Why does finger style look so easy?

[yaniv]

im mostly a guitar player and im comfortable with the pick.i coordinate with it perfectly
sometimes when a new friend comes to my house to learn some stuff i start to play and i do all these 32th note stuff and pinch harmonics and all those stuff without even noticing
it makes this friend to think it is really easy
so,he asks me to give him the guitar for a few minutes...
after 4 seconds he gets disappointed because of this illusion and gets sad cuz the pick doesnt coordinate with him like it does with me(and adores my picking at the same time )
after lets say half a year,we jam together
he makes something like a 500% improvement and then he can actually keep up with me
after all that story,u can realize that its just about practice,your coordination just gets better in time

i gave this example with pick and guitar cuz its an example from real life.i bet it's also relevant for fingerpicking

 

[bloodline462]

playing finger style is like second nature to me. i never have to think about it when i'm playing. some people can do it some people cant. i dont think i ever slip a string or anything. playing finger is easier for me also cuz i feel that i can "feel" the bass more than a pick.

 

[Mark Wilson]

I've been playing bass for only about 9 months, but I pretty much mastered finger picking. I've yet to find a song where I have trouble playing with my fingers, unless it's some crazy 4 finger picking song. :/

Btw, I'd love it if someone named a cool song that is really hard to play fingerstyle on bass, and post a tab for it.

Not a tab...

I'd like to see you attempt to tackle that. Chromatic Fantasy, composed by Bach, arranged by Jaco.

Props to www.lucaspickford.com for the transcription.

 

[uturnbass]

Yikes! That's nasty looking, lol!

When I first picked up the bass, it was automatically fingerstyle right from the start. It wasn't very hard for me, my fingers coordinated pretty easily with my left hand, all I needed to really do was get the faster and smooth driving.
And it also seems, every now and then when I want that "bitier" rock sound, I'll pick up a pick and just use it... * It' was suprisingly not too hard for me*
So, yeah picking isn't as easier, I'm definentley way more comfortable fingerstyle, but I can play either way...

 

[Spoiled Grape]

I've heard great bass with fingers and with a pick and I don't think the finger style bassist is necessarly better...it's just more difficult to play what they're playing with fingers than it is with a pick. To me anyway. That's why I *do* instantly respect a fingerstyle bassist more than a picker, and I'm probaby wrong on this, but they are doing something I couldn't do.

I find it more difficult to play difficult passages with a pick than fingerstyle.

I think it all comes down to what you are most used to doing. I started playing bass with a pick, but a few months into my playing I started doing highschool jazz stuff, which for the most part, sounded better fingerstyle playing. I haven't seriously touched a pick in about eight years now. I play some very fast punk rock stuff, which is a pain playing fingerstyle, but my fingers are just used to it now. I alternate my index, middle, and ring finger in what is best described as "controlled chaos." I mean, the fingerstyle and some pattern is there, I just really can't figure it out, and if I overthink it, I'll most likely miss a beat.

As far as how to develop the technique, just start with 4/4 walking basslines, one note a beat. Get your right hand used to doing stuff on it's own.

 

[xxx_shi_yu_ki]

I've been playing bass for about 2 months(piano for 5 years and violin for 3) and for some reason, I can't use a pick at all!! *laughs* My hands don't coordinate well, but I don't miss a note when I'm playing fingerstyle. I don't know why it does, but it comes easier to some people and harder for others.

Maybe... *thinks* it looks easy playing fingerstyle because you don't have to move your hands a lot when you switch strings but you do when you use a pick? It's just what I think though >_<

 

[Enden]

Why do some guys make playing with a pick look so easy? I've played bass with my fingers ever since I started playing. I have a very hard time playing with a pick and anything difficult that I play, I play with fingers.

Same here.

So it must be that the guys who make finger style look easy have been playing for 15+ years, and don't know any different. It *is* easy for them. I can play with a pick with no effort at all....it's easy. But I've been playing with a pick forever. I've practiced, practiced, practiced finger style and I must be thinking that 1 or 2 years is enough when it isn't. Or maybe I just don't have natural talent finger style.

certainly not. I haven't even been playing for 2 years, and I'm very pleased with my finger style.

 

[seanm]

I feel one of the reasons that fingerstyle *looks* so easy is because you are using two fingers. At any given tempo, assuming you are alternating fingers, your fingers are moving at half tempo and give the impression that you are lazily producing the notes.

In other words, I think there is almost an optical illusion going on. You don't seem to be playing fast enough to produce the sounds. I don't think playing with a pick produces the same effect.