JoZ's Guide to Pick Bassing
 

After answering slews of questions, many of them repeated, I feel it's time that I make a guide to playing with a pick. I hope this is cool with the bass community. :)

In this thread, I will give advice both on the stigma of playing with a pick, and overcoming it, and advice on effectively playing with a pick. Please keep in mind that these are merely my suggestions, and not necessarily 'the way' or 'the only way' to do it.

Firstly, I will answer commonly asked questions.

[b]"Why would I want to play with a pick?"[/b]

There are many reasons why someone would play bass with a pick. Playing with a pick gives the bassist the ability to add attack to his or her playing. This allows the bassist to give more power to his or her lines, adding a percussive-like sound to one's playing, and increasing the dynamics of one's playing as well. Playing bass with a pick also produces a distinctive tone, often brighter than playing with one's fingers. This extra bite can help bring the bass out, and help establish one's signature tone.

Some bassists, like myself, like to utilize chords on the bass in their playing. Playing with a pick makes playing these chords easier, as a simple strum allows you to produce the chords with little effort, allowing you to concentrate on the piece at hand, not your chord technique. This is not to say it is impossible to play chords with one's fingers, as it quite possible, and done by many. The pick is simply another option to achieving that chordal sound.

Yet another reason for choosing the pick is for speed. In today's world, alot of pick bassists, especially those players in the metal genre, play alot of fast runs to accompany the thump of the double bass in the drums. Bassist in death or speed/thrash metal bands are probably the most likely to use a pick for speed, as they have to keep up with serious shredding in the guitar lines. Again, a pick is not the only way to achieve serious speed, simply one of many.

[b]"Am I any less of a player for using a pick?"[/b]

The answer to this is a resounding [b][u]no[/u][/b]. The notion that playing with a pick automatically makes you a bad, or untalented, bassist, is based largely upon the scores of bassists who do use picks and happen to not be as talented as others. Mark Hoppus, Phoenix, and many modern metal bassists are three exampls of pick bassists who epitomize lousy pick bass playing. They add little, if nothing to the music in their respective bands, often simply following the guitar with simple rooting. I do, however, give some credit to Paul, for at least being able to keep up with his guitarist band mates, in spite of the fact that his basslines aren't very special. For every pop-punk, or nu metal bassist who uses a pick and sucks at it, there is another bassist somewhere who excels at it. Bassists like Chris Squire, Justin Chancellor, Leighton Kearns, Matt Freeman, and tons of others use picks, and make excellent music, with basslines that add to their songs. Even the virtuosic Stuart Hamm, a man known for his tapping prowess, has used a pick, for he recognizes it as simply another technique to playing bass. When you play with a pick, you must define yourself as a pick bassist. Playing with a pick occasionally, or exclusively, does not automatically discredit you from being a good bassist, no matter what anyone tells you.

Now, I will talk about methods of playing with a pick.

[b]Holding the pick[/b]

I just answered this in another thread, but I will bring it up here as well. In order to be a good pick bassist, you must have good technique. You must be able to keep control of the pick at all times, and you must be comfortable in doing so; playing with a pick should not cause any excess or unwarranted pain or discomfort.

[url]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/thejoz/jozwithpick.jpg[/url]

In this picture, I demonstrate my way of holding a pick, which I assume is pretty much the universal, or most accepted way of doing it. Hold the pick roughly on/between the first and second knuckle of your index finger of your picking hand, with the large part of your thumb holding it firmly. You should not have to put excess pressure to keep the pick in place, it should feel very natural between your fingers. Make sure you leave enough pick sticking out so you can pick the strings without tearing up your fingers.

[b]What pick to use[/b]

This is definetly a personal preference, but in my experience, there is only one pick that should ever be used to play bass.

[url=http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/84971]Dunlop Jazztone Large Pointed Picks[/url]

These picks are the best for standing up to thick bass strings. They are not incredibly thick, but they are the most durable picks I have ever used. You can shred, and shred, and shred some more, and barely wear these babies down. They are of decent size, so you can hold them very comfortably as you play. These are the only picks I recommend to anyone, because I honestly believe they are the best picks to play bass with...but of course, it's your personal preference that should matter most here.

