I wouldn't play with a pick because a guitarist told me to, never. I could play with a pick because I found it suitable for a song. Usually I find it to be more fun to use my fingers (since I'm always using a pick for guitar playing), and fingerstyle or slap usually gets me closer to my the sound I want, but I could absolutely use picks for creative reasons.
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when someone asks you to try playing with a pick....
- Thread starter hernameisrio
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Jumping in to this thread a little late but as usual, Joe's advice is spot-on. Look at this as an opportunity to expand your skill set.
I was in a similar situation several years ago when my cover band wanted to add a few Tool tunes to the set. I could have played the songs fingerstyle but they just didn't sound right. So I started practicing with a pick and admit, it was slow-going and took me many hours of practice to get comfortable. But all the hard work paid off as I can now switch to a pick whenever a song calls for a sharp attack.
I'm still primarily a fingerstyle player but becoming comfortable with a pick has opened additional musical doors for me. So go for it since adding the additional skill will serve you well now and in the future.
If I joined a band and the music REALLY required a pick sound, I would do it. Like a Yes, Megadeath or Tool cover band, as an example.
But not just because a guitarist says I have to.
I play in a cover band and I am definately a fingerstyle player and have been since I started playing bass 30 years ago... And I was a guitarist first. However, I do use a pick for 3-5 songs every gig. Just to stay true to the recording and it actually does sound better than fingerstyle for those songs.
It IS great to learn new techniques, but only for the right reason IMO.
But not just because a guitarist says I have to.
I play in a cover band and I am definately a fingerstyle player and have been since I started playing bass 30 years ago... And I was a guitarist first. However, I do use a pick for 3-5 songs every gig. Just to stay true to the recording and it actually does sound better than fingerstyle for those songs.
It IS great to learn new techniques, but only for the right reason IMO.
My last original band, the frontman asked me to play finger style and I just said no and life went on. Eventually he found someone more willing to do out of town gigs for no pay, so I was squeezed out. But I sure didn't bend over and do whatever he said. Its an original nonpaying gig where the carrot is if you dig the songs. If you are having a total ball, walk away. Life is too short. Now church is 180 different to me. I view that as service and sacrifice and humility and worship so I will play spoons if they need me to.
I love playing with a pick. It adds a lot of dynamics you don't get with just your fingers.
I use my fingers for songs that need notes without attack.
I use my fingers for songs that need notes without attack.
This may be true for you, but a lot of finger players can nail all sorts of different feels with fingers. I can get an almost picklike attack with fingers playing with the tips of my fingers verses the meat. Just another tool in the bag.
I started playing gigs in the early/mid 90's. And as such I can remember a time where a good number of bands, cover and original both, were influenced by popular bands. Back then players like Flea, Les Claypool and *SHUDDER* Fieldy were among the hot players. And a big part of that sound at the time was slap technique. It had gotten to a point where the intro to "Higher Ground" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers had become the music store equivalent of a guitar player rocking out to "Stairway to Heaven". It got overdone. But bands wanted bass players who could slap, because that was THE SOUND at the time. I remember going on a couple of auditions in the 90's where the band's explicitly wanted me to slap. I know I didn't get those gigs because at the time I was vehemently anti-slapping.
Fast forward to now, and pick technique is much more en vogue from a style standpoint. If you're playing or listening to modern rock (originals) now, there's a strong likelihood that the bassist may be using a pick.
The point? This is one of the current trends from a technique standpoint. If you want to play modern rock and be a go-to player in that genre, you should make a point of having pick technique as something you can go to when the music/client demands.
Fast forward to now, and pick technique is much more en vogue from a style standpoint. If you're playing or listening to modern rock (originals) now, there's a strong likelihood that the bassist may be using a pick.
The point? This is one of the current trends from a technique standpoint. If you want to play modern rock and be a go-to player in that genre, you should make a point of having pick technique as something you can go to when the music/client demands.
+100
This definitely falls under doing what you have to do to get a gig (assuming it's one you want).
Which reminds me, I need to start working on my slap again. I have a strong feeling it'll be coming back into style soon. 70's, 90's, and now 2010's... there just seems to be a trend and I want to be ready for it.
I could definitely see that happening. We've seen this big neo-soul movement that's worked it's way into the current crop of pop/indie/rock music. And if this whole process of regurgitating old styles keeps moving forward like it has, funk might be the next style that the indie/hipster crowd starts to draw from. If that's the case, get your thumbs ready to go!
You can get all kinds of different tones with fingers, but it doesn't sound quite like a pick. I used to never play with a pick. Then I joined a Pink Floyd tribute band. It sounded fine with fingers on an active Jazz with roundwounds. Without any prompting from the rest of the band I decided to try a pick on a passive Precision with flats. What a difference, and I now love the pick for classic rock and country sounds. The pick gives a scooped sound with lots of mids and highs in the attack. It just sounds different than fingers, enough that the whole band mix sounds different.
Who wrote the songs? What kind of tone does that person want? I would do it. I'd have to practice since I suck with a pick. I've been trying to use it more lol
If you consider yourself a professional, or hope to be one someday you play the songs with a pick! I don't use picks (I can if I had to) but I have them in ALL of my gig bags.
yesterday, due to a weird combination of a solid state amp, a new fuzz, and a concrete floor, i used a pick for the first time in ages and in this particular practice space rental it sounded awesome
i generally don't use a pick cause in my college days the grabber got the clicks really bad when i used it for practicing and i found it annoying
i generally don't use a pick cause in my college days the grabber got the clicks really bad when i used it for practicing and i found it annoying
So, the pick itself, was not the cause of my distress/skepticism about this band. I don't think you guys get that.
