Alternate Techniques!

What kind do you use? (And if they're too different from the norm, an explanation of what they are?)

I love using any technique, especially those that arent the usual pick/fingering/slap/pop. My favourites are octave tapping (playing the riff by hitting the artificial harmonic of each note with the right hand, especially fun when you do chords, amazing chorus-y harmonic sound. Main reason I use my tuning [ADADAD]) and two handed tapping/reverse fretting (I just reverse fretting cause it lets me use my pinky/ring fingers to mute all the strings and gives soooo much better clarity). I'm not sure what its called, but its a percussive style of slapping where you slap back and forth between your thumb and your ring/pinky finger? I'm at work so I cant show you the link to how I found out, though you can search for it under 7Sloth's bass cover of Mudvayne's Under my Skin. Either way, its heaps fun. Im still kinda noob at it but I can use it pretty well in a simple way now.

I also like to play using that agressive fingering where you slap with the tips of your fingers, again, mudvayne style :3

And I'm really getting into tapping on my acoustic fretless and also doing the percussive notes on the body (I aint slapping my fretless, neck is too pretty for that!!)

And harmonic slides rock my socks.

Anyone know the names for these?
And to my original point, do you do anything that differs from the norm? If so, what, how and why?

EDIT: Also, why do so few people use a third finger on their right hand? Its so helpful and its like, right there. I only just found out its not commonplace, I always thought it was the way

I actually don't like to go all fancy like that. I probably do some odd variations of techniques every once in a while, but overall I stick to fingers bass-style, fingers guitar-style, picking and slapping and popping. I just prefer being ohholycowthat'sgreat at a few techniques than meh at a lot.

I do like me some tapping and tapped harmonics, with or without barring, though. Also weird tunings are fun, I sometimes just do weird stuff in drop B, just because I like the floppy strings.

Doing noisy stuff with effects probably doesn't count, but wahy synthy fuzzy octavy sounds are fun sometimes.

I'm more of an effects person, though I do tend to use a lot of different techniques, but only to get a different sound rather than look flashy.

Hammering the strings with my fingers is something I've been using since the first month of my bass playing.

I love the sound of tapped harmonics, but I rarely get a chance to use them.

I've gotten down all of Ryan's techniques, no problem, except I strum the strings differently. Instead of putting my finger and thumb together as if I were holding a pick, I fan the strings with an open palm. While strumming like this I often do a 3-finger gallop strum across the chords which sounds a lot like spanish guitar.

I also add a lot of weird tricks, which could be called techniques, but they just serve the purpose of creating a specific effect at a specific point and nothing more.

I began using my third finger very early on, but soon realized that it had one gigantic flaw - counting! The majority of the rhythms we play are counted with even numbers (4/4 is counted as 1-2-3-4). When playing with two fingers, this is quite easy to keep track of because your fingers follow the pattern. Adding a third disrupts this because you play an EVEN rhythm with an ODD number of fingers.

Stryfer wrote:I'm more of an effects person, though I do tend to use a lot of different techniques, but only to get a different sound rather than look flashy.

Hammering the strings with my fingers is something I've been using since the first month of my bass playing.

I love the sound of tapped harmonics, but I rarely get a chance to use them.

I've gotten down all of Ryan's techniques, no problem, except I strum the strings differently. Instead of putting my finger and thumb together as if I were holding a pick, I fan the strings with an open palm. While strumming like this I often do a 3-finger gallop strum across the chords which sounds a lot like spanish guitar.

I also add a lot of weird tricks, which could be called techniques, but they just serve the purpose of creating a specific effect at a specific point and nothing more.

I began using my third finger very early on, but soon realized that it had one gigantic flaw - counting! The majority of the rhythms we play are counted with even numbers (4/4 is counted as 1-2-3-4). When playing with two fingers, this is quite easy to keep track of because your fingers follow the pattern. Adding a third disrupts this because you play an EVEN rhythm with an ODD number of fingers.

I dont like effects (mostly cause foot pedals throw me off! *SHAME*) so I try to make all the sounds with my hands. What sort of weird tricks do you mean?

I should add I dont do these to look flashy, though its an obvious bonus. Its all about the sound.

We're bassists, noone sees us anyways! -ba dum dish-

Tricks...like bending an open played string at the head, or turning a note into a harmonic and bending it...or clicking my strings in the middle of a bass line (basically palm mute and open palm slap across them), using my thumb to push down on a string to get a huge buzzing sound and so on...

I know that "finding the sounds with my hands" phrase, it's pure Ryan
Respect for that.
I just like to combine effect pedals to create outerspace sounds

If that kind of stuff counts, I do that too.

Stryfer wrote:
I know that "finding the sounds with my hands" phrase, it's pure Ryan
Respect for that.
I just like to combine effect pedals to create outerspace sounds

I remember hearing him or reading him say that just when I first started playing and its really stuck with me. The only thing I use is Compression, which I dont count as an effect even though officially it is. :/

Drakon7 wrote:We're bassists, noone sees us anyways! -ba dum dish-

Correction, we are bassists most people can't even hear us lol.

Pastichio wrote:

Drakon7 wrote:We're bassists, noone sees us anyways! -ba dum dish-

Correction, we are bassists most people can't even hear us lol.

Quiet with your jokes, make like a bass guitar and be inaudible.

lololol

Not sure what alternate techniques I use to be honest. Must of my practice time consists of scale work, two handed tapping and some slapping. I don't practice aggressive fingerstyle at home, but in band practice I do play very heavy with my right hand, playing with two loud guitarists and a powerhouse of a drummer in a metal band it just ends up with my playing very heavy on the strings. As for effects, I do use a Boss GT10B but I mainly use it for tone shaping than anything else. I mainly use it for compression, which evens out the level of my bass when i really get stuck in, preamp, which is for tone with the gain set low and doesn't compromise my gain structure by being too hot. It is set so the level of my bass doesnt increase in volume when turned on, stays the same turned off. Then I have an overdrive which again is for tone, and it is no way extreme it doesn't even sound like a overdriven bass just gives a nice warm tone. Then I use a parametric eq, which, again for tone shaping. I have that as my main patch and then another one with chorus on for some songs. I do have a solo patch which uses a overdriven guitar preamp for some Cliff Burton type fret wankery during my solo spot with wah pedal, i do my solo in two stage, clean and dirty. I use my whammy pedal at the end of one song, to slowly pitch down a note a full octave, which has autowah and sounds mean as fuck.