Fingerpicking.

[guitlouie]

Hey, all.  I'm sitting here, up late. Everyone else in my humble abode fell asleep early tonight, a rarity with two children about.  It's been a while since I started a new topic here, so I just wanted to share something that I have been noticing lately.  Bear with me, as I feel a bit long-winded this fine rainy evening.  I happen to be a be music nerd.  Record-collecting, rarity-seeking, music-related-biography-reading, history-as-it-relates-to-musical-forms buff, genre-leaping, music nerd.  So, one of my favorite musical cross-pollinations is early rural blues and hillbily music, and the folk revival of the 50's and 60's.  I also happen to love big, loud, scorching electric guitar.  So, many times, when I go to practice, I will sit with my acoustic (Epiphone J-200-I know, Epiphone, right, well it is a really good sounding guitar for the money, which happens to be 0$, it was given to me as a gift.  If I could stop spending money on Warmoth stuff, I would probably get a proper acoustic instrument.) and what I do is I pore over these Fingerpicking books that I have an uncontrollable urge to buy whenever I see them, and learn these very complex, or very simple fingerpicking patterns, and songs.  Well, now I have found that when I pick up my electrics, and plug in, and my mind is set on rocking out full tilt, well, then it happens.  I'm jamming on some very nice 5 power chords, with a pick, and go to add some little lead fills, and here come my other three fingers that normally would be sitting around doing nothing. All of a sudden, I have realized this potential that used to just not be there.  It doesn't have to happen all the time, but I'll be damned if those fingerpicking sessions with my trusty ole crappy acoustic have not lead to some of the finest lead playing that I have ever had the pleasure to witness coming from my own two hands.  Instead of hitting a double stop with the pick, I'll snap it's little neck with two of my pickhands free fingers.  I'll throw in a finger picked arpeggio, where it used to be a single note line.  Two of my favorite teachers, in books and magazines, anyway (I've never met these guys), Arlen Roth, and Steve Morse advocate a hybrid picking technique, but until recently something has been escaping me.  I really think these fingerpicking sessions have brought out in my playing what these guys have been talking about all this time.  Anyway, I just thought I would share that with you guys, and gals, in the hopes that maybe, you will give it a whirl.  It helps to start by listening to some great fingerpicking music, like Dave Van Ronk, The Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Leo Kottke, Blind lemon Jefferson and the like.  Getting any book by Happy Traum will put you on the right path, but really, I think this kind of hybrid picking could be of benefit to folkies and metalheads alike.  Sorry for the long read, like I said, I'm alone!!!!!!  And very happy that my fingerpicking stuff is bleeding through to everything else I play!!!!!

 

[hannaugh]

I love fingerpicking.  I have a ukulele that I like to try out new patterns on, and it always sounds beautiful..

This is why I always say that every musician (and every visual artist as well) should learn things they aren't initially that interested in, because you never know when you will find something that will be valuable in a way you didn't expect. 

I always tell my kids at the high school, especially the ones that are really good at drawing and painting, that it is good to take on projects in a style they would never pick.  Kids that are great at realistic drawing often benefit from drawing cartoons because cartoons get their creativity flowing, and kids that are great at drawing cartoons benefit from practicing realistic drawing because it gives them much better control over their cartoon drawing. 

I recently got a subscription to guitartricks.com, and I plan on going through all of the genres and learning all I can about every style they offer, because I know I'll get something out of at least trying out all that stuff. 

 

[greywolf]

I started out as a classical player , so to me it's always been natural.  It occured to me after a few years of playing electric and learning the nuances of flatpicking that I could use my fingers as well.  Jeff Beck doesn't use a pick , and for a lot of slide players the same is true.  These days I use a pick maybe 50% on electric , 5% on Acoustic and never on bass.

 

[GoDrex]

I used to practice finger picking a lot more years ago. It was left over from a guitar class I had. I mainly just use the thumb and index and middle. I sometimes palm the pick for chord stuff, but I haven't really found a use for it for soloing. But then again I'm not all that good at it.

 

[stubhead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOuey2_h7oM&feature=PlayList&p=94BBB0EC0C335320&index=0&playnext=1

Gatton has a series of DVD's out from Hot Licks, but there's also this OOP video that's posted on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YboFo8tsBLE&feature=channel_page

They're all (9) there. Gatton goes deep into the explanation of how you use various pick strokes to count timing and work through certain passages - banjo players came up with this first, I started grokking it playing pedal steel... obviously the classical players worked it up independently, cause you use the same exact technique to play "Orange Blossom Special" as you do to play Paganini's "Caprices." If you want to play something right, you have to play all the notes.

The modern country/jazz guys are masters of this, Brad Paisley is a killer guitarist with a mostly instrumental album "Play" that every guitarist needs. Here's my current digit crush-object:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym93F7beTA4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x0yTt7LJ0o&feature=related

Anderson and most of these guys use a thumbpick filed to allow upstrokes, but you can do it with pick & fingers. Ummm - someone can.... :toothy12:
Brent Mason is another monster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYSLxY3Gsbw&feature=related

(John 5, Zakk Wylde & Steve Howe are serious students of this.....)

