by I remember the very first time I was gobsmacked by someone’s bass playing. I was still a skinny teenager and somehow got my hands on this DVD:
During Steve Vai’s set, the absolute MONSTER of a bass player – Billy Sheehan – takes an absolutely ripping bass solo, full of huge bends, technical acrobatics and blistering speed.
My jaw was glued to the floor.
I’d been playing bass for a while, but I’d never seen anyone play like him before. Just ridiculously fast, dripping with attitude and all done in skin tight shiny red pants. What a freakin’ rockstar.
I must have played that DVD hundreds of times, and it never got old. But the closer I looked, I noticed that he wasn’t just using 2 fingers in his plucking hand like a ‘normal’ bassist.
He was playing with three plucking fingers.
That was part of the reason he was able to play those scorching solo lines. So, wanting to emulate my new hero, I decided to try and learn how to do it for myself.
I imagined it would be months or even years before I could even begin to get comfortable using my ‘ring’ finger on my plucking hand.
But I was wrong…
To get started was relatively easy. That first day, I found myself using 3 plucking fingers, just like Billy (although nowhere near the level he was at). Sure – learning to cross strings and actually play something musical took a bit longer, but I was amazed at how natural it felt once I got the hang of it.
So today, I want to show you how you can get started using this technique. I’ve got 5 Levels of Exercises for you (plus a sneaky song that you can learn with this technique).
In the ‘lower’ levels, it’s relatively easy to build up some super impressive speed, although if you want to get serious with this technique, then the higher levels will definitely give you a challenge.
Check out the lesson here:
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FREE - Download the Tabs, Notation and Practice Tracks for this 3-Finger Right Hand Technique Exercise
Download the tabs and notation to start playing blisteringly fast today!
Is this 3-finger technique something you’ll need to use in your day-to-day playing? Unless you’re Billy Sheehan, probably not, but it’s brilliant fun to work this technique up to speed and really master that gallop.
And when you can do it with real songs, like I show in the video, then that’s even better!
Make sure to fill out the form above to get all the tabs, tracks and notation from this lesson so you can actually practice this stuff and work it into your playing.
Good luck with the lesson and happy 3-finger plucking!
Cheers,
Came across Luke’s YouTube Channel from Mark’s (Talkingbass) list of 20 best YouTube Channels for Learning Bass Guitar.
So glad I did, this lesson is very informative, and well presented. Easy to see what he is doing and follow along.
Looking forward to enjoying more of Luke’s work.
It’s great to see you here Nigell and I’m glad you liked the lesson!
Hello Luke! I am dabbling in three finger technique for more than twenty years now: after a concert from a german singer/songwriter, his bassplayer came to me and asked me if i played bass too. Yes, i said, and we chatted for a bit, and he explained me to try to use three fingers instead of two to get faster….. i have been happily indulging this whenever a song called for highly active basslines without demanding high precision-because i could not do that with three fingers. Lately I decided to give it more structure, so your video comes at a very good time for me! It is well done and very easy to follow and to improve with! Thank you.