Trying to decide on plucking order: Khruangbin - Mr. White

Technique
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During the song Mr. White by Khruangbin there is a flurry of G-A-C-A-G that I’m trying to work out. It also finishes with a slide as the next hand position needs to be lower.

I’ll shamelessly steal the snippet from ultimate-guitar:
[Verse 1]
G|--------5----------
D|----5-7—7-5-----
A|------------------5–
E|----------------------

My question is, as I’m trying to work out how to play this, I’ve discovered a couple different ways that might be more efficient.

I started alternating with index/middle so:
index - 5, middle - 7, index - 5, middle - 7, index - 5, middle - 5

but I flipped it to be able to reach the g string quicker:
middle - 5, index - 7, middle - 5, index - 7, middle - 5, index - 5

But then I discovered that:
middle - 5, index - 7, middle - 5, middle - 7, index - 5, index - 5

is really efficient because you’re going down the strings so your plucking finger is already on the next string you want to pluck.

Right now the coordination is still off for both and I can’t keep up, but I’m trying to decide on which version I should invest time on.

I guess I’m looking for the “ok” to go a bit off book in the name of (perceived) efficiency, but I’m also conscious I might be violating some other big thing. At least for muting it doesn’t seem too bad because I need to raise the fretting finger on each note anyways.

Thoughts?

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I don’t have answer, but I totally want to watch this thread as I learned about Khruangbin about 6 mos ago and dig their whole vibe.

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Yes, this is the one I would use, just starting with the index - thus: index - middle - index - index - middle - middle

This variant, where you don’t alternate as you go down (from higher pitched strings to lower pitched strings) is called “raking” and encouraged by many.

Which finger to start with (or end with) is to a certain degree informed by what comes before (and after) that motif that you shared.

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Thanks joergkutter! I’ll give that a shot too. Fortunately there is a lot of room on both sides of this, so starting / finishing finger isn’t constrained too much.

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I don’t have answer, but I totally want to watch this thread as I learned about Khruangbin about 6 mos ago and dig their whole vibe.

Ya, Laura Lee’s grooves finally put me over the edge to try the bass. This is after years of listening to music, and always coming back to the songs with strong basslines. I can’t say enough about her musicality. And this is off their first album! She’s only getting better. Time (You and I) is a masterclass of what a bass should do in a song, in my opinion.

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Thought I’d let you know after trying this for a month or so by starting with my middle finger, I thought, “didn’t that joergkutter guy say to start with my index finger?” so I switched and it’s made an improvement.

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Awesome! Happy to hear! And thanks for the feedback :smile:

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