The Best Bass Finger Plucking Technique

Beginning to play the bass guitar, one is often taught to use a pick rather than your fingers. While this may work, the sound is very shallow. I personally find it much better and easier to use this plucking technique!

• Bass guitar

Get your bass guitar ready and begin warming up your hands, specifically your dominant one. Stretch all of your fingers out until you feel ready to begin. This is very important to ensure that your hand doesn’t cramp up.

Balance the bass on your thigh and rest your thumb on the pickup (it should look like a black rectangle under the strings). This should be the position you hold the bass in.

Practice tapping your middle and index finger on the E string (the top string). This is the basic movement that occurs while playing. Make sure you alternate the two fingers that you are tapping with!

Once you feel comfortable with this motion, begin tapping, but instead of releasing right after, push your finger harder so that it moves past the string and hits your bass guitar. This should create a sound if your bass is plugged into an amplifier. The picture above is a bad example of what to do. It is important to keep your finger as straight as possible!

With time, you will become better and better at this. Work on coordination by playing along to faster and faster song. For example, start out by playing something like Don't You (Forget About Me) by the Simple Minds, and keep practicing until you can play something more advanced, like We got the Beat by the Gogos! The video below demonstrates the proper way to pluck.