Great explanation. I get it. I tried it and I get it! Thanks!
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I am learning to play with a pick and feeling stymied.
Finding the right pick is tough. I’ve mostly gravitated towards medium-small picks with very pointy tips. Don’t know if I should try very thin and flexible ones.
Actually playing gets rough. I’ll be strumming and keeping time fine, and the just my rhythm will sort of hiccup and kind of fall apart. I’m struggling with getting just the right amount of tip on the strings. Pick often seems to shift awkwardly in my fingers and fall out of orientation. I often need to stop and reset it in my hand.
It just feels awkward and frustrating. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong, or if I’m just expecting too much of myself too soon and just need to keep building muscle memory.
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These are the ones that I use the most. Being Jazz iii’s they are quite a bit smaller than your standard Tortex pick. You do get excellent control over them and with the grip on them, they don’t budge while you’re playing if you can get used to the size.
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I got a Dunlop variety pack. The two I like the best are both Jazz III variants. I like the Jazz III max grip (basically what you linked, but black), and the Jazz III XL best. Both are in between the Jazz stubbies and standard tortex in size, with sharp points.
I’d really like something that combines those two. The max grip but just a tad larger, while still being smaller than tortex.
I’ve got these coming in today which might be exactly what you describe. That’s what I’m hoping at least. I’d really love to be able to grip with my thumb on the bottom the way I do on regular sized picks. I’ll report back on them later today when they come in. If you look at the review pictures, the first one has a Jazz iii next one and it looks like it’s in between a regular pick and the J3 size wise.
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Awesome. Let me know how they work out! That might be perfect for me.
I like this assortment. Ifound some big thick ones and thinner ones in here. For me the flexible pics don’t have enough juice to drive the strings and I feel like the flexibility makes it harder to play.
Dunlop Bass Variety Guitar Picks Amazon.com
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I got the pack on the right of that link. It’s all thicker stuff. Thicker seems to be better for me.
I’m curious to try thinner ones that will have lots of give. That will more easily be deflected by the strings.
I don’t like mediums because they won’t power through the strings, or be bent by them.
I really like the idea. I have used the moleskins for other hobbies. Thanks for the reminder,
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late to the party here, but back when people were discussing playing Roundabout. I recently learned this part and can’t stop playing it! It sounds so badass yet so easy to play.
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The best pick may depend also depend on the type of picking playing you want to do
A harder pick (higher gauge and/or harder material) will have a more defined attack, so nice for single strokes (at up to medium fast pace)
A softer pick loses something in attack (and can feel ‘flappy’), but can be really nice for alternate picking chugging (especially for fast songs) as the extra give in the pick means you can ‘strum’ through the strings a bit more in your motion
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Just like finding the right plucking pressure and distance and consistency, or slap or tap consistency, picking is the same, they all take time filled with lots of practice. It will come, embrace the mistakes - this is called learning!
If you’re not making mistakes then you’re not practicing right.
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For some reason “It’s a Kind of Magic” by Queen. There is no good GODDAMNED reason I should be struggling with it like I am. It’s a simple damn song and I can play everything, I just can’t play it together. I miss the transitions every time. No matter how much I slow it down or break it into smaller bits. It’s been almost 4 months now and I’m just not getting it. I can play friggin “I Wish” and “Dean Town” but THIS is the song that is breaking me.
What kind of blueberry pudding pop f’ery is going on here?!?
I need a drink.
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I did really great before the lesson BEFORE Billy-jean. I even did “with or without you” at full speed with no problems.
So after Both Billy Jean and the song before it, I was doing pretty good. I never did get BJ down well though,and I set a time limit to practice that song before moving on (I know what its’ like to get stuck and give up on something like that, so I learned from my mistake).
What’s worse, it has started a few weird things happening. First, I catch myself now starting on my middle finger for plucking since I worked so hard at Billy Jean doing that, and it’s throwing me off."
Second, when I’m trying to cross strings and getting behind some of my plucks fall flat and the string doesn’t vibrate. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong; the pluck feels right and is hitting the next string, but it just goes “doink” instead humming. Something weird with my fretting?
