider me the guy with the stick

"If you produce an intended note on time and with the correct amplitude, what can possibly be wrong about it?"

"If" is a mighty big word, Bob You are a world class player and I take what you say about bass playing very seriously, and I would never dream of correcting you when you play like you do. But let's face it...not everyone is at your level. I give the advice to always alternate to those who aren't at your level in hopes that they get to your level. Dave LaRue did it to me when I took lessons from him and I'm forever grateful. Still not at his level, but I got a LOT better at playing very fast stuff with a lot of notes in a row simply by ending my raking.

"How would a bass player with a pick play the same "raking" passage?"

I alternate those passages with a pick, too. Now I don't sweep and have little to no interest in it, but as I admitted over a year ago in this very thread, I'm not against sweep picking. But for pick riffs that don't require sweeping to play, I always alternate.

"Raking unacceptable seriously ????? ... Then is slapping not okay.. Is muting not okay??... Is thumbing bad???...No pick???... How many fingers is okay?...2. 3. 4. I'm disturbed by this.. Is this the salem witch trials.. Use whatever you want to as far as I 'm concerned ... If everyone played the same it would be boring... I rake... And I use mismatched cabs.. Burn me! Lol I've even used a drum stick on stage to beat the strings!!!!"

You've mistaken www.talkbass.com for Link Removed.

Feel free to reject the idea of doing alternation instead of raking, folks. I'm giving you MY experience of how well it's worked for me to ditch it. But if raking works for you, have fun, but don't come crying to me when you rush or stumble or otherwise screw up your bass line when you could easily fix it by alternating.

 

[KingRazor]

Raking feels much more natural to me, it's something I wasn't taught it, I came to it on my own, but I'm starting to practice strict alternation for the sole purpose of spending time practicing something that feels unnatural. With the goal of being a better player. Once I'm as good at SA as I am at raking, I can pick which one I'd rather do. No downside in my book.

 

[FretlessMainly]

I use SA and raking, but by and large, I avoid extended lines of even notes (call them quarter notes, eighth notes, sixteenth notes...etc.; it all depends on tempo anyway). These days I generally play improvised music, and raking is part and parcel of my personal style. Point being, there are a large number of bass lines I've created that simply cannot be played using SA. They rely on percussive dead notes, pull-offs to adjacent strings to create a double stop or single stop with open string, etc.

Surely there must be room for a playing style that not only uses raking, but actually relies upon it.

 

[JimmyM]

It means that you have already "found your note" - your style.
It's you.

Do you rather be the one and only "FretlessMainly", or
Victor Wooten's parody number 24,358th?

So if you rake, that makes you a complete individual with his/her own style, but if you strictly alternate, then you're a Victor Wooten clone? Forgetting the obvious observation that way more bass players rake than don't, the idea that technique has anything to do at all with someone's creativity as a musician is bizarre. No slam on FretlessMainly's playing...I've never heard him, and for all I know, he could be great and I would enjoy listening to his music. But let's get real.

 

[bchim]

If you produce an intended note on time and with the correct amplitude, what can possibly be wrong about it?

This. (but yeah, quite difficult indeed)

I've learned to use both styles when descending strings and I find that raking wins out in terms of economy of motion (it uses one finger, one motion), but SA wins in terms of your control over dynamics, timing and attack.

Muting can also be especially tricky with raking, especially across open strings (I tend to avoid raking when open strings are involved). You either need to palm mute with your left hand, or trail behind with right hand muting with a non-picking finger.

For passages with rather uniform rhythm and dynamics, I'd say rake away. For passages with irregular rhythms, varied note lengths and/or distinctly stressed and unstressed notes, SA will almost certainly be cleaner. (unless you are a bass god who's perfected both and can use either interchangeably)

 

[JimmyM]

4. If you don't like "raking" from an academic/traditionally conservative bass player view, what is your opinion about Geddy Lee's "right hand technique?

Never studied it enough to have an opinion, actually.

 

[Magnus Scott]

Both techniques have qualities to them... Personally i use a mixture. I would not be worried about which of the two techniques to use, you should rather put your effort in becoming equally good with both of your fingers. That goes for both raking and alternate plucking. I think it's important to be able to play all lines you know starting on both fingers. my 2c's