Beginning on bass: Pick or Fingers?

Technique
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Did you start with your fingers or a pick on Bass? And is there a reason for your decision?

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I started with pick but did the course with fingerstyle, and I would strongly recommend doing the course with fingerstyle even if your favorite styles are all pick. It’s just so fundamental that you should at least learn it.

I mostly only pick now but am happy with both styles and really glad I can do both.

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I started with fingers, but try to incorporate picking when it serves the song. I’m not great with a pick, but have definitely improved a lot over the last year.

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Started with fingers, still can’t play with a pick :joy: In all seriousness: playing with your fingers is much easier, at least for me. Unless you’re already used to playing with a pick (on guitar, for instance), I’d recommend starting with fingerstyle.

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Years ago, I tried guitar with a pick, no success. Months ago, decided to learn bass, just fingerstyle. I am following begginer to badass course, just firgerstyle, decided to practice with pick later, when I reach module 16 (Hope that at least my fingerstyle will be better by then :sweat_smile:)

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Yeah, totally. Fingers first !

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I started fingerstyle. It seemed to me the more natural way. I tried playing with a pick in the meantime, but it doesn’t seem very satisfactory… which might be due to my living in an apartment and playing through headphones most of the time. It seems very difficult to evaluate my playing (with a pick) without going through a (loud) amp :sweat_smile:

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When I first started I swore I would never play finger style. A couple of lessons into the B2B course something clicked and now I struggle playing with a pick :joy:

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go with what comfortable but learn both

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Welcome to the forum @pklazza

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Fingers fingers fingers!!

IMO nearly every song can be played successfully with the fingers even if the original artist used a pick. The difference will be in tonality as a pick will give you a much sharper and intense tone, and the fingers will be a more muted sound. Some bassists never use a pick, but like I said it all depends on the tone you’re looking to achieve.

The fingers are also more versatile IMO as you can access your strings much quicker and can even use your ring finger & thumb to pick allowing you to hit multiple strings simultaneously. If you’re coming to bass from guitar then a pick might feel more natural, but as someone that started bass from square one, I found fingers to be easier and more accurate.

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I started with fingers. Originally, I was very much in the “REAL bass players don’t use picks” camp. Luckily, I’ve matured since then.

My only problem with a pick now is that I tend to run my action pretty low, and when using a pick with the increased attack and downstrokes it causes lots of fret buzz I don’t get when playing with fingers. shrug

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Finger style

I wasn’t cool enough to play with a pick, I’m still not. Lol.

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Two-finger style first )three if you can) then pick but I can never find a plectrum so I use my thumb.

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Fingerstyle. And I’m having a hard time getting used to a pick because I’m used to playing with a pick on the guitar and the space between the strings on the bass is so different that makes me hit the pick on a “ghost” string :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Sticking with the fingers

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Bass usually sounds better with a pick, IMO. Well, for the styles I like anyway. I wouldn’t try to pick most motown classics :slight_smile:

Both ways are fun to play. I tend to prefer pick. I still stand by my advice above though; learn fingerstyle and do the course with it.

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Started with fingers as per Josh’s lessons but I use a pick as well depending on the sound /tone needed for the song. i don’t have a preference.

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This is a perfectly viable reason to keep another bass set a bit higher for pickwork…
…and one for EbAbDbGb tuning, and one for DGCF, and one for…

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Welcome @pklazza ! Really glad you are here with us!

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I started with fingerstyle, because that’s how the lessons play. I was completely in the dark about music and didn’t really even realize you could play bass with a pick. And now, having said that i realize how musically untrained i was.
The pick is a great tool, it definitely has it’s own sound profile-a lot can be done with it
And it surely has a place in playing bass-but i took a long time to be able to do it at all, and i still stink with it.
Play it the way you can make it play. try the pick, you may be shocked how quickly you catch on😊

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