[b]The stance[/b]

[url]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/thejoz//jozwithpick009.jpg[/url]

This horrid picture of myself shows how my arm and wrist look as I stand when I'm ready to play. There should be no excess bending of the wrist, you should just be able to lay your arm across your bass, and bam, there you go. Again, you're going to want to adjust your bass to your own height, and preference...not everyone here is pushing 6'4"/6'5" :p

[b]The techniques[/b]

When playing with a pick, it is good to get into a good pattern of upstrokes and downstrokes while playing. Some may think it's easier to simply downpick everything a 'la James Hetfield, but in the long run, it is not. Downpicking will wear you out with extended songs and basslines, and makes string crossing much harder. For each note you play, you should switch the motion you make with your wrist. Let me backtrack a second. When playing, you should also try and make most of the movement with your wrist, and not your arm. Just as downpicking will wear you out, using your entire arm will too. Done occasionally for effect is alright, and cool if you do it right, but thrashing about with your entire arm will not help you.

Anyway. Set up a routine to get your up/down pattern down pat. For each note you play, change the direction you move your wrist. Start on the open strings, as with any other excersize, and start slowly.

G----------------------------|
D----------------------------|
A----------------------------|
E---0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|
X---1--a--2--a--3--a--4--a--|
X---D--U--D--U--D--U--D--U-|

Gradually increase tempo as you get better at it. Try sixteenth notes. Triplets. Then try changing strings

G------------0--0------------|
D---------0--------0---------|
A------0--------------0------|
E---0---------------------0--|
X---1--a--2--a--3--a--4--a--|
X---D--U--D--U--D--U--D--U-|

Vary it up. Fluidity is the key, as you want to make sure you're only picking the string, or strings, you want. You don't want excess string noise from hitting/grazing other strings.

[b]Advanced Techniques w/ a Pick[/b]

When playing with a pick, you are somewhat limited to other techniques you can do simultaneously with your pick. Double thumbing is not possible, because your thumb is holding the pick. Besides, it's not necessary if you're using a pick :p. Slapping isn't really possible either, unless you were to hit the strings with your entire hand as opposed to just your thumb. But again, with a pick, you can get that percussive sound you can get from slap. No, it won't sound exactly the same, but you can still get added thump if you want.

Two handed tapping is possible, although the extent of it depends on your own personal dexterity. If the entire piece, or most of the piece is done with two handed tapping, I say forego the pick entirely, and play the piece with your fingers. If, however, only a small part of the song requires some tapping, simply use one's middle and/or ring finger to accomplish the tapping. This is particularly effective when tapping out chords with the right hand, as you can slam down with the middle and ring finger, and go right back to picking as soon as you need to. You could also tap harmonics, or do Van Halen style tapping this way, using the middle finger to strike the notes as necessary. Beyond that, I think it's probably best to forego the pick, if you wanted to play, say, Linus and Lucy on the bass, as was done by Stu Hamm. Stuff by Victor Wooten is probably also out of the range of picking and tapping...Classical Thump, for example.

[b]In Conclusion[/b]
Don't let anyone tell you playing with a pick limits your style, or makes you a bad bassist. You are only as limited or as 'bad' as you let yourself be. Pick bassing, like any form of bassing, requires time and practice to achieve positive results. So grab your pick, grab your bass, and make some music! :thumb:

Awesome! That was a really good, and in my opinion, needed lesson. Im eating right now so I cant play, but once I finish my hot pocket Im going to wash my hands and play your lesson with a pick. I'm a big fan of chords and I imagine you can do some cool things chord-wise with a pick. You dont look like what I pictured you as hehe.

Oh yeah.. Ive heard that picks can be bad for the strings. What do I need to do to avoid string damage?

[QUOTE=coddingtown]You dont look like what I pictured you as hehe.[/quote]

What *did* you picture? o_O

[quote]Oh yeah.. Ive heard that picks can be bad for the strings. What do I need to do to avoid string damage?[/QUOTE]

Honestly, I have yet to damage my strings from picking. I do know, however, that if you play too hard...you will break the strings.

But I have broken strings from plucking too hard too, so, it all depends. Just don't shred on them as if you're trying to slit someone's throat, and you should be ok :thumb:

this was much needed. very informative i must say.:thumb:

you are alot taller than I expected, or your ceiling is very small

[QUOTE=The JoZ]Honestly, I have yet to damage my strings from picking.[/QUOTE]

the only thing i know of is that when i pick on some sort of coated strings, such as Elixirs, the coating starts to peel off around the area i pick.

Yeah, thats what It was that I heard

Ahh yes, the Elixers.

I don't play w/ them, so I forgot to mention them...good point for bringing them up.

