Bass Lesson 15 - Right Hand Techniques

Bass players like to settle for playing with just their two fingers, but there are a lot of different ways to use your right hand to play the bass. Many right hand techniques offer a different sound that may suit your playing style a little better. Let’s take a look at some of these techniques by first explaining the style, and then showing you a short example to play along with. This article will provide a quick overview of popular playing styles so that you may be able to pick and choose those that you would like to pursue.

The first and most popular style among new guitarists is the pick style. Guitar players generally play with a pick and bass players can to. It's not a very difficult technique to use, either. To play the bass with a pick, find a heavy-sized pick that is stiff. The stiffness of picks is usually measured in millimeters and 1.0 mm should be a decent size for bass strings. If you try to play with a flimsy pick, you might find that they aren't much competition when matched against the big bass strings. Stiff pick in hand, hold the pick with your thumb and pointer finger as if it were a pencil. Then strike the targeted string with the pick – easy enough right?

 

The next technique is using the thumbs to pluck the strings. Instead of plucking your strings like a rubber band between your fingers, push the string toward the body of the guitar with your index finger. As the string becomes harder to push down, release it, and it will vibrate. Practice this with one finger, then move on to two fingers. If you get better at that, use three fingers, alternately pushing the string down with each finger when you play: index, middle, index, middle etc. If you are having trouble keeping your fingers in time, make sure to accent the downbeats well. This simply means play the first note of each measure slightly louder. If you are playing eighth notes, it is especially advisable to accent the downbeats.

 

One of the most popular and unique techniques is slap bass. To play slap, use your thumb to “slap” the string so that it hits the higher frets (22-24) and bounces back up. Hit the string on the joint of your thumb, twisting your wrist so that your thumb smacks the string. To pluck with your index and other fingers, pull up on the string enough so that when it is let go, it has enough force to hit the frets too. The unique tone comes from the strings hitting the higher frets when they are struck with enough force. This style is very popular and highly sought after.

 

A more difficult technique is the tapping technique. You might be thinking Eddie Van Halen style, but tapping on a bass is usually two-handed tapping. This means that each hand is on different strings simultaneously. Instead of playing three notes on one string like one handed tapping, play 6 notes all over the fretboard. It can be very frustrating as a beginner to learn to mash those big strings to the fretboard without your finger rolling off.

For some more help, be sure to listen to the audio clips, and watch the video to understand how these techniques can be used and how they look when played. Oh, and happy practicing!