5 “Levels” Of 3-Finger Plucking Hand Technique On Bass

[@privateerburrows]

I switched from 2-finger to 3-finger a few years ago, and never looked back. Glad I'm not alone. There are songs that positively can't be played with 2 fingers; one such is Steve Wonder's Do I Do. Well, I'm sure someone can, but I tried to play that bass line with 2 fingers for a couple of years and was getting nowhere; but then I tried 3 fingers and it flowed like molten butter.

[@liys540]

Me too

[@pleidhciocht1138]

I think one of Stevie Wonder's bassists used 3 fingers on basslines so that might be why

[@privateerburrows]

@@pleidhciocht1138 Yes, exactly, Nathan Watts. When I read about him, that was when I decided to try 3-fingers, and Bingo!

[@davidcraig1930]

“There are three basic options”... made me chuckle ;)

[@troywest]

I switched to 3 finger couple years ago and the temptation is to just shred through because I expect to paly with 3 as well as I did with 2, I'm learning to be patient - these exercises are VERY good, thank you .. although it is hard to pay attention when I'm looking at your beautiful bass LOL

[@Steviec63]

For playing a major scale in groups of four notes - ascending is strict alternating. However, when descending I'm finding that, when it comes to moving to the next string down, I'm playing the lower string with the same finger as the last pluck on the higher string. I think this is 'raking' isn't it? Anyway, that feels really natural to me.

[@JNeedels]

Excellent quality vid for beginners/intermediates

[@rossfinazzo]

Billy Sheehan brought this to the next level and used this technique for everything, especially 16th. I have always been discouraged to persist as I thought that physical features of fingers (e.g. too much gap between ring and middle) might be a limit for some bassists and make all that practicing useless, but I would be happy to change my mind if someone could prove everyone can use this technique and play fast with enough practice.

[@BecomeABassist]

Why not try to prove to yourself that you can do it?

[@rossfinazzo]

@@BecomeABassist yeah, good point, will try not to give up this time !

[@aidengaming4696]

I have a question, how do u avoid galloping when using the 3 finger technique, like when your just playing 4 8th notes or 4 16th notes, it's hard to get the 3 note gallop out of the mix and just play the regular 4 notes, any tips on how to fix that?

[@ibrahimozkan9303]

RMIM

[@harrypadarri6349]

I struggled with that, too. At some point I found that while I could play two 16th in quick succession with ring and middle finger these notes were quite messy. My conclusion was that the ring finger hadn’t become “just another” picking finger that can do its own thing. So I thought: If I can alternate pick with index and middle finger and with all three fingers combined I should also be able to alternate pick with ring and middle finger. I picked a couple of easy but cool songs (Nirvana in my case) and learned to play all of them with good and relaxed technique just using middle and ring finger. That worked really well for me.

[@billymanilli]

I still consider myself a beginner... (Had the bass for about a year, but bought a house, had a custody battle to get my kids, and some other things, so only been able to play here and there until about a month ago), but for the last month, I've been spending about 3hrs in the morning and another 2-3 at night, every single day. I can't believe the progress I've made already! ANYWAY I've been working on the part at 12:10 ever since I started playing the bass, and I'm actually getting pretty good at it. Learned it from watching a random vid of the bassist from Cannibal Corpse... lol (They're not really my "style", but I do LOVE and want to play metal, and he plays fingerstyle FAST!). I seem to have a hard time with a pick... I feel like it might have something to do with me being "lefty", but I play bass and do literally EVERYTHING else righty (I even airbrush righty!!...but put a pencil in my right hand and it looks like a 3 year old's handwriting... lol) Thanks SO MUCH for the lessons!! You're a GREAT teacher, imho. I've tried several channels so far, but you are the best fit for me by FAR, it seems!

