I was receiving an email about once every week
or two on average asking about how I use this technique, so I figured I’d start one definitive description containing
most of the material I’ve collected on the topic. All of the questions are based on ones I've received privately
or at TalkBass.com. I'm not an expert on it by any means, but I do have some experience, and since people seem interested
in it, I figured I'd post it. There are a few video tutorials located at the bottom of the
page.
Questions are in bold.
Quotes from Matthew
Garrison are in blue.
Quotes from Mike Flynn are in red.
Quotes from myself are in plain
text.
What is the basis
of the technique Matthew Garrison uses?
His technique is basically a four-finger free stroke technique,
using his thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers in that order. This is a quote from Garrison himself from a 2004 interview:
“I started experimenting with the 4-finger right hand technique just before I started playing
with Zawinul. I was looking at the pizzicato techniques that were being used by Dominique Di Piazza, Victor Wooten, Gary Willis,
and I came up with a hybrid technique using concepts from all three of these guys. I noticed that my thumb was just always
there on the string not doing anything so I started to incorporate the thumb along with my index, middle, and ring fingers.
It made total sense to me because I would have four fingers available on my right hand and four fingers on my left so each
one could cover one note. As compared to the standard two-finger approach, your speed is doubled immediately. You can play
twice as many notes while exerting only half the energy. It's really about economy of motion. It's totally effortless.
I've always had a really strong background when it comes to understanding harmony and knowing how to deal with it so the
techniques came after I had the knowledge of the fretboard. I matured as a musician before adding these techniques.”
Do you have an exercise you could suggest to someone wishing to adopt your 4-finger right hand technique?
Yes. The basic principle is that the thumb is indicated by the number 1, index finger is 2, middle
finger is 3, and ring finger is 4. The motion that works best for me is simply a downstroke with the thumb (1) followed by
index (2), middle (3), and ring fingers (4). The first step is making sure that each finger is completely independent of the
others so practice doing downstrokes with your thumb as fast as you can go on a single string followed by just your index,
middle, and ring fingers. Do all of them separately. The next step is to combine fingers such as 1 and 2, 1 and 3, as well
as 1 and 4. Do all of the remaining combinations: 2 and 1, 2 and 3, 2 and 4, 3 and 1, 3 and 2, 3 and 4, 4 and 1, 4 and 2,
4 and 3. Then, work through all the three finger combinations followed by using all four fingers. To practice string crossing,
for example, between the E and A strings, you can play the E string with your thumb followed by your index, middle, and ring
fingers on the A string. You can also practice playing the E string with your thumb and index finger followed by your middle
and ring fingers on the A string. Or, play the E string with your thumb, index, and middle fingers followed by the ring finger
on the A string. There are a lot of possibilities to consider. I would then experiment with exercises to break up the pattern
and place accents on different beats. It's a very thorough process that you work on one step at a time. My bass technique
book will cover all this material starting with basic exercises like this that progress through scales, arpeggios, and eventually
culminate with specific bass lines from my tunes using all four fingers.
Another quote from Matthew
Garrison about the technique from Bass Player:
Your four-finger solo technique
now seems to be your standard technique in all situations, and you’re using it more
musically in uptempo solos, instead of as an effect.
Right—I’ve even been
using the technique for two-note grooves. It’s something I adapted from Gary Willis’s three-finger approach, and
I honed it during my stints with Zawinul and John McLaughlin. I play a downward thumb pluck and upward plucks with my right-hand
index, middle, and ring finger, which are curled underneath; then I mute with the side of my thumb and my left hand. It started
as a “flurry” effect before my brain caught up to it, but I always had Art Tatum’s virtuosic flourishes
in mind. It’s not so much the Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders/Stanley Clarke sheets-of-sound concept, where they’re screaming
on their instruments from their soul. For me it’s not about the volume or the amount of notes coming out; it’s
about the intent and the intensity. I want to be able to “scream” over changes.
How do you practice it ?
Mike Flynn: To get
this flowing like a regular two finger technique I started running sequences against the metronome - the patterns I used to
get it going in a groove are mainly octaves and fifths - but it works best when you play say root (4 plucks), octave (2 plucks)
minor seventh (2 plucks) - so you always keep it even, always keeping the thumb and fingers moving in that sequence and always
doing 4 plucks per beat.
You can obviously move all this around and try different bass lines - it's not the
amount of notes you play, more the number of plucks you use to play them - so a simply minor pentatonic bass line suddenly
becomes a funky staccato 16th note funk out - if you play 2 notes per string - but use 4 plucks to play them you get that
nice bouncy super-fast Jaco thing happening - the key being dividing the amount of plucks evenly between the amount of notes
- i.e 2 notes + 4 plucks = 2 plucks per note.
