Most 12 bars can be played with either a pick, bare thumb, or finger picked. Some need to be finger picked though. Finger picking is required when a bass line is being played steady with melodic work in the treble end.
The monotonic bass is used a great deal. Particularly with the delta country blues players. The monotonic bass is a steady rhythm of the root note of the chord being played. On top of the monotonic bass the phrases are played. The monotonic bass is played with a swing rhythm rather than just steady 1/8 notes. A monotonic bass line sometimes is not played throughout the whole song. The keys of E and A particularly lend themselves to monotonic bass lines because of the open strings in the bass.
The best way to approach finger picking is to designate the right hand fingers to strings. The thumb is for the 6, 5 and 4 strings, the index finger is for the 3rd string, the middle finger is for the 2nd string, and the ring finger is for the 1st string.
Although this is the best method for finger picking, there are others, such as some of the old delta blues players using their thumb and index fingers only. Thumb picks lend themselves well for 12 bar picking.
Another useful finger picking technique is the Travis pattern. This pattern of rotating the bass is excellent for many styles of music. The bass plays on each count. Treble strings are played on the 1st count and between the 2nd and 3rd counts. Depending on the melody, the strings played in the treble vary but the pattern stays the same. The lowest bass string is either 5 or 6 and so 4 string chords are picked as if they were 5 string chords.
Many finger picked 12 bars don't have any steady pattern to them. The picking is based solely on the riffs that randomly move around. Some are a combination of strumming and finger picking.
Sections included:
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Monotonic Bass Line, 12 Bar in E |
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Monotonic Bass Line, 12 Bar in E |