I’m also getting a ton of buzz now. I checked that I’m fretting near the fret itself; maybe my hand is getting tired and I’m not squeezing hard enough anymore, or my thumb is drifting because I feel like I’m falling behind the beat?
While those are not game-stoppers, when they happen it’s throwing me enough that I lose the rhythm, which is causing me frustration.
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In my experience it’s quite normal for your fingers sometimes to get a mind of their own, even if it’s a piece you have done before.
As far as the string not humming and you get more of a numb sound, sounds like you don’t apply enough pressure and you are creating a ghost note rather than the actual note.
My advice would be to slow it down. Play it note for note, maybe even without a metronome just for you to get it sounding completely clean. I understand that it will feel like a setback, but it happens.
I myself am in the progress of learning a different fingering style to a piece I could play fairly well. My instructor told me it would give me greater speed and it could sound more clean. So here I am, note for note, building the muscle memory up to metronome and eventually becoming a better bass player. You got this!
Oh and welcome aboard @jpwkeeper btw!
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I had this happen in college with a piece that involved tons of string crossing (very quick movements from A to D to G) and my hands couldn’t do it.
I thought I was hot shit because I had fast, tricky things learned already, but the coordination and quickness I needed with my string crossing (with lots of same-fret-next-string moves) just broke me.
I ended up spending months doing string crossing drills, took a lesson with a guitar player for his approach on playing 4ths (the same fret one string over interval), and just tried to get my plucking fingers to alternate and my fretting hand to cooperate.
I don’t know what the thing is in the Queen piece that’s derailing you, but I’d imagine there’s some peculiar challenge nestled in there that your hands or ears don’t like.
Lean into it!!!
You’ll get so much out of analyzing the struggle and - hopefully - overcoming it!
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Joy Division’s Disorder bounces between the E string and the G string, and it has this epic and roughly intermediate level descending part on the E/A strings in the bridge that I can nail every time, followed immediately by three easy eighth notes on the G string that I probably jam up a third of the time just due to the string cross after the hard part 
Similarly, The Cure’s Disintegration is a nice, fun drone that bounces between the E and G string. The problem is after a few bars of it you get kind of hypnotized/bored and then it’s easy to jam up the string crossing, even though it’s easy.
Actually I would say about half my clams end up being because my attention starts to drift while playing because it’s a “simple drone” or something.
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Hi there! And welcome to the forums!
Something you could try in this situation… back up a few lessons, and maybe re-do a couple prior to Billie-Jean… just as a refresher prior to moving on again.
Might help you remember, and more importantly help your fingers remember 
Just a thought, everyone learns differently
Update on this. I got a mixed pack of Dunlop light to medium picks.
What you described is basically the conclusion I came to. I found I like a couple different weights of pick depending on what I’m doing. Basically right in line with what you said.
I like the heavy jazz picks with a sharp point and good grip when I’m just doing lots of even down strokes and few to no upstrokes. I can do a nice sort of upward pluck with the upstroke that is cool. But it is a slower motion that I could only pepper in for effect at medium or lower tempos rather than maintain for a song.
I really liked the light picks when I’m trying to strum or do a lot of upstrokes. In particular I like the Gator logo ones at the .70 weight. In general .60 weight picks are just too flimsy.
If I had to grab just one, it would probably be the .70 gators, because I would rather play all-downstroke with those than try to strum with a heavy pick. I also prefer fingerstyle and mostly want a pick to make fast chugging easier.
I found I least like mid-weight picks. They just didn’t do anything well for me. They’re too weak to power through a string, and too stiff to bend out of the way. Really the worst of all worlds.
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That’s a bit lighter than I like but yeah I would go no lower than this for sure.
Yeah this is a guitar pick, not a bass pick.
This is not my experience - for me 0.88-1.14 Ultex or Tortex are where it is at. Ultex 1.0mm is probably my overall go-to. Works great for heavy downstrokes or alternate plucking, just needs some time to get used to.
Beginners tend to do better with lighter picks (0.70 is a good start, like you mentioned).
The real challenge with picking, either downward or alternating, isn’t in the picking - that will come relatively fast to everyone.
The real challenge is in the muting.
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