I started out by playing along with a metronome very, very
slowly. A metronome is vital, as is starting slowly. The goal is to get an even attack in perfect time with all four fingers,
so you’ll want to play quarter or eighth notes at a low tempo. As with most things, it is more difficult to play this
way slowly than quickly, as going slow will exaggerate all of the flaws. I had to do this for months just to get my fingers
going at the same rhythm and to get my ring finger strong enough. I eventually sped up, but it took some time...it was basically
long, slow, boring practice, but I knew it would pay off. After a while, I didn't need to concentrate so much on it, so
I began watching TV with the metronome on, playing along the whole time, to try to get it so it was second nature (and so
I wouldn't go crazy from the repetition).
Then I started working on starting with a different finger each time-
I-M-R-T over and over, M-R-T-I over and over, etc. That's still the toughest part for me though, as I naturally revert
back to T-I-M-R as I practice it way more. Going the other patterns is doable if I don't think about it much, but when
I start concentrating and start realizing that my thumb is playing the third beat in every bar, I often screw up 
I also work on ascending with whichever finger is next in line, and descending 90% of the time with my thumb (as
it's hinged to descend better than any other finger), with the other 10% descending with the next finger in line, although
that only works when descending one string. In general I descend with my thumb. I'm not sure if this is what Garrison
does, but it works well for me.
TalkBass.com member Norwegianwood: It's so hard for me to pluck with
index first, though....if you understand, normally when I use three fingers, I begin with the ring finger....It feels more
natural to do it your way, but I can't do it yet.
Mike Flynn: This is the problem
with this technique - I understand completely - it takes some major will power to reverse the natural tendency to play thumb,
ring, middle index - but I'm afraid that it seems to wrok the other way better - but let me be clear - whatever way works
best for you is fine - this is the way this works for me - do what suits you best.
Will using four
fingers make me go faster?
It can for some, but it's no guarantee. Many folks can go as fast as anyone
out there using just two. For me, it did increase how fast I could pluck by quite a bit (after nine years of playing with
two fingers), but you may be different.
What are the advantages to
using the technique?
Mostly stamina- it takes half of the effort to play twice as many notes as you do
with two fingers. It can allow you to ascend and descend more efficiently, and it can possibly add speed to your plucking
hand. You also can have a greater range of fingers across the strings, which can make for much faster string skipping and
recovery from moving up and down the strings.
What about muting?
That was an issue
I worried about when I wanted to pracice this. I find I do a little more left hand muting, but you can still mute the string
you're playing on with your other fingers for staccato notes, and I working on muting the lower strings with the edge
of my palm. In general though, this way of playing with a really light touch has kept the other strings from ringing out much
if at all, so I don‘t really do much right-hand muting anymore. A scrunchy at the headstock can aid in this as well.
Are there other ways to play this technique?
Do whatever
feels comfortable to you. I personally angle my hand a bit more diagonally than Garrison does; it’s more comfortable
and natural to me, and I’ve gotten it up to a pretty quick speed. Other players may try T-R-M-I….I met TalkBass
member Don’t Fret at a get-together, and he plays this way. It allows different fingering patterns. For example, when
I play two consecutive notes on the same string followed by their octaves two strings higher, my picking fingers go in the
pattern of T-I on the E string, then M-R on the D string. My hand forms a sort of Z-shape. When playing the same pattern going
T-R-M-I, your fingers play T-R on the E string, and M-I on the D string, forming a sort of tent-shape. This shape is actually
more natural feeling for the hand, but the amount of coordination required to play this way is a bit too much for me.
Where can I see examples on this?
Mike Flynn has a great lesson on
four-finger plucking on his webpage; it includes written instruction and video samples of him playing it slowly so you can
see how it’s done. Mike Flynn’s video/lesson page: http://www.munkio.com/music/music_lessons.html
Matthew Garrison can be seen on the Herbie Hancock/ Future2Future DVD, as well as
his “Mathew Garrison Live” DVD/CD set, available at his website, http://www.garrisonjazz.com
Video samples from Garrison’s Live DVD: http://pritchardschool.com/jazzrock/...iews-matt.html
The majority of the
videos on this site exhibit my playing with this style, as do nearly all of the .mp3s.
Another aspect
of employing this four-finger plucking technique is the use of a ramp, or a playing ramp. You can read more about ramps
by clicking this link: Ramps
I
hope this little guide was of some help to some of you out there. Take care, and feel free to ask any
questions here.
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