HONE YOUR SKILLS
EXPLORE PICK PLAYING
The great Steve Lawson brings us a new approach to studying bass at beginner level. The journey begins...
Welcome! Let’s take a detour from the theory we’ve been looking at over the last few months and instead, dig into one of the most maligned aspects of bass playing – the humble pick. Never before has something so useful to bassists been so hated for absolutely no reason. So we’re going to ignore the haters and get stuck in!
The early history of the bass includes some incredibly important pick bass players, at least partly due to the fact that so many of the pioneers of our beloved instrument started out on guitar. These include Carol Kaye and Paul McCartney, while others – such as the great Jet Harris from the Shadows – started out on bass with a pick. It’s safe to say that a large percentage of the classic sounds we may find ourselves emulating from pretty much any decade in pop and rock will require us to explore the pick.
The early history of bass includes some incredibly important pick bass players
In case you’ve only just joined the world of bass, the pick – or plectrum – is a small piece of plastic that you hold between your thumb and first finger that gives a more pronounced attack to your bass sound. A pick can often generate a sound with more treble content. For that reason it’s often favoured by bassists in punk, metal and faster rock styles, offering a greater degree of differentiation between one note and the next.
Tom Araya of Slayer: headbang like this at your peril, readers
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Our first task with the pick is considering how to hold it, as they come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, thicknesses and materials. Bassists mostly favour slightly thicker picks than guitarists due to the meatier nature of our strings, but with picks being as cheap as they are it’s worth buying a few to see what style works best for you. Whichever type you settle on, we start by gripping the pick firmly but not too tightly between the thumb and first finger. How much of the pick you have exposed to strike the string with is another variable that you’ll want to experiment with. If you leave too much of the pick flapping in the breeze, it’ll be very hard to control the tone with it and you may find yourself dropping it more often.