Any advice on muting while picking? I'm finding that to be insanely hard to mute specific strings with the meat of your hand while trying to pick the one right below it

From that picture of you on the Xanga and sonudlcick i expected you to look muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch different(for a while like chancelor :confused: i dont know why), i guess the fact that you were looking strait down kinda obscured my thinking. *goes back to thinking you look like justin chancelor*

Good article, good tips for the picksters, and good way to combat the "pickz are teh ghey" statements that get tossed out.

maby it is cause that pic is soooooooooooo old though. and the one on the xanga is newer. you need to post a new pic, so my mind stops hurting.

BFAG - I'll update it later

Case - New picture later, it's really pretty easy the way I do it :)

[QUOTE=CaseLogic]Any advice on muting while picking? I'm finding that to be insanely hard to mute specific strings with the meat of your hand while trying to pick the one right below it[/QUOTE]

are you palm-muting or what?

Well done :).

Good work man - can I copy it into L&A?

Nice, but how can you hold you pick like that? i try that but feel mighty umcomfertable.

*feels proud to be a pick player now, insted of keeping head layed low*

^^
You should feel perfectly proud to play with a pick, as long as you don't only play with a pick. It's as valid and valuable a technique as any other.

Also, [size=5][color=red]3000th post![/color][/size]

[size=1]ahem...[/size]

Lol yea, i play finger and slap somtimes too.

Hey i got my 3000 post 23 posts ago.

:chug:

[QUOTE=supernaut_1]are you palm-muting or what?[/QUOTE]

I don't really know anything about muting strings while picking... so... :confused:

[QUOTE=CaseLogic]I don't really know anything about muting strings while picking... so... :confused:[/QUOTE]

If you palm muting rest the flesh bit of your palm next to the bridge and play away, If you doing a normal string mute just dont push the string down all the away, just enough so it donst ring and makes a kinda thuding niose.

I think i explained that right :thumb:

[QUOTE=Wintermute]Good work man - can I copy it into L&A?[/QUOTE]


By all means :thumb:

Any way you would suggest pick playing that's not so abrasive and rattly (I.E. Matt Freeman solos, etc) ? I can do it with a bit of effects but it's hard from a clean signal.

I don't understand what you're getting at.

If you're saying that you don't like the extra bite or treble that comes from a clean tone of pick bassing...try to keep the pick as parallel with the strings as possible when playing.

When you angle the pick, you scrape the side of the string as you play, adding extra noise to the lines you're playing...if you hit the string dead on, with only the tip of the pick, not the tip and side, you should get less of that...

If that's not what you wanted to know, then...*shrug* :p

[QUOTE=Untitled258]If you palm muting rest the flesh bit of your palm next to the bridge and play away, If you doing a normal string mute just dont push the string down all the away, just enough so it donst ring and makes a kinda thuding niose.

I think i explained that right :thumb:[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I didn't explain right. I didn't mean when I want to palm mute notes... I meant if I play an open string, but then I need to pick another string, I need to mute that string so it doesn't sound crappy... how would I go about doing that?

Good example: Schism by Tool. On the main riff, you keep plucking open D over and over, but to make it not sound crappy, you need to mute it before you play the G-string notes... I've been told you can mute it with your picking hand, but I don't know how

Ack - The new L&A format means existing threads can't be copied into it if they have replies, which is a bit daft. Sorry.

I have never actively muted by D in Schism...

But the way I play, with my hand kind of resting right over the string...whenever I move to pick the G string, it happens to mute the D, sometimes.

Honestly, if you put more emphasis on the G string notes, and on the initial picked D, you shouldn't hear much excess resonance from the D.

Ok heres a question.

when im plam muting do i need to put hand right on the bridge to get a better tone? my guitarest thinks ill be alright over the Pickup but it sounds dead. Were the best place.

(this is the only problem i have with pick playing, and i still cant get over how you hold your pick its wierd)

I find that palm muting right at your bridge...like, right as soon as your strings leave the bridge, is where you do it.

But I don't actually use my palm, I use the side of my hand instead.

Ok thanks, my guitarest thinks im being stupid doing that for some reason, he has it easy with the strings coming out of the middle of the body :angry:.

I use the side of the hand too, still called palm muteing though. (i think)

Thanks

[QUOTE=The JoZ]I have never actively muted by D in Schism...

But the way I play, with my hand kind of resting right over the string...whenever I move to pick the G string, it happens to mute the D, sometimes.

Honestly, if you put more emphasis on the G string notes, and on the initial picked D, you shouldn't hear much excess resonance from the D.[/QUOTE]

Well even still, what about songs where you NEED to mute the open string? What's the proper right-hand technique for that? :)