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Rest-stroke involves alternating two or more fingers. It is the most common technique for general fingerstyle playing. Most players use their index and middle fingers but I prefer to use my index and ring fingers as they are about the same length. The advantage of this is that you are comfortable on three fingers which comes in handy if one of your fingers is sore or has a cut. It is also handy having three able fingers when you want to play fast runs. This technique is called rest-stroke because after playing a string each finger rests on the next string (except when playing the E string on a 4 string bass or the B string on a 5 or 6 string bass). By resting on a string that string is stopped. When you want the string to continue ringing you will need to use the free-stroke technique instead. Rest stroke is an integral part of playing short notes. Short notes are where you don't want the notes to continue sounding for very long so they lock in better with the drums as drums have hardly any sustain. Short notes are not necessarily fast notes. They are often quite slow as it is the rest between the notes that you are trying to create like in the following example:
Place the alternating finger on the string after the previous finger has played the note so that it is cut short. This video example uses both eight notes and quarter notes. I am using the index and middle fingers.
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