[@user-lo3bh3cl4o]

I discovered playing with three fingers by accident when performing a bass solo - just got carried away & started doing it. At some point, I also started using my thumb on the E string. It wasn't until about a year & a half ago that I started to figure out using my thumb to slap. Then I saw a video of Victor Wooten in action & realized that three fingers & thumb made perfect sense - just like finger-picking on guitar.

[@johnfollis2357]

When using three fingers, I personally use ring middle index ring middle index ring middle index. Or index ring middle index ring middle index ring middle index. Sometimes when I am going from ring to index, I will come back on the middle finger and wait a split second before hitting with ring again. Sometimes I will go ring middle index middle index and wait a split second before hitting with the ring again. I also use this for playing chords in a hard and rocky way such has hard rock or metal. I will assign a finger per adjacent string. So if I play a power chord, I just use my index and middle fingers at the same time. If it is an extended power chord, I use index, middle and ring all at the same time. And if it is an octave chord, I use the index and ring at the same time.

[@adrianlozano2563]

Awesome video, I had been waiting this for a while!

[@BecomeABassist]

Glad you like it @doctor salt!

[@WhozWolfgang]

Primus - Toys Go Winding Down is a good three finger triplet exercise

[@thomasfioriglio]

Great lesson Luke. At first, I didn't think this would be something I would be interested in, but like most of your lessons, you teach it so well and with such a great attitude, it makes me want to try it. PS. glad you mentioned consistency in tone with your fingers. One of the issues I keep having is my pointer finger sounds nice and fat but my middle finger just sounds inconsistent and more trebley. I think that is one reason I keep going back to a pick. But I do keep practicing.

[@26Feathers]

A question here. 10:24 Would you not rake when coming up the scale?

[@carlosvillarroel6665]

this is what i'm talking about in your last survey... excellent video

[@Apocagen]

Question: Assuming going index > middle > ring > middle is alright shouldn't Index > Middle > Index > Ring also work?

[@kazerdira4704]

How do we pracrice to get faster , i play for almist 7 years nd i cant get more than 78 bpm for 16th notes

[@simonkristofer]

Thanks for your video....your explain is easy to understand...🙂👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@marylewis3311]

Perfect thanks 🙏❤️🙏

[@Mario_Gillette]

Hello Luke, My lady has bought me my very first bass for Christmas. I've never played one, and other than helping my brothers band load in and out their gear, I've never even held a bass. I do play guitar so I know the tuning and the fret board, but other than that, I know nothing of the instrument. Can you suggest some of your videos for beginners?

[@BecomeABassist]

Your partner sounds pretty amazing, @Mario Gillette! And if you’re a complete beginner on bass, I usually suggest focusing on 3 things to begin with. #1 - Technique (so you can learn to physically play and do it safely and not hurt yourself) #2 - Groove (which is easily your most important purpose as a Bassist) and #3 - Developing your ear (so you don’t have to rely on others or dodgy tan sites to learn songs, plus it’ll mean you can learn just about anything). I have a beginners starter pack that goes through all three areas. It’s a collection of my best free material for beginners. You can check it out right here: becomeabassist.com/bab-beginners-starter-pack And if you have any questions going though it, just shoot me an email! Hope it helps, friend!

[@Mario_Gillette]

@@BecomeABassist Thank you so much for the advice! And yes, she is quite amazing!!🙂🙂

[@jdiesel9048]

Very cool video! Thanks for leaving a few mistakes in there so we don't get too frustrated when we make them too. And great suggestion on Iron Maiden The Trooper.

[@user-yx7ii5jg1l]

What kind of bass are you playing in this video? It is the best looking bass I've ever seen! PLEASE RESPOND. I must have one.

[@pickbassguitar2802]

That bass tho

[@BecomeABassist]

She’s a beaut!

[@gameurai5701]

As a guitarist of 21 years, when I got my bass 3 years ago, I instantly started alternate 3-string fingerpicking aka going back and forth.I feel like reseting back to the index or ring finger feels unnatural and odd. This is how I recorded and produced a song too.