The cause of said distress, was the implication that IN AN UNPAID PROJECT WHERE I HAVE NO CREATIVE INPUT, at a point in time when I was NOT EVEN IN THE BAND YET (again, unbeknownst to me: doesn't "We'd like to work with you" sound like "you're in the band"? Am I effing crazy??)....
All these factors, and the guitarist/producer was passive-aggressively "suggesting" I play EVERY SINGLE SONG. ALL THE SONGS! with a pick. Thereby overhauling my entire technique and dictating it to a degree which-in my opinion AND experience- generally merits either pay, or creative involvement.
As soon as I realized how uneasy it made me to be coerced into something I would've rather arrived at on my own instead of under the guise of it being a very rigid "learning experience"....
I let my thoughts be known by saying that I was willing to match the tone of the album via pick, but that was as far as I'd go unless *I* felt that MY playing called for a pick or a, like, potato chip, Dremel, piece of cheese, etc.
Needless to say I am not in the band.
I really don't think I'm crazy or out of line for not wanting other people to tell me what to play and how to play it, without paying me for it. I KNOW I'm not, because every single one of my paid musician friends, has said the same thing. I really don't think I'm wrong for seeing this "learning experience" as something which HINDERED personal growth due to my being tethered to one exact sound, style, and tone...note for note. Again, IF I WERE GETTING PAID I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS.
But I'm not. So with all due respect to "learning" by stressing myself out and catering to someone else's wet dream of a band with absolutely no room for contribution or compromise? They can &@)$ off. They can seriously $&@" off because I have gone, ONCE AGAIN...ALWAYS...120% out of my way to make this work.
So whatever. I don't care anymore. I just can't figure out who they thought they'd get, with demands like that.
Once again, here I am. It's cool...I get the message now. I just dropped 100 bucks on a setup for a bass that I'm probably gonna be sitting in my room playing, for a long long time. And I don't expect anybody here to support my philosophy on this or to encourage me to dust myself off because obviously something is wrong with me and honestly? It makes me want to totally give up on bass because I KNOW I would never be happy just playing by myself or "jamming"...so my pain comes from wanting something more, something so goddamn easy and simple....and never feeling so adrift about anything before in my life.
Yeah. So that's how that went. If you really want to talk to me, it's in my profile. Just spare me the macho "oh you should've just" NOPE. I was not comfortable and it hit me fast and once I realized that, to hell with them. So like...don't even. Because this just happened, my job sucks, my bird died today, and I can't.
The cause of said distress, was the implication that IN AN UNPAID PROJECT WHERE I HAVE NO CREATIVE INPUT, at a point in time when I was NOT EVEN IN THE BAND YET (again, unbeknownst to me: doesn't "We'd like to work with you" sound like "you're in the band"? Am I effing crazy??)....
All these factors, and the guitarist/producer was passive-aggressively "suggesting" I play EVERY SINGLE SONG. ALL THE SONGS! with a pick. Thereby overhauling my entire technique and dictating it to a degree which-in my opinion AND experience- generally merits either pay, or creative involvement.
As soon as I realized how uneasy it made me to be coerced into something I would've rather arrived at on my own instead of under the guise of it being a very rigid "learning experience"....
I let my thoughts be known by saying that I was willing to match the tone of the album via pick, but that was as far as I'd go unless *I* felt that MY playing called for a pick or a, like, potato chip, Dremel, piece of cheese, etc.
Needless to say I am not in the band.
I really don't think I'm crazy or out of line for not wanting other people to tell me what to play and how to play it, without paying me for it. I KNOW I'm not, because every single one of my paid musician friends, has said the same thing. I really don't think I'm wrong for seeing this "learning experience" as something which HINDERED personal growth due to my being tethered to one exact sound, style, and tone...note for note. Again, IF I WERE GETTING PAID I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS.
But I'm not. So with all due respect to "learning" by stressing myself out and catering to someone else's wet dream of a band with absolutely no room for contribution or compromise? They can &@)$ off. They can seriously $&@" off because I have gone, ONCE AGAIN...ALWAYS...120% out of my way to make this work.
So whatever. I don't care anymore. I just can't figure out who they thought they'd get, with demands like that.
Once again, here I am. It's cool...I get the message now. I just dropped 100 bucks on a setup for a bass that I'm probably gonna be sitting in my room playing, for a long long time. And I don't expect anybody here to support my philosophy on this or to encourage me to dust myself off because obviously something is wrong with me and honestly? It makes me want to totally give up on bass because I KNOW I would never be happy just playing by myself or "jamming"...so my pain comes from wanting something more, something so goddamn easy and simple....and never feeling so adrift about anything before in my life.
Yeah. So that's how that went. If you really want to talk to me, it's in my profile. Just spare me the macho "oh you should've just" NOPE. I was not comfortable and it hit me fast and once I realized that, to hell with them. So like...don't even. Because this just happened, my job sucks, my bird died today, and I can't.
