Fingers and Plectrums and Thumbs, Oh My!

The Pick

You will want to continue using your pick especially as you are starting out. You may keep using it forever. There is nothing wrong with this technique despite the assertions made by supercilious purists wearing porkpie hats. If you need evidence consult with Sir Paul and Carol Kaye.

Blood on the Flatwounds

But seriously, if you really want to ride bareback right out of the gate, prepare for a period of sore fingertips until you grow rhino-skin calluses. Keep it simple starting out. Afterall, James Jamerson only used his index finger and he got a lot work.

All Thumbs

A general rule of thumb as a novice bass player is: do not use yours. As an experienced guitarist you are accustomed to employing this pragmatic digit to indicate “more of me in the monitor” or, pointed in the opposite direction, as a pithy assessment of a singer’s ear for tonality but when starting out it is best not to bring it into the bass equation. 

⇒ Pulgarity

If you are a music scholar you have no doubt encountered Italy’s tireless crusade to keep their culture alive by insisting that music continues to be notated in Italian. And If you have already gone through that guitar player phase of learning classical technique then you remember the initial confusion over the nomenclature for thumb: P.

⇒ P=Thumb

P stands for Pulger, I think. Pulger sounds strong, slow and dull like that friend who is always willing to help with the heavy lifting or who is handy in a rough situation. Well, the Pulger is to your hand what your beefy chum is to your group of friends. It is the workhorse of the hand that never tires and is perfectly satisfied at just providing the necessary muscle for the gang when the time comes.

With that being said it it best to leave Pulger out of your bass lines when you are starting out. Sure, the thumb can pluck a string but it tends to be slow and thuddy sounding on those thick cables you will be thumping. Instead, have Pulger help hold the pick. If you have decided to go fingerstyle use that longshoreman of an appendage to anchor itself on the thumb rest, if your bass has one, if not, cleave to the top of a pickup.

“I will take questions at this point. Yes, you in the back with the dragon tattoo. No, no, the other person with the dragon tattoo. What’s that? Oh, of course. The answer is, no. No we will not be covering the slap technique in this module.”

This style is for the more accomplished bassist with a solid foundation in the fundamentals. You shouldn’t bother subjecting your friends and loved ones to this racket.