Increasing plucking speed

Yeah you don’t get there by dropping the frog in a boiling water, you start them in cold water and it’s incremental game. Before you know it, you are doing it.

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I’ve finally got to where double plucking is as fast as single (index finger only). I think when I first started it was only about 3/4 as fast, so slow improvement…

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hadnt heard this before so gave it a try and yes its a fun one to learn isnt it. kranked up really loud (both the music and my bass) and it seems quite forgiving in that even when i miss a note or two or my timings out it still sounds good :slight_smile:

all that sliding tho makes my index finger sore so i find myself swapping between index and middle as i slide sometimes. like i say, it seems quite forgiving of my (crap) technique :smiley:

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Hehe, I do that all the time to avoid getting blisters :grin: :+1:

My thickest calluses are on the index and pinky fingers. I try to use the middle and ring fingers for slides to see if I can get better calluses on them too.

Do other people have more calluses on the index and pinky too, or is it just me?

trying to fine tune it but keep messing up the ending where it changes to just 4 X E8 to E11 and im finding the song finishes while im happily playing the usual riff ive been playing all the way through. how are you recognising where the ending starts, just by knowing the song a little better?

I haven’t practice this song too often. But I have listened to The Cure songs for so long, I practically can play them in my head, so as long as I remember the notes and where to play them, I know when to make the transitions.

My husband joked that why do we need to play for a music streaming subscription, if I can play the songs in my mind for free. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

My challenge at the moment is learning to play with a pick. It isn’t easy yet. It could make things faster and easier later, once we master the technique.

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Try playing through major and minor scales slowly, very slowly, with a pick. Pay close attention to muting. I found that was the trickiest part of learning to play with a pick. I try to cheat where I can. If I’m playing on the D and G strings, I’ll rest my palm on the E and A strings to oeep them quiet.

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Thanks! Good idea, I’ll try that! Do you do it with all down strokes, or alternating between down and up? I’ll try both.

I’d start with downstrokes. Once you get comfortable with downstrokes, try mixing in some alternating.

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Steve Severin plucks upward for more attack. Everybody finds their own way eventually. (But good to learn the “correct” way at first).

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I have never noticed that! I have to watch some live videos. I love Siouxsie and the Banshees!

I like the bass line on “Israel” in particular, mostly because I just love that song.

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I should say “picks”, pretty sure he uses a pick most of the time.

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Yeah nearly always, AFAIK. Most post-punk and goth artists do, the most obvious example being Peter Hook. But Simon Gallup, Patricia Morrison, Steve Severin, Will Heggie, Simon Raymonde, Craig Adams, etc etc - all usually pick, it’s just better for that style of sound. I am like 90% pick myself, despite doing the course fingerstyle.

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David J is the one that I can think of that switches between pick and fingers.

Yeah. They all descend into madness and try other styles sometimes - one time Hooky even slapped and popped, in Perfect Kiss.

But usually they stick to The Way of the Pick.

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For sure they all fool around with other stuff, I meant more than that. I think the whole time that he spent playing with porno for pyros, he played without a pick. All of his Bauhaus and Love and Rockets stuff though was obviously pick.

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Yeah I wouldn’t call any Perry Ferrell project post-punk but thats just me. It’s alternative rock. TBH Mike Watt feels like a strange fit there too, to some extent.

Did they confuse post punk with post hardcore? Thats the only way that works imo.

Musically, Janes was alternative. Aesthetically there was a sort of bohemian gypsy goth thing going up through Ritual de lo Habitual that I really dug. That was how I talked my Mom into letting me dye my hair blue when I was 14.

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IKR, I was actually surprised he was in Porno for Pyros

Yup. Big fan at the time. “Jane Says” was even both a punk and grunge bar anthem in Portland at the time despite being neither genre.