Four Rocking Tips To Supercharge Fingerstyle Bass Playing

Fingerstyle bass playing can seem like a hassle to rock players. Many inexperienced bassist find it difficult to get the same speed and clarity with their fingers as they do with a pick, meaning that the option of playing fingerstyle is often ignored.

There have been many great rock and metal bassists who played with their fingers, however. Cliff Burton, John Myung, Steve Harris: all giants in the world of bass playing, and all fingerstyle players. Fingerstyle isn’t just for the pros, either. guitar lessons With a few simple modifications to your playing style, you too can develop a finger plucking technique that will rival any pick player’s for energy and speed, and will let you enjoy the improved tone and dynamism that fingerstyle brings. These four tips will give you a great starting point to take your rock fingerstyle bass playing to the next level.

1. Choose your thumb position wisely

Your first consideration as a fingerstyle player should be where to anchor your thumb. You have two options: either resting on the pickup of your bass or using a floating technique. The floating technique involves moving your thumb up and down the strings of the bass, resting it on the string above the one you are plucking. This can give your high notes a more even tone and help you mute the strings you aren’t playing at any one time.

For rock players, it is more common to anchor on your pickup, however. This gives your hand a solid grounding, allowing you to get more power in your plucking and build up speed easily. There is no right or wrong position to anchor your thumb, but it is good practice to try both techniques and see which one works best for you.

2. Be economical with your finger movement

This is perhaps the golden rule of fingerstyle playing. If you want to play fast and hard, you need to conserve energy in your fingers. There’s no need to take huge swings at your strings, bringing your fingers way into the air and crashing them down on your bass. It won’t make any difference to your tone, and it’ll wear you out quickly.

To pluck a note, simply rest your finger on the string you want to pluck, before bringing it through that string and up to the one above. That tiny motion will give you the same end result as flailing your fingers around wildly, and is one that you’ll be able to repeat over and over again without getting tired. Also, consistently pulling your fingers back to the same height above the string (i.e. having them touch the string above) will help build up muscle memory in your plucking fingers, allowing you to pluck harder without expending more energy.

3. Master the two finger technique first

Many rock and metal players use a three finger technique to speed up their playing. While it’s true that you can attain incredible speeds with a well-developed three finger technique, it’s not generally necessary unless you want to play super-fast forms of music such as thrash metal. Proper two finger technique will give you all the speed you need for almost any situation, and is much easier to master. Master the use of two fingers first, using a smooth motion between your index and ring fingers, and consider moving on to three if you feel you need to.

4. Perform finger strength exercises

Having strong and supple fingers is a must for good fingerstyle bass playing. While your fingers will naturally increase in strength with practice, you can help them along by performing a few simple finger strength exercises. Try touching the tips of each of your fingers against your thumb, forming an ‘O’ with each one. You could also try placing the palm of your hand flat against your desk, then lifting and lowering each finger one by one. Squeezing a stress ball can be good for hand strength, too.

Learning to play fingerstyle is a must for any serious bassist. Plucking with your fingers gives a rich sound that a pick can’t match, and makes it much easier to play riffs that move up and down the strings of your bass quickly. Although it takes a little time and effort to get right, fingerstyle bass playing can help you bring something new to your band or solo project, and is well worth the effort to learn.

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