To Pick or Not To Pick

I've been sliding along for almost 10 months acting as the Kim Deal in a Pixies tribute band and playing the bass with my fingers. Purist would note that Kim Deal plays bass with a pick (the green ones with the little turtles on them in fact). I was suprised to find that my bandmates had made no note of this until last night, when it suddenly seemed like a big deal. And there was some disbelief that I didn't know how to play with a pick...or that I might play guitar without a pick.

I am a mostly self-taught musician. When I picked up the guitar and the bass in middle school for the first time, I played neither with a pick. I'm not sure if this is because 1) there were no picks laying around our house or 2) I was also playing cello at the time, which even when plucked does not use a pick. Fingers seemed natural.

In the early '90s I got somewhat serious about playing guitar, but I still didn't use a pick. I partly played fingerstyle, which by definition, does not use a pick (except sometimes a thumb pick)...but when I strummed I just formed my hand into a pick-like shape sans pick. At the time I wasn't performing and volume was not a concern...so this worked just fine.

I probably first was introduced to using a pick through the mandolin, which is nearly impossible to play without one. I had all but forgotten this fact until just now. Twelve-string guitar is the same way.

But the pick made headway in my house when I bought my first electric guitar, which was probably about 4 years ago or so now. I don't think you can really play an electric without a pick. I was also singing and playing for other people more often, and so I started playing acoustic guitar with a pick too. I'm still not very good at doing anything with it except strumming...though now that I remember the whole mandolin thing it makes me wonder how I managed to play fast fiddle tunes on a mando with a pick. The answer I suspect is..."not well".

I suppose that I overstated my case last night when I insisted that I never played with a pick...not even guitar. But it is true that I didn't play guitar with a pick for the first 20 or so years that I played, and that the pick still feels weird when I do use it. I still can't properly flatpick a melody line, though I might be able to eek out the passing bass notes to a chord progression.

I've never played the bass with a pick, though. When I picked up bass in 2003 I started by playing with my thumb...but quickly figured out this was super lame...and switched to a two finger method. I never gave it much thought after that. I developed technique without any conscious thought. I've noticed recently that I mute the strings with the opposite finger after I strike. I never realized I was doing that, but it allows me to play more staccato than otherwise possible.

When the Pixies thing came up, I looked into using a pick right around the time that we learned U-Mass...cause she was getting a tone that I just couldn't reproduce without the pick. It was really hard for me though, and since no one else seemed to notice or care, I gave up. I put a pick in my bass case, though...just in case.

And so last night it came up that my intro to Debaser is muddy...and of course it is. Playing fingerstyle is just way more legato than with a pick.

I went and took a look today at Deal's technique...and she seems to only pick with downstrokes and to anchor her pinky finger on the bottom string. The downstroke only thing seems a little primitive...and surprises me coming from a guitar player...but it is certainly easier than playing down/up. It feels like a bad habit to pick up...down stroke only...but it would be faster to learn to do that.

I think that I will likely stick with playing by finger style for most things, cause I frankly prefer the sound and I think it is easier to play that way. But I might try to use the pick just on Debaser and U-Mass and other songs where it seems to matter more.

This is all very ironic because the bass player in one of my other bands (who is way better than me on bass) is forever lamenting that he wants to learn to play without a pick like "a real bass player."