Playing with a pick

heyy ermmmm i got a bass for christmas! ive been practicing everyday but i just cant seem to get the hang of using a pick!!!! can anyone help me? is there a video somewhere that can teach or any helpfull tips???

Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

xXMaliceXx wrote:Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

Well not necesarilly.The best metal bassists mostly play with fingers.Cliff burton,Rob trujilo,Harris,Troy Sanders,Myung...etc.

Cliff em' all wrote:

xXMaliceXx wrote:Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

Well not necesarilly.The best metal bassists mostly play with fingers.Cliff burton,Rob trujilo,Harris,Troy Sanders,Myung...etc.

Yea Cliffs Right alot Metal Is fingers its more punk, hard rock kinda stuff that uses picks. But SomeMetal bassists pick

Picking gives more of a metallic guitary sound(I hope you know what that means lol). Fingers give a rounder bass sound. So picking has its uses when you want it to sound a certain way and it's a good skill to learn just in case you want those sounds someday.

Anyway some tips for playing with a pick are:

1. Make sure your pick is hard or at least medium because the bass strings and a light pick just doesn't work.

2. Practice accuracy. Just pick on a single string 10 times then move down a string, then down a string, etc. Just keep moving around and make sure you can keep a steady beat going with your picking hand while not hitting more than one string at a time.

3. Hold the pick firmly with the sides of your thumb and index finger.

4. Once you have some control start playing your favorite song with it and eventually it just gets easier and easier.

5. If you ever start to get frustrated, throw the pick out the window and play with your fingers for a while to relax. Or just do something else. Just if you get frustrated and start to lose confidence, stop. That's about the worst thing you can do for yourself when practicing.

Thanks for the help guys. im in to rock and im trying to learn a fast song and its just to hard to do with fingers!!!

Thanks for the help i will start practicing right away!

ffox1994 wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:

xXMaliceXx wrote:Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

Well not necesarilly.The best metal bassists mostly play with fingers.Cliff burton,Rob trujilo,Harris,Troy Sanders,Myung...etc.

Yea Cliffs Right alot Metal Is fingers its more punk, hard rock kinda stuff that uses picks. But SomeMetal bassists pick

I don't disagree to that but i what i wanted to say was that you cannot actually say which genre uses a pick.

Cliff em' all wrote:

ffox1994 wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:

xXMaliceXx wrote:Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

Well not necesarilly.The best metal bassists mostly play with fingers.Cliff burton,Rob trujilo,Harris,Troy Sanders,Myung...etc.

Yea Cliffs Right alot Metal Is fingers its more punk, hard rock kinda stuff that uses picks. But SomeMetal bassists pick

I don't disagree to that but i what i wanted to say was that you cannot actually say which genre uses a pick.

I play mostly metal and often i juast HAVE to use pick just because i cannot play fast enough with fingers. Pick is only way at this point to play really fast. So if i could play everything with fingers then i would play only with fingers.

mts wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:

ffox1994 wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:

xXMaliceXx wrote:Have you tried playing without a pick? useing your fingers gives it a rounder feel, but if ur into metal, u need it for the fast picking and/or rougher sound

Well not necesarilly.The best metal bassists mostly play with fingers.Cliff burton,Rob trujilo,Harris,Troy Sanders,Myung...etc.

Yea Cliffs Right alot Metal Is fingers its more punk, hard rock kinda stuff that uses picks. But SomeMetal bassists pick

I don't disagree to that but i what i wanted to say was that you cannot actually say which genre uses a pick.

I play mostly metal and often i juast HAVE to use pick just because i cannot play fast enough with fingers. Pick is only way at this point to play really fast. So if i could play everything with fingers then i would play only with fingers.

Yup.Didn't say anything about that.

Playing with a pick is a technique, and like any other technique, can be applied anywhere & used in various ways. There's no right or wrong, and it's in no way inadequate compared to playing with your fingers. It's a personal preferance kinda thing

Paul McCartney from The Beatles plays with a pick, and they're one of the biggest pop/rock bands in the world...

