Why do you pick/pluck, etc the way you do?

[alack]

Two fingers most of the time over the P pickup or J neck pickup. It’s about the tone and the feel of the strings. I have been experimenting more with playing between the neck pickup and neck. I’ll use my thumb in combination with my palm at the bridge for some percussive muting or in combination with my index and middle for the occasional chord.

 

[ReidK]

What? No Roger Filiberto?

No, but from what I can infer, his books have a much broader scope than Murray's, which only addresses plucking and fretting technique.

Reid

 

[SonnyBassPlayer]

I ended up playing with the combination of best sounding and most comfortable.

 

[RattleSnack]

I learned multiple techniques, work for years to implement them all and be able to switch between them seamlessly during song.
I distinct classic fingerstyle with different fingertip attack, classic slap/pop, classic guitar picking with or without palm muting, thumb playing, pick.
Interesting thing, classic guitar picking with palm muting gets you instant in that old-school-funk-with-muted-strings territory.
So to conclude, bunch of different techniques used based on what song needs.

 

[el murdoque]

My teacher taught me proper fingerstyle and slap techniques and forced me to discard the pick.
I was playing with a pick to that point and was fairly competent with it, but discovered my love for fingerstyle when I became good enough to use it in my band.
The only influential Bassist for me is Geezer Bulter. His way of plucking hard with the hand somewhere close to the fretboard showed me how to get 'that' sound. My hand usually sits a bit further towards the neck pickup, where it feels right for me.

 

[seafoamgreenjb]

I played nylon string guitar for years, thus played with fingers, then played electric for years with a pick, then switched to bass, tried playing with fingers but it felt absolutely different than nylon strings so played with a pick, then realized fingers are superior so got to relearn. Now 99.9% of the time play with fingers.

 

[bassicmike]

If I don't pick/pluck the bass won't make any noise.

 

[zontar]

If I don't pick/pluck the bass won't make any noise.

Well it isn’t why do you pick/pluck it, but why you do it t(e way you do, but thanks for playing.

 

[2saddleslab]

Because this gives me the biggest boom.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Somewhere between the pickups with floating thumb muting the balance. Index & middle fingers...ring finger is the odd-man-out.

Riis

 

[bassdude51]

Started play bass at age 15 in 1967. I used a felt pick.

By the late 60s and into the 70s, playing the bass with the index and middle became "the way" to play bass and I switched from felt pick to fingers. Took me awhile to get the hang of it.

Played bass with those 2 fingers for many years and then I noticed some killer bassists (like Jerry Scheff, Jamerson) using only the index and I switched from 2 fingers to in one.

Index finger does about 95% of my plucking. It feels solid and secure for me.

So..........Why do you pick/pluck, etc the way you do? I guess my answer is influence and it feels right for the music I play.

Jerry

Jamerson

 

[Stewie]

I started playing with three fingers, but lost half of the middle one. Now I use pointer and ring. Can’t do picks, tried several times and failed miserably every time. I rarely use my thumb, but when I do it thumps

 

[2saddleslab]

Started play bass at age 15 in 1967. I used a felt pick.

By the late 60s and into the 70s, playing the bass with the index and middle became "the way" to play bass and I switched from felt pick to fingers. Took me awhile to get the hang of it.

Played bass with those 2 fingers for many years and then I noticed some killer bassists (like Jerry Scheff, Jamerson) using only the index and I switched from 2 fingers to in one.

Index finger does about 95% of my plucking. It feels solid and secure for me.

So..........Why do you pick/pluck, etc the way you do? I guess my answer is influence and it feels right for the music I play.

Jerry
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Jamerson
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I started w/ a pick as well. But it didn't sound right on certain songs so decided it was time to get my fingers involved.

 

[bassdude51]

I started w/ a pick as well. But it didn't sound right on certain songs so decided it was time to get my fingers involved.
View attachment 7277381

Awesome photo! Awesome bass. Awesome bolo tie!

 

[BassBrass]

Awesome bunch of choices in your survey, I didn't think there would be a choice for me, but there were two. (1) Informed by previous instrument - in my case trumpet, the only instrument family where your own flesh is making the initial buzz sound. Using a pick feels like I'm divorced from the bass, that it's 1000 miles away (2). I need to make fleshy contact.
(3 not listed, influence by classical guitarist) I was influenced by a school trumpet teacher who was also a very good classical guitarist, and he kept his nails in perfect condition, often getting out his manicure kit to work on his nails during breaks. With time I grew nails that assist in my plucking tone. With the right nutrition they don't break, I have to cut them.
As a trumpet player I did thousands of hours in fingering exercises (Arthur C. Clarke mostly, he was Thee virtuoso cornet player a long time ago, did these obligato solo sections that would amaze the audience like a magician) so my right hand fingers were strong, fast and independent from the get-go on bass started a few years after trumpet. I pluck with lots of energy and get lots of volume, but it's invisible. My alternate fast plucking is seamless (or I strive for it). Sometimes I can't believe how weak some bass players pluck...and how quiet the results are. (not the masters including Entwistle and Flee who were/are both brass players... Mic Karn was a sax/bass clarinet/recorder player. (but all pluckers work on it)

 

[Aussie Player]

Fingers only. Can't hold a pick which feels utterly foreign. But even finger playing has evolved and only the actual finger tips roll over the string for most playing. I can still pluck hard and do for some songs but a more gentle playing style seems to work.
Also evolved into playing dual notes by pinching 2 strings using thumb and forefinger to add depth to an important note.
Another evolution is using a hammeron note to increase speed and fuidity within a run or lick. With a hammeron, the note is not plucked and noone notices as it is really just a technique evolution but its been there for a lot of decades now.

 

[Kaa]

I played fingers only for a long time. Then, right hand pain made me switch to the pick (I play guitar poorly as well as poorly6 played bass.) so the pick was an easy transition. I've never lost the desire to play with the thumb/index/middle banjo style because I like the feel of it, but, am just not proficient in it. So, with fingers, it's more like a 1.5 finger style. Lots of index, with the middle jumping in to assist when needed.

 

[31HZ]

I sort of imagined that that's how it would work (using two alternating fingers), and when I started playing it was exactly as I thought it would be. I think that helped me to pick it up so quickly (playing regular gigs in a good band within a few months).

 

[2thAche]

Younger me was a fingers-only snob but heavy handed due to learning from Geddy, Steve harris, Entwistle. No pick on bass, but I'd play guitar with one. Stopped playing for 20 years, started again with completely different musical tastes. Started back with guitar, realized that pick playing on bass wasn't evil.

Now I work on clean, lighter finger style, and have no hesitation to grab a pick for something like "when i come around" or Blink 182 stuff etc. Also has to do with using many different tones now vs before when my variation was aggressive like Geddy or vintage like JPJ.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, I started out using a pick. I had no instruction, and my technique was pretty bad.... all 'upstrokes'. I guess that's what felt comfortable to me. I eventually started using a felt pick. I could never play really fast with a pick although I tried.
After a couple of years in a basement band, I joined a working lounge band. Not sure when or how long, but I eventually switched to using two fingers. And now I never use a pick, unless we're playing Poke Salad Annie.

If I were starting over, I'd try to use both fingers and a pick.