anti-pick prejudice

[hieronymous]

Have you ever encountered extreme anti-pick prejudice? Or maybe you feel that way yourself? Personally I use whatever is appropriate, be it fingers or pick or slap or plucking with my thumb - heck, I've even been known to use a roast beef sandwich...

I could rant some more, but maybe I'll just put this out there for now...

[gweimer]

My pick technique has always sucked, so I'm a finger player.  For me, it gives me more depth.  I've worked on picking a little more in the past few years, though.  There are a lot of players I love who use a pick.  Chris Squire is at the front of that line.

[the mojo hobo]

I mostly use flat wound strings and I am a finger player, but there are a few songs that I will use a pick on for the percussive attack it provides.

[Denis]

When I first started on this here learning path (which I wanted to go down years ago) I started with a pick and gradually began using my fingers more. Not an expert by ANY means with either but can definitely see benefits to both.
Oddly, I suck out loud using fingers on the Ric, but can handle it fine with a pick.

[gearHed289]

I encountered that a little in the 80s. I thought it was completely juvenile. It was mostly metal guys that were into Maiden and Anthrax. It's like telling an upright player not to use a bow. Or a guitarist not to play finger-style. Ridiculous. Why limit your tone and feel options? I'm probably 65/35 in favor of a pick. Depends on the song, and I almost always just "know" which is right for what I want to achieve.

[uwe]

Doesn't matter to me, I play almost always with a pick (except acoustic fretless), but appreciate a lot of finger players. While pick makes you stand out more with better attack (producers tend to like it because of that) and perhaps makes fast notes more audible, I always admire how even root note eights sound more rhytmic when finger-played against the greater accuracy of using a pick to do the same. There is a groovy natural inaccuracy in finger playing (unless you are mark King!) which I like, Gary Thain of Uriah Heep has that and Neil Murray of Whitesnake had it too, both of them great melodic and rhytmically nuanced players. Finger playing can sound more organic and lively, pick playing more precise, to the point and a bit keyboardish at times.

And there are quite a few finger players that sound pickish: Geddy Lee and Steve Harris come to mind. And a funk player like John Gustafson sounds fingerish to me though he always plays with a pick.

Among musicians, pick-playing bass was long ago (late seventies/early eighties) regarded as not really musicianly (in my experience mainly from funk and Jazz Rock/Fusion people), which is nonsense, you can play fusion with a pick:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddEivwzB_-4&feature=related





I encountered some of that back then, but it is a thing of the past I believe. Drummers tend to like it because they can locate you better in the band sound. Today, most guitarists say "cool, you play with a pick!" when they notice that I do. And then often enough add: "Can you turn the bass a little brighter?" Which I grudgingly do, having outlived my "piano rrring" phase long ago. But when you play pick many people expect/want to hear the percussive snap of the pick on the string.

I used to sound very pickish in my early days, my dream sound was actually the Fender Rhodes riff of the intro of Ike and Tina Turners Nutbush City Limits.   These days, I believe I don't sound as overtly pick player as I used to, do I? You can listen to various tracks of me playing with a pick here, only Unity features a second track acoustic fretless bass that is fingered (hence no fast runs on it!):

Access as usual:

www.zentralstudio.de

Go to "Kundenlogin", type "raintunes" for project name, pick one of the four numbers appearing, and insert "raintunes" for user and "plainingjet" for pass word.

Does it cry "pick player!" to you?
 

[jumbodbassman]

Started with fingers,  switched to pick after a few years and discovering Yes/ELP.  Use a pick for all original band adventures then switched back to fingers in mid 80's.   Now Play with fingers for >95% of the time exceptions being songs that just have to have a pick I.E.   Deep Purple.  For what ever reason i just feel more connected to the instrument with my fingers and love the versatility that my fingers gives me on how each note can be plucked.  Once i discovered using 4 out of the 5 fingers on my plucking hand i never really looked back....

[Dave W]

Real bassist play arco.  

I think the anti-pick nonsense got started about 50 years ago when many producers started insisting on electric basses in the studio. Many string bassists had refused to play electrics, and players from a guitar background moved in and replaced them. When they finally were forced to play electric basses or get shut out, they attacked the pick and attacked successful players like Joe Osborn and Carol Kaye who came from guitar backgrounds and used picks.

[TBird1958]

 I think we all have to do what works best for ourselves, keeping in mind your instrument's best attributes, your own phyisical capabilities and what serves the song best. Generally I marvel at finger players any more, I can't play much of our material live that way, I don't have the stamina in my right hand to pull off a song that goes 4-5 minutes long and is solid 8ths or 16ths..........Occasionally I'll play finger style on one song (I'll stop the world" Modern English) live, but really I know better! At home tho I really do enjoy sitting comfortably and playing something fingerstyle i.e. Steely Dan, I find it more organic as Uwe says, and definately you're in touch with the bass, subtle nuance ( palm muting, ghost notes) is easier too.

 Live with my tools of choice: '76 Thunderbird, Dunlop .73mm Gator Grip, and 750 watts of GK = One Happy Fraulein.








   

[Pekka]

I started with fingers, learned to use a pick playing along with Thin Lizzy, The Police (my palm-muting with a pick is all down to Sting), Yes etc. and nowadays use whatever is needed. The pick is used 99% of the time when I play the 12-string and I also have been learning to use my thumb for the last five years, either plucking or the up-and-down Doug Rauch -style (also known as double thumbing).

Anti-pick prejudice usually comes from people who can't play with a pick. Same thing with a prejudice againts 5-string basses, sheet music etc.

Another pick-style player in the fusion genre is Andy West of Dixie Dregs. Gus was a good call, Uwe, he indeed has quite a dark sound for a pick player.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I think Dave nailed the "professional" origins of anti-pick bias. I started with a pick, but quickly found that it didn't work for me for the bass sound I wanted. I now play exclusively fingerstyle, even on my 12 string. I can play with a pick now, and I have experimented with some semi-soft bass picks made locally by a friend of mine. I like them a lot, but over the years, since I have really long arms, I've dropped the back of my bass so low with the strap I have to readjust it higher to be able to play with a pick. I'm really not interested in doing that.

[patman]

I play about 85% finger-style...maybe 10% slap and maybe maybe 5%where I use a pick on 80's rock with repetitive 8th notes.  I can usually get them to sound more even and "machine like" with a pick.

No prejudice here...it's all just music...

[Basshappi]

I have always been a finger-style player. Due to the problems with my lefthand I have never been able to hold one well and my mucles start to cramp up pretty quick. However, I have always wanted that tone in my trickbag so to speak and so I keep messing around with it.

Andy West, the original bassplayer for the Dixie Dregs is an awesome pick player.
Check out Steve Swallow, not only is he an amazing player but he is probably the only bassplayer using a pick in a purely jazz context.

There was a lot of anti-pick bias when I was starting out but it has gradually changed and pick-style is more accepted.

[Highlander]

I have almost not touched a pick since I came back to regular playing, although throughout the 70's and 80's I virtually never played without one...

It's all about feel and nothing more... whatever works for you...

[godofthunder]

 I have always been a pick player. over the last few years I have worked on my finger style for the Zep stuff, though JPJ does use a pick on some songs.