I've been playin bass for a whilenow , and I usually use a pick when I playing with metal bands ( because of the speed ). But I prefer the sound of my fingers , it feels more natural. So do you guys have any tips/suggestions on how to master the 3 finger technique...its commonly used by bassists like John Myung ( Dream Theater) , Steve Haris ( Iron Maiden ) , Alex Webster ( Cannibal Corpse ) , etc. thanks

hi,the 3 finger,how many note can you play with it in a bar and what are thefingers you use

I was trained under John Myung. You just need to improve your speed with those fingers ... practice with simple/complicated exercises to get those fingers working. Eventually you will get it.

Yea, I first heard the 3 finger technique on a primus or sausage song. I tried out for a metal band and they loved that I played with the 3 fingers showing the speed was there. It took a practice period to get it down. But its there to get.

The finger combo I use mostly is; ring, middle, pointer, ring, middle, pointer [repeated]
or ring, middle, pointer, middle, pointer [repeated] depending upon what kind of rhythm it is. For a full measure of 16th or 32nd notes consecutively I'd say try the first one.

Its also nice to throw in the extra finger in when you know a fill is comming up to throw in those extra fast notes. Once you get it down it will be just like using you first 2 that you started with.

Hope it helps!

Yeah Dan, I would like to throw in that you practice the technique in sets of 5 (rt hand)....... Keep playing!

I picked up this technique when I needed to play a part that consisted of straight 16th notes for 16 bars. It definately took some practice - nostly just to build up the chops, but once I had it down i was actually surprised that I didn't think of it earlier. If you build up the chops you can use the technique to be quite fast and accurate. Oh and picks suck.


DS