Chords for How To Play Bass With A Pick - A Step By Step Guide

Tempo:
81.425 bpm
Chords used:

B

Am

F

E

Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Show Tuner
How To Play Bass With A Pick - A Step By Step Guide chords
Start Jamming...
[B] [Am]
Playing pick bass lines like this sounds really impressive but it's actually just a matter
of knowing two really simple techniques and I'm going to show you both of those techniques
in this short three-minute video.
Okay, so we're going to start with the hand position.
First of all, I want to try and hold the hand in this partly clenched fist shape like this.
So I'm not squeezing tightly to hold it in this position.
I want to relax as much as possible [F] and then just bring the hand together as if I'm loosely
holding a cricket ball or a baseball or something like that.
Next, I want to place the pick over this last joint of the finger like this and then just
clamp the thumb over on the top like that.
I'm not having to apply a lot of pressure with the thumb, enough to hold it in position
but not really enough to sort of make my hand tense in any way.
The reason why this hand position is so good is because it's what I refer to as a low tension hand position.
This means that we need basically no muscle power to hold our hand in this position and
as a result, it causes very little tension.
The reason why tension is bad is that when we play, tension often leads to pain and pain
often leads to an injury.
The next thing to get onto is the actual rotation of the pick itself.
I'm actually trying to rotate my whole forearm and that rotation starts at the elbow.
What you would have heard a lot of times before and I certainly did this when I was younger
with people saying try and flick your wrist.
Yes, some of the movement does come through the wrist but if you look closely, as I move
my hand like that, my entire forearm is rotating and that movement goes all the way down to the elbow.
So when it comes to playing, you just want to hold your hand in that low tension position,
grasping the pick like we looked at, bring your arm over the top like this, trying to
keep your wrist as flat as possible and just rotate your arm to play the strings.
[N] It's worth pointing out that what I'm trying to do is slightly rest this fleshy part of
my palm on the strings that I'm not playing to act as a kind of mute.
This helps to keep the technique nice and clean.
Now that you've mastered the basics of pick playing, it's time to move onto the next stage
which is trying to develop the technique.
This is a very difficult thing to do because it's often really hard to find good quality
practice material that will help you improve.
To make sure you don't get stuck in this situation of not having good quality practice material,
I've written a free PDF of 10 exercises which I've specifically designed to help you improve
and get you past these difficult early stages in developing your technique.
And the best part about it is the whole thing is completely free.
All you've got to do is click the button below or the link in the text description and this
will take you across to my website where you can put in your name and your email address
and I will send this out to you straight away.
[E]
Key:  
B
12341112
Am
2311
F
134211111
E
2311
B
12341112
Am
2311
F
134211111
E
2311
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_ _ [B] _ [Am] _ _ _ _
Playing pick bass lines like this sounds really impressive but it's actually just a matter
of knowing two really simple techniques and I'm going to show you both of those techniques
in this short three-minute video.
Okay, so we're going to start with the hand position.
First of all, I want to try and hold the hand in this partly clenched fist shape like this.
So I'm not squeezing tightly to hold it in this position.
I want to relax as much as possible [F] and then just bring the hand together as if I'm loosely
holding a cricket ball or a baseball or something like that.
Next, I want to place the pick over this last joint of the finger like this and then just
clamp the thumb over on the top like that.
I'm not having to apply a lot of pressure with the thumb, enough to hold it in position
but not really enough to sort of make my hand tense in any way.
The reason why this hand position is so good is because it's what I refer to as a low tension hand position.
This means that we need basically no muscle power to hold our hand in this position and
as a result, it causes very little tension.
The reason why tension is bad is that when we play, tension often leads to pain and pain
often leads to an injury.
The next thing to get onto is the actual rotation of the pick itself.
I'm actually trying to rotate my whole forearm and that rotation starts at the elbow.
What you would have heard a lot of times before and I certainly did this when I was younger
with people saying try and flick your wrist.
Yes, some of the movement does come through the wrist but if you look closely, as I move
my hand like that, my entire forearm is rotating and that movement goes all the way down to the elbow.
So when it comes to playing, you just want to hold your hand in that low tension position,
grasping the pick like we looked at, bring your arm over the top like this, trying to
keep your wrist as flat as possible and just rotate your arm to play the strings. _
_ _ [N] It's worth pointing out that what I'm trying to do is slightly rest this fleshy part of
my palm on the strings that I'm not playing to act as a kind of mute.
This helps to keep the technique nice and clean.
Now that you've mastered the basics of pick playing, it's time to move onto the next stage
which is trying to develop the technique.
This is a very difficult thing to do because it's often really hard to find good quality
practice material that will help you improve.
To make sure you don't get stuck in this situation of not having good quality practice material,
I've written a free PDF of 10 exercises which I've specifically designed to help you improve
and get you past these difficult early stages in developing your technique.
And the best part about it is the whole thing is completely free.
All you've got to do is click the button below or the link in the text description and this
will take you across to my website where you can put in your name and your email address
and I will send this out to you straight away. _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _

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