To actually learn the patterns, look up "banjo rolls."

 

[mayfly]

Over the years, I've developed a technique where I tuck the pick inside my index finger when I want to drop in some fingerpicked notes.  It's very fast to swing back and forth between the two.  I mostly use it to snap some 2-3 note chords or on a bender lick.

I've done it for so long, I'm not even aware that I'm doing it!

 

[guitlouie]

Hey, Stub, Nice!  I am already a huge Danny Gatton fan, and Brent Mason I find to be quite awe-inspiring as well.  And I have "Play", though I'm more a fan of his instrumentals than his, uh...hits.  I guess I'm just now starting to really get how these guys do some of that stuff.  I'm a late bloomer!  I would call my technique more of a hybrid picking when I'm on the electric, as I use the pick normally, and my "loose" fingers for the fingerpicking stuff.  When I'm doing the fingerpicking stuff on acoustic, though, I don't let a pick anywhere near my hand!

 

[nathan a]

Right on guitlouie

As someone who plays more acoustic instruments than electric, I am much better at fingerpicking than playing with picks. It's how i started playing, it just comes much more naturally to me. If I a fingerpicking, I can convince someone that I am a decent player. If flatpicking, well.... I make no guarantees.  :sad1:

 

[hannaugh]

Right on guitlouie

As someone who plays more acoustic instruments than electric, I am much better at fingerpicking than playing with picks. It's how i started playing, it just comes much more naturally to me. If I a fingerpicking, I can convince someone that I am a decent player. If flatpicking, well.... I make no guarantees.  :sad1:

Sounds like me.

 

[Vol. Knob]

Fingerpicking is something we should all keep in our "Bag of Tricks".  I used to sit in with my Mom's bluegrass band when I was 11 and 12.  Bluegrass demands that its guitarists do a wee bit of fingerpicking.  When I was a teen, I took classical guitar lessons.  Those classical lessons really stuck with me, my right hand never forgot the technique long after all the sight reading and scales left my brain.  Come to think of it, my fretting hand benefitted from those lessons almost as much.

My stepdad also taught me some flamenco back in the '80s.  I should try to learn some more beyone those few tricks.

As I was a teenage metalhead, twentysomething rocker, thirtysomething alterna-jamband-southern-rock-punk player, and... well 40 is nearly here...  I've not played the classical in a long time.  But when I play acoustic, I'll drop the pick and cut loose with the fingers when I need to show off.  And I've morphed into a "Chicken Picker", where you use your fingers and pick.  Its a valuable trick, you can really get some spank into the notes.  I'll do a thing where it sounds like a slapping bassist that can turn heads, though its really easy and looks & sounds more complicated than it really is. 

I'm not a great player, but I can fake it with the best of them.

No need to be ashamed of playing an Epiphone either.  I have one from 1944 that sounds amazing and plays great.

Here's a youtube of Me, slugging cheap wine (Little Penguin Shiraz) and fingerpicking a tired old song on the old '44.  Forgive the poor quality.
[youtube=425,350]SqJBIFM2_v4[/youtube]


I'll use this one for my nylon-string needs.  Its a handmade flamenco, the real deal, from Paracha Mexico.  Scored it from a Pawn shop for $35.  They had no idea what it was.

 

[dbw]

I'm OK with my fingers but I prefer a pick when playing electric.  I only use my fingers if I can't find a pick or if I play a song that needs fingerpicking like Stairway.

 

[hannaugh]

I'm trying to learn hybrid picking, but it's awkward.

 

[blue313]

I'm quite horrible at fingerpicking.  I can't honestly say I've given it all that much effort since I haven't had any classical training in guitar.  For me it's thumb, index and middle.

Any resources you'd recommend for someone looking to expand this horizon?

 

[dbw]

Any resources you'd recommend for someone looking to expand this horizon?

Use your ring finger too and you're golden  :headbang1:

 

[guitlouie]

I'm quite horrible at fingerpicking.  I can't honestly say I've given it all that much effort since I haven't had any classical training in guitar.  For me it's thumb, index and middle.

Any resources you'd recommend for someone looking to expand this horizon?

Hey, Blue, like I said, I have a bunch of books about fingerpicking, all of which help me in some way.  The best of the ones I have are "Traditional and Contemporary Fingerpicking Styles For Guitar" by Happy Traum, and "Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar" by Steve James.  I also have two books by Arlen Roth that have helped me tremendously.  The first is "The Complete Acoustic Guitar", and the other is "Hot Guitar".  Neither of these is exclusively fingerpicking, but Arlen does a great job of encouraging the use of hybrid picking.

 

[blue313]

Cool!  Since I studied classical and jazz on a sax growing up, I can read music and know my scales/theory in case they get into those subjects.   Looks like I have some heavy reading and much practice ahead of me.  :guitaristgif:

btw stubhead.  That video was cool, but the Harlem Nocturne is totally a Sax piece.