[@harrypadarri6349]

I guess whatever works and feels healthy is fine. Although at one point I realised: If some pattern feels weird even with healthy technique I find it very beneficial to turn it into a little warmup exercise. I always try to find patterns - whether picking or left hand- that feel weird or give me brain knots and build some exercise containing such patterns. At the beginning of each session I set the metronome to very low bpm and play that pattern for a minute or so.

[@buckycore]

As a Guitar player, my first inclination is to play three notes per string scales just to get into the mood. Having that said, I find it mission-critical to play with my fingers on my right hand and stop using a stupid pick. (So much more variety and musicality with playing fingers. Guitar players are missing the point when they play with a pick on bass) I find that when I go up a scale, my index leads, and when I go down, my ring leads. This just helps in connecting the two up, as I'm partially dyslexic.

[@buckycore]

oh, oops. And now you've got us coridinateing our fingers where you start with the Ring going up. EEEK. Ok, fine. I'll accept the challenge.

[@TRUSTLBLACKMETAL]

Should i learn 2 finger style to start then work my way up to 3 finger style?

[@BecomeABassist]

*Most* people start off learning with 2 fingers, then add a 3rd into the mix when they have a bit of experience, but there's no 'rule' that says that's the only way to do things. If you want to start with 3 fingers, go for it! It may be a little tricky at the start, but if you learn with 3 from the beginning, that's what will become natural to you over time.

[@thenameisbrooks]

Banging tone. So what about the little finger? Does the change in strength make too challenge to adopt a consistent 4 finger technique?

[@BecomeABassist]

I think the biggest challenge for using the pinky would be the length - it's just so much shorter than the other 3. I'm sure you could use it, but you'd likely have to change your technique pretty substantially.

[@jakslayersyth]

I like how you used Steve Harris's line from run to the hills but he only ever uses two fingers as 90% of people who search for 3 finger bass probably want to play some Maiden, I love a good three-finger bass line as its benefit is throwing in an octave but it isn't faster than even one finger

[@somethingstrangeastrid]

The tab for the trooper is wrong, he plays 2 eighth notes then 4 groups of 3 16th notes (gallops) not 5 gallops.

[@ErixSamson]

3 fingers on binary rhythms is challenging to me

[@smolchungus9213]

I guess I'm extra weird because I go index, ring, middle but hey it works lol

[@rotemharari1565]

I play middle pointer ring😐

[@dornelli1]

FOR SOME REASON I AWAYS THOUGH WAS EASIER TO USE THREE, CAUSE 2 SLOW ME DOWN ALOT

[@OlettaLiano]

Great lesson, but I prefer to use a pick.

[@BecomeABassist]

Perfect! Last week’s lesson was all about pick playing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4TKh6egeLhpnpo

[@OlettaLiano]

@@BecomeABassist Cool. I've used a pick for about 25 years. You have a good channel.

[@thomasfioriglio]

I'm primarily a pick player as well, but I do keep practicing my finger plucking. I like lessons like these because they take me out of my comfort zone. I may never use it, but its cool to try. Luke does a great job teaching these techniques.

[@OlettaLiano]

@@thomasfioriglio I use a pick mainly because I'm diabetic and sticking my fingers before and after every meal for my glucose readings. The fingers on my picking hand are just too sore to play with fingers.

[@MAVIEGUITARS]

You are playing rest stroke, not free stroke, so technically it's not plucking, is it?

[@BecomeABassist]

I wouldn’t be able to tell you - I don’t actually know what those terms are! Lol

[@graemerobertson5160]

The rest stroke is where the plucking finger lands in the next string above. I think doing that inhibits speed. And you can't do it anyway when slapping.

[@jimjimx5418]

Iron Maiden, quickly stops because he wants to keep google giving him money....

[@BecomeABassist]

Watch until the end friend

[@ibrahimozkan9303]

Switching fingers(3213 2132 1321) are most challenging parts, thank you very much