Should i play bass with a pick

It's no coincidence that the instrument that needs most force — double bass 1 — is almost never played with a pick 2. Again, it's perhaps easier to achieve a fast tempo with a pick without much practising, but a well-coordinated three or even two fingered pattern can go quite as fast as could possibly useful in the bass range. However, you might say palm mute puts the border of what is useful quite a bit higher, so at least indirectly speed is a point in favour of pick.

When you have a bit of nails on the right hand, you can "blend them in" for some extra pick-like attack on quiet notes where the strings wouldn't hit the frets. If there's a way in which a pick is "cleaner", it's that it doesn't give a strong "thud" when the finger hits the next lower string after apoyando plucking. But once the calluses are thick enough, you're fine. I don't think so — both up-down and finger alterations can sometimes get in your way, but if you anticipate the difficulties you can always find a way that works fine.

Soft notes will really sound soft , not just thinner, accents will stick out more notably. More polyphony possibilities. Fairly obvious, but not all that relevant for bass. Better silencing options. In an alternating finger pattern, there's always a finger available for making notes a really precise staccato left-hand only silencing works pretty badly on bass, you need to use all fingers so no harmonics remain. Hardly suitable for anything more complex than a crotchet bass line.

They sound different, and the sound you want is going to affect your choice. Fingers are softer than plectrums, so give a softer, warmer sound. With a plectrum you can use alternate picking to play fast patterns, but skipping strings is a bit more fiddly. Try both and see what works for you. You could find you use both techniques, depending in the song.

I play both, and when I pick up the guitar, out comes the pick, generally, but with bass, I've never used anything but fingers, and occasionally, thumb. I often wish I could play more guitar with digits.

Strumming chords is more effective with a pick. That doesn't often happen on bass. The flesh of fingers gives a better sound on bass, as often it's a smoother sound that's required. If it needs to be punchier, there's always the option to slap and pop. Is the pick going to give a faster rate of play?

With four fingers on bass, there's plenty of speed available, if needed, as four fingers are 4 times one pick. Not that one has to play that quickly on bass. With fewer strings, the damping of unused strings is easier with bass, so having fingers spare to dampen seems to work more easily than it does on guitar. Holding a pick limits the available fingers to dampen.

As mentioned earlier, the sound is rather different, so there are occasions when the pick is the weapon of choice as far as tone and attack are concerned. With no pick in sight, on bass, there are the options to play 'normally', pop, slap, and other subtle ways to coax different sounds from a bass guitar, most of which are denied to you if you are holding a pick.

In my experience it is a little easier to lock with guitars playing with a pick, especially if you are playing metal which also tends to be very rhythmically straight. That, combined with the harder edged attack, makes playing with a pick slightly more obvious for that style, especially in the more modern sub-genres. Of course there are a lot of great fingerstyle players in metal, so it's not a place where you need to ignore it.

Fingerstyle is way better the minute you want to mute strings, as you always have a spare finger for that. That lends it to music where you want more space or more complex rhythms. I wouldn't want to try and play reggae or soul with a pick.

Fingerstyle also gives a much rounder, woodier, sound. I find that this typically cuts through better in a live situation - unless bass is the only instrument playing at any given point, most of the treble you produce is going to be lost among the other instruments who specialise in the mid-high tonal range. This is an important consideration because bass is very much an ensemble instrument and what sounds good when you're practising at home may well not be nearly as good with cymbals and guitars around to soak up that high end space.

So there are clearly advantages to both sides, but neither is entirely limiting to playing what you want to play- you can find great players who play fingerstyle or use a pick I would say fewer pick players, but Carol Kaye played on so many top flight records she probably balances out a lot of that so you can really choose the one you feel most comfortable with and go from there. This is because even if you can control your three finger motion to accent every second or fourth pluck, they will be plucking the string in slightly different places, leading to the "threes" feeling leaking through.

I've not seen any player who can overcome this. Playing with two fingers gets around this, but again I am not aware of any player who can play with two fingers at the same speed as you can with a pick and keep it up for the length of a gig if they have many fast songs to play. Notes can ring for longer before they're re-picked than when they're re-plucked if you're repeatedly plucking a string with your finger, you will be muting the string for the time it's in contact with your finger.

This means for fast patterns on one or two strings, the 'duty cycle' period during which the notes are ringing freely can be quite short, leading to a lack of definition in the line. This means that some people get very snobby about the techniques. In music, there is often a bit of this one upmanship, and it might well be light hearted. The same sort of competitiveness exists when talking about brands of guitar, effects pedals and all sorts of other aspects of music setups.

Anyone familiar with this blog knows I hate equipment snobbery and just want everyone to make music doing what sounds best to them! There are bass players who use both a pick and the finger technique.

There are also bassists who use exclusively one or the other. It is very interesting to check out this list of bass guitarists who just use a pick. They all seem to have some commonalities. Most of the bands that they play in are very heavy and the bassists want a big, driving sound. A pick seems to be the way they create this heavy attack.

Many bassists use both methods, and can switch between them depending on the song or the style they are going for. According to Fender. A lot of guitarists who convert to playing the bass guitar are used to playing with a pick, so stick with a pick. Being able to use both methods is ideal if you want to add options to your playing, but not essential, plus, as you get better at one of the techniques you will be able to execute more control over the dynamics and the sound that is being created anyway.

The important thing is to get better at the technique you have decided upon. Thicker picks are recommended. They will give a bigger attack and heavy tones from your guitar or bass, giving more control over the dynamics.

Thin picks also really struggle to get the traction or properly disturb the thick strings of a bass guitar, and the sound can end up feeble not to mention difficult to achieve. Dunlop Big Stubby. These are lexan picks with a thickness of 3. Click here for more information from Amazon.

Dunlop p1. These picks are slightly wider and more triangular shaped than the average guitar pick, improving both accuracy and grip. They have a thickness of 1. I'm George; the founder of Indie Panda. I'm passionate about helping independent musicians realize the full potential of their talents and abilities through a strong work ethic, coherent project identity and a strong logistical foundation. So, do bassists use picks?

There are four primary reasons why a bassist would choose to play with a pick over their fingers: It allows for palm muting: This is one of the biggest advantages of playing with a pick. The alternate picking technique also allows bassists to execute the tremolo effect rapid repetitions of the same note with ease. It produces a more defined sound: Whilst fingerstyle playing produces a warm, rounded sound, playing with a pick produces a more defined, treble-heavy sound.