I've been practicing 3 finger for about 5-6 years. I can make steady even sound until 150 bpm but after that speed, it was always difficult for me to avoid that galloping or fast triplet sound. Maybe my brain rejected recognizing 3 finger into 16 beat. I uploaded one of my cover below. I practiced that song for years and years but still not very satisfied with the result. IIRC, that song's bpm is 175.
After that song, I tried other patterns too. My basic pattern is 3213-2132-1321 but I also practiced 3212-3212 and 3121-3121 to find my best pattern. Hmm.. all those patterns were not comfortable for me. It saves my stamina but it is really hard for me to keep accuracy.
Currently, I am practicing Iron Maiden's Run to The Hills and I found playing that tune with 2 finger can be more comfortable than 3 finger. Galloping with 2 finger is confusing but I think I can manage that. Also 2 finger's tone is much consistent than 3. So I tried other bpms like 140, 150, and there were some stamina and accuracy problems but 2 finger definitely lessened my brain's stress.
I am on the verge of letting 3 finger go. It may need much time for me to achieve high speed with much stamina. But it will help me play any line I want especially when improvising or soloing. One thing that holds me back is getting speed more than 200 bpm... but because 3 finger couldn't achieve that speed, that will be no reason for me to choose 3 finger.
So one thing I learned from this 6 years.. is that 3 finger does not guarantee faster speed. If there are some metal/jazz bassists who use 2 finger in super high speed, please let me know. My goal became playing bass solo of Dream Theater's The Dance of Eternity with two finger.
I agree with everyone that there’s nothing overly limiting about 2 finger; indeed it simplifies things in a number of ways
from a technical perspective, I think that three finger technique, etc. works best with a floating thumb, which tends to include the plucking fingers being curled/bent- The reason I bring this up, and you basically play like me, is that with an anchored thumb (and the relatively straight plucking fingers), you will always be fighting the fact that your middle finger is longer than the others… If you just look closely at the video, you will see that your middle finger looks like it’s barely moving, why you seem to almost have to do this weeble-wobble thing thing to give the other fingers contact access. Not only does it make it more difficult to play fast notes and long passages, but the consistency in the sound will be something you battle and really have to take a focused approach to, including a physical audit, and some conscious decisions about how you want to solve the problems physically. with two finger technique, fast players simply angle their hand to where the vertical position of the first and second fingers are level/even, but of course you can’t do that with three fingers with the longest finger in the middle, creating almost a pivot point. It’s not impossible, but it will take a focused rework.
I would argue for the kind of music you seem to be interested in playing, that you don’t gain much by having a three finger technique, and if you did, then you would probably want to do more of a Gary Willis floating thumb thing, while also taking advantage of the thumb as a plucking digit. but this kind of stuff really helps a lot more with a jazz approach, where free access to arpeggios and very vertical runs is made easier by this technique… But if you’re playing music written by guys using two fingers, or a pick, then it doesn’t really inherently necessitate a more-than-two-finger approach anyway. I will say that the syncopated accent thing that the three finger seems to be bringing out, is actually a pretty cool effect; I’m not sure offhand if that’s very intentional per the song, but it certainly worth keeping in your back pocket, I do something fairly similar if I’m going to be chugging triplets etc.
all that being said, I don’t know that I thought that recording sounded overly bad in any way… There are some evenness problems, maybe, but you’re also playing a very clean sound, on a very clean pickup setup, playing in the foreground over the music- every little flab, rub, and outlier is going to stick out. A little dirt would even out the attack a bit- I almost never suggest pedes or compression as a solution to a physical issue, but this is one of those cases where it’s really more of a stylistic thing, which happens to smooth out the inconsistencies while doing it. And again I wince at the idea of using a compressor to even out attack, but this seems like a slam dunk scenario for the style of music, the style of playing, and the fact that you were 90% there anyway.
I’ll look back over my comment later for grammar issues, I’m doing voice to text and have to go now
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