New Category – Bass / Guitar Techniques

redbass

Even though I’ve been playing for 23 + years, I don’t consider myself an “expert” bass player. I’m always learning new things. But I like to give advise when asked. I spend some time over at Talk Bass, a bass guitar players forum. A young player asked this question:

Middle finger attacking much harder than index

Is there anything I can do to work on this? Its only really apparent when playing the usual groups of 8 or so root notes. The problem I guess is that my middle finger seems to hit the string a bit harder than my index finger, causing the beat to “pulse” a bit. I’ve been playing for about a year, and this has only started happening recently. When I was starting out both fingers were pretty much even, but now theyre out of whack.

When I was a younger play, I also had struggled with this problem. Here are a couple of solutions.

Two possible tricks or work-arounds.

What level is your bass strap set at? A low / hang-dog setting, because of the angle you hold the bass in your fret hand, will create a natural angle where the two fingers hit the strings in a more even fashion. I don’t play with the bass that low. One drawback is that you can’t easily use the other two fingers on your hand to pick notes.

Another solution is to learn to use your fourth finger to alternate notes. Those two fingers are closer in length and will naturally create a more even tone between the two. It also frees you to use your middle finger to either deaden another string… or, better yet, flip some jerk off while you’re playing , as he commented earlier that you suck because you’re not playing any Rush songs in your set!!!