Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
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Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
Being quite the Ryan Martine enthusiast, I'm trying to learn the different techniques he uses, but the only one I'm having real difficulty is this:
You can see it clearly at :08. I can go down easily, and it's enough for most of the songs he does, but down and up to make a consistent picking sound is really hard for me, I've nearly cut my fingers trying to do it. Does anyone know of something that can help?
You can see it clearly at :08. I can go down easily, and it's enough for most of the songs he does, but down and up to make a consistent picking sound is really hard for me, I've nearly cut my fingers trying to do it. Does anyone know of something that can help?
Protoplm
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
The best thing to do is overdrive and strum your bass with your fingernails - its an epic sound to make rhythm guitarists cower under the bed in fear for their lives.
If you are using any kind of clean sound then nail-strumming is always going to sound a little uneven - but that's all to the good, as the softer up-stroke gives an interesting timbre that really helps, for example, to establish a syncopated rhythm. I personally like the timbre of a three-nail downstroke and finger-pad upstroke.
But if you want a consistent sound, you may try tucking your thumb tight against your index finger and playing the up-note fully with the thumbnail - although you may as well use a pick if you mean to use that technique consistently (this is sorta what Dman likes to do when he strums the bass, I think he does something like it on "Don't Move" - but best check that).
Another good way to improve this particular technique is to borrow an acoustic guitar and practise strumming some power chords on that - you'll be able to hear the individual notes more easily as a beginner, and you'll be able to play without fretbuzz potentially messing your sound, as stretching for a power-chord on a teeny lil' guitar is, as we know, easy. Fret buzz may even be the problem, if you haven't been playing that long. Sustaining those shapes fully takes a bit of practice, and the sharp sound of a fingernail masks the buzz a bit. Try playing the chorus of "Snow Hey Oh" by the Chili Peppers for two-string strumming practice.
Or you could go punk-rock on it - upstrokes are for wimps!
I hope this helps!
If you are using any kind of clean sound then nail-strumming is always going to sound a little uneven - but that's all to the good, as the softer up-stroke gives an interesting timbre that really helps, for example, to establish a syncopated rhythm. I personally like the timbre of a three-nail downstroke and finger-pad upstroke.
But if you want a consistent sound, you may try tucking your thumb tight against your index finger and playing the up-note fully with the thumbnail - although you may as well use a pick if you mean to use that technique consistently (this is sorta what Dman likes to do when he strums the bass, I think he does something like it on "Don't Move" - but best check that).
Another good way to improve this particular technique is to borrow an acoustic guitar and practise strumming some power chords on that - you'll be able to hear the individual notes more easily as a beginner, and you'll be able to play without fretbuzz potentially messing your sound, as stretching for a power-chord on a teeny lil' guitar is, as we know, easy. Fret buzz may even be the problem, if you haven't been playing that long. Sustaining those shapes fully takes a bit of practice, and the sharp sound of a fingernail masks the buzz a bit. Try playing the chorus of "Snow Hey Oh" by the Chili Peppers for two-string strumming practice.
Or you could go punk-rock on it - upstrokes are for wimps!
I hope this helps!
Malastare
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
Wow, quite the informative post. I do own an acoustic guitar, it's nice to switch it up and play some of my bass lines on it.
I'll experiment around with what you talked about and see what I ca n come up with.
I'll experiment around with what you talked about and see what I ca n come up with.
Protoplm
Post #2200
You know proto, if you wanna cheat, you could always get finger picks
I bite my nails massively so Im gunna get me some, seems a good idea.. =[
I bite my nails massively so Im gunna get me some, seems a good idea.. =[
Drakon7
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
Drakon7 wrote:You know proto, if you wanna cheat, you could always get finger picks
I bite my nails massively so Im gunna get me some, seems a good idea.. =[
I hate those things, they just look so unconfortable, and my nails are long by nature, so I don't have that problem, I just can't get a good sound from the chorus bit in not falling, thinking about just octave tapping it like the intro.
Protoplm
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
The intro is not usually octave tapping. Ryan plays it strumming in all the live performances. But as Smaz told me once. Its YOU playing YOUR bass so YOU can play it however YOU want me to [yeah smaz, I changed it a bit to suit the conversation =P][wait, it was smaz who said that wasnt it?]
either way.
If youve got long fingernails then I guess its just a matter of practice..
Best practicing on acoustic guitars like Malastare said.
Just remember, those teeny lil strings arent as durable as our MANLY bass strings =D
either way.
If youve got long fingernails then I guess its just a matter of practice..
Best practicing on acoustic guitars like Malastare said.
Just remember, those teeny lil strings arent as durable as our MANLY bass strings =D
Drakon7
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
Drakon7 wrote:The intro is not usually octave tapping. Ryan plays it strumming in all the live performances.
Yes, but I like how tapping sounds better .
I don't see how it's even possible to do it at the pace Ryan does on an acoustic :\.. I can already get my down strokes to sound really clear.
Protoplm
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
FACT : Ryan is a machine
Sorry Proto, you, me, and everyone else here on this forum is unfortunately Human
So only more work for us
It took ryan years and years to get to where he is now. We've barely been playing one year!
Ryan's self taught, you know. He said in an interview once that his dad bought him a bass and he just sat down and learnt metallica songs. By ear. At age 12.
Thats half wiki, half interview.
Dont know if he was telling the truth or not. But it gives the forum an idea on how amazing of a bassist he is.
We will get there one day, hold on proto, and suck it in! XD
Sorry Proto, you, me, and everyone else here on this forum is unfortunately Human
So only more work for us
It took ryan years and years to get to where he is now. We've barely been playing one year!
Ryan's self taught, you know. He said in an interview once that his dad bought him a bass and he just sat down and learnt metallica songs. By ear. At age 12.
Thats half wiki, half interview.
Dont know if he was telling the truth or not. But it gives the forum an idea on how amazing of a bassist he is.
We will get there one day, hold on proto, and suck it in! XD
Drakon7
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
After playing with it, I've come to the conclusion that this post did absolutely nothing to help me with playing that song. However, that said - this did give me inspiration to play around in A E B E tuning and came up with a really nice sounding riff where I would strum using my thumb tip/nail using it like a pick. Typically upstroke is just nail and downstroke is half tip half nail.. but either way thanks.
Protoplm
Re: Any tips for strumming with fingernails?
After reading this thread, I picked up my bass to evaluate how I do this, since I never put much thought in to teaching someone how. You could start by muting the strings you're not using. Or try some chords. Then get it narrowed down to hitting only one string. If you're playing a gig with a band, no one's going to notice if you strum a muted string. I bite my nails all the time. You don't need long fingernails. Even when mine do get long, they kinda catch. Check out some les claypool stuff, he uses this technique quite a bit.
Dropthelines585- A resident.
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