MarloweDK had a lesson on playing with a pick, but doesn't seem to have it on his new youtube account... I'll see if I can track it down.

xXMaliceXx wrote:I play mostly metal and often i juast HAVE to use pick just because i cannot play fast enough with fingers. Pick is only way at this point to play really fast. So if i could play everything with fingers then i would play only with fingers.

You could learn to play with more fingers. Like three. I know a few people that can play with four and one guy that can play with five too... which is really hard to learn but you can play insanely fast.

I personally use my fingers and would recommend learning bass with your fingers first then move on to using a pick, thats just my opinion. I always find it strange how most people find they play faster with a pick than their fingers, my fingers work twice as fast as I would with a pick, thats probably cause i mostly use my fingers and have developed a fast fingering style and I sometimes use the third for playing triplets . If I want a pick like sound I use the nail on my middle finger as a pick, its not quite the same as a pick but its good cause u can switch between fingering and picking.

I can play much faster with a pick than my fingers but when I do I'm usually less in time and less accurate. I'll end up hitting two or three strings when I'm only playing one sometimes because if I'm bringing it up and down that fast I sometimes slip a little and hit one of the strings above or below it. So I generally use my fingers since I can play pretty fast with them and I generally like the sound better.

Marlowe DK's videos on playing with a pick:

Part 1: http://blip.tv/file/2015461/

Part 2: http://blip.tv/file/2015493/

McSnuggles wrote:

xXMaliceXx wrote:I play mostly metal and often i juast HAVE to use pick just because i cannot play fast enough with fingers. Pick is only way at this point to play really fast. So if i could play everything with fingers then i would play only with fingers.

You could learn to play with more fingers. Like three. I know a few people that can play with four and one guy that can play with five too... which is really hard to learn but you can play insanely fast.

That is something that im aiming at. I can already play something with three fingers but i have to learn alot more when i could try to start building more speed but some day i will be there. Also i have to practise alot more of my two finger tecniques to get my playing more "fluid". Now its too abrupt at most times.

And cause i have played guitar many years more that bass well thats the main reason why at least i can play alot faster with pick and with pick my playing is more accurate too.

I personally find fingers are better because it allows a larger range of sounds, a pick is specific which is why I think alot of people prefer it, but theres alot of songs you can only play with your fingers but usually picks have a more angry sound then fingers, fingers is pretty friendly and nice sounding usually which makes it hard to play metal lol.
People playing guitar for years will already have the muscle so they wouldnt need to practice with a pick, so maybe they should try to use their fingers more as they are already pro efficient with a pick. The range of techniques is a reason that bass is so fun!
but thats just me

Drakon7 wrote:I personally find fingers are better because it allows a larger range of sounds, a pick is specific which is why I think alot of people prefer it, but theres alot of songs you can only play with your fingers but usually picks have a more angry sound then fingers, fingers is pretty friendly and nice sounding usually which makes it hard to play metal lol.
People playing guitar for years will already have the muscle so they wouldnt need to practice with a pick, so maybe they should try to use their fingers more as they are already pro efficient with a pick. The range of techniques is a reason that bass is so fun!
but thats just me

Great post....

I still think its more about skills than sound. I dont want to be arrogant.
But there are lot of metla basist that do play only with fingers and they can be fast and get that agressive sound. And when you are playing with distortion or just playing rally really fast i dont think there is alot difrence with sound. It is difrent thing when you play rock, funk or heavy metal something else "slower" stuff then its more about sound. And okey of course this comes in when you are breaking speed records and so on..
I have a friend who has been playing bass for many years. He playes in this band called Burden A.D.(thrash metal thing) and he just cannot play with play with pick. If he tryes to play with pick he is totally lost but he can do his stuff with fingers so why even bother.

And here is some links. People playing metal with fingers...

Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse

Cannibal Corpse - Frantic Disembowelment

gator plays vital remains


If i could do it like those guys i would not need play bass with pick.

mts wrote:I still think its more about skills than sound. I dont want to be arrogant.
But there are lot of metla basist that do play only with fingers and they can be fast and get that agressive sound. And when you are playing with distortion or just playing rally really fast i dont think there is alot difrence with sound. It is difrent thing when you play rock, funk or heavy metal something else "slower" stuff then its more about sound. And okey of course this comes in when you are breaking speed records and so on..
I have a friend who has been playing bass for many years. He playes in this band called Burden A.D.(thrash metal thing) and he just cannot play with play with pick. If he tryes to play with pick he is totally lost but he can do his stuff with fingers so why even bother.

And here is some links. People playing metal with fingers...

Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse

Cannibal Corpse - Frantic Disembowelment

gator plays vital remains


If i could do it like those guys i would not need play bass with pick.

Ah, good 'ol cannibal corpse! Lol, cheery stuff. I used to follow them in my Deicide days!

Yea, of course metal can be played with fingers! Anything can be played with anything, I think. Playing an instrument is such a personal thing. Some people like the pick sound because it gives a tonal edge. Some like fingers for the "warmer" sound. Both types of feel and tone have a say in metal as well as all other types of music...

Dmanlamius wrote:

mts wrote:I still think its more about skills than sound. I dont want to be arrogant.
But there are lot of metla basist that do play only with fingers and they can be fast and get that agressive sound. And when you are playing with distortion or just playing rally really fast i dont think there is alot difrence with sound. It is difrent thing when you play rock, funk or heavy metal something else "slower" stuff then its more about sound. And okey of course this comes in when you are breaking speed records and so on..
I have a friend who has been playing bass for many years. He playes in this band called Burden A.D.(thrash metal thing) and he just cannot play with play with pick. If he tryes to play with pick he is totally lost but he can do his stuff with fingers so why even bother.

And here is some links. People playing metal with fingers...

Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse

Cannibal Corpse - Frantic Disembowelment

gator plays vital remains


If i could do it like those guys i would not need play bass with pick.

Ah, good 'ol cannibal corpse! Lol, cheery stuff. I used to follow them in my Deicide days!

Yea, of course metal can be played with fingers! Anything can be played with anything, I think. Playing an instrument is such a personal thing. Some people like the pick sound because it gives a tonal edge. Some like fingers for the "warmer" sound. Both types of feel and tone have a say in metal as well as all other types of music...

Yea yea.. ofcourse but in my opion to using pick is just to getting more speed and it is more easily achieve with a pick than your fingers and that is my opion why you see people playing bass with pick rathern than fingers specially in metal. And i agree that fingers give warmer sound but do you really notice it when you add distorsion or just go fast like maybe 150 bpm? =)

edit. and thats kinda the point and imho only reason why you should play with a pick.

Haah... Deicide. Once upon the cross was great.

Dmanlamius wrote:

Drakon7 wrote:I personally find fingers are better because it allows a larger range of sounds, a pick is specific which is why I think alot of people prefer it, but theres alot of songs you can only play with your fingers but usually picks have a more angry sound then fingers, fingers is pretty friendly and nice sounding usually which makes it hard to play metal lol.
People playing guitar for years will already have the muscle so they wouldnt need to practice with a pick, so maybe they should try to use their fingers more as they are already pro efficient with a pick. The range of techniques is a reason that bass is so fun!
but thats just me

Great post....

Whoo, I feel wanted XD
lol

i hate using a pick
sounds bland and tinny
if i had more skillz then it might sounds ok, but until then i'll stick to my yellow pages finger walkin'

well i play equally good(or bad) with fingers and pick...when i play punk,rock i play with pick...when i play jazz or reggae i play with fingers...but playing with the pick is somehow easier for me, idk for u guys...

Pick is a bit harder tehnique for me, but i try to play sometimes with it...