Thumb Plucking Technique

[jayk]

Hi Janek
I notice you often switch between finger style plucking and thumb plucking (using your thumb to pluck the lower notes and fingers for the higher notes) throughout your playing.
What helps you decide on which technique to use for a certain bassline and what are the benefits of each technique?
Do you have any exercises that can help develop a quick transition between these techniques and developing the thumb technique further??

Thanks

Jake

 

[user3653753]

Jake,

The two main right hand techniques I use are simply options of sound and tone for me. Although i've worked a lot on the "regular" style of finger playing as well as the thumb and finger technique you're asking about, the choice of when to use them is not something that's conscious now.

The muted thumb technique gives me more of a punchy tone, and I end up playing some higher notes with my fingers within the bass line, and that lends itself to being a little more melodic in the line.

I have a ton of exercises for that, and put them all together for a 12 week bass lines and groove course on videobasslessons.tv. There are some free preview videos on my youtube channel if you have a second to check them out. I take a look a bunch of different bass styles starting with video #1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x83qXXLWjak

Janek