Chord melody with a pick vs fingerstyle

[SammieWammie]

What are your thoughts on this?

What do you think is better?

What do you use?

Etc etc

[jtizzle]

I alternate both. I know some people do hybrid but my hybrid picking sucks. It depends, usually when I'm playing a mellow/ballad-ish head I do fingers so I can separate each note in the chord, and also control my attack better. When I'm soloing I use a pick, especially if I'm going to swing, since I get a nice pop on my chords in between phrases/licks.

Fingers work better for arranged things, in case you need to play a really hard chord which skips some strings, you can thumb the bass and use your other fingers for the chord. Something like that

[matt.guitarteacher]

I use fingers so that I can easily separate bass/chords/melody as I want. The voicing/bass combinations are also less limited without having to worry about deadening the "in between" strings.

A lot of players use a pick or combination of fingers though.

[bigdaddyguitar]

I play both ways . Some tunes just sound better without a pick .

[Shadow of the Sun]

John Pizzarelli, who is absolutely smokin', plays chord melody stuff with his pick in his mouth, which he grabs for soloing.

[Philco]

I have always used pick and 2 fingers but have just started training my little finger to join the others.
Man that's hard work!

I don't really see the point of "tucking" the pick under the fingers because you still only get to use 2 fingers............unless you prefer the thumb sound.
Using the little finger gives you the pick plus 3.
Does anyone else use their little finger on their picking hand?
If so do you have any tips for bringing this little guy under control?

[Billnc]

Originally Posted by Philco

Does anyone else use their little finger on their picking hand?
If so do you have any tips for bringing this little guy under control?

1. yes
2. no
but... I think doing the Giulliani 120 exercises for the right hand would be highly beneficial for pick, 2 3 4 fingerings ( or Pick, M A S). I've done a few in the past and no time to really work on it lately. That may be a valid answer for 2.

[vittigo]

I use (in order of frequency):

1. Hybrid picking (pick + 3fingers)
2. Fingerpicking
3. Pick

All of those give different advantages:

1. Easy to switch between - single lines and chord pops with pick too fingerpicked or arppegiatted chords (but You will have to manage somehow if You want to pluck 5 string chord)

2.The best control over the chord voicings. Ability to play 5 string chords easy to play chords not in adjacent strings. Easiest to control balance between melody, harmony and bass

3. Lately i found it gives nice vintage sound to chord melodies. I like to play Barry Galbraith Guitar solos with pick only despite it is harder than fingerstyle. Somehow his arrangements tend himself well into pick only technique.

[SammieWammie]

Originally Posted by vittigo

I use (in order of frequency):

1. Hybrid picking (pick + 3fingers)
2. Fingerpicking
3. Pick

All of those give different advantages:

1. Easy to switch between - single lines and chord pops with pick too fingerpicked or arppegiatted chords (but You will have to manage somehow if You want to pluck 5 string chord)

2.The best control over the chord voicings. Ability to play 5 string chords easy to play chords not in adjacent strings. Easiest to control balance between melody, harmony and bass

3. Lately i found it gives nice vintage sound to chord melodies. I like to play Barry Galbraith Guitar solos with pick only despite it is harder than fingerstyle. Somehow his arrangements tend himself well into pick only technique.

Nice answer. I heard a really nice chord melody version of Honeysuckle Rose which is obviously done with a pick, real old school but brilliant, Dick McDonough - Honeysuckle Rose - YouTube that one. Can't do that fingerstyle. I usually play fingerstyle but I've been trying things with a pick. I don't like hybrid picking, it feels awkward and for playing bass I prefer the warmth of the thumb's sound for bass.

[vittigo]

Like This arrangement a lot this is indeed that vintage sound i wrote about Recently i dig this kind of playing more and more. Thx for the link.

[Drumbler]

I use hybrid picking.

All methods have pluses and minuses unfortunately.

[SammieWammie]

Anybody else play fingerstyle carrying a pick in their fingers to whip out when you feel like it?

[matt.guitarteacher]

Originally Posted by Philco

Does anyone else use their little finger on their picking hand?
If so do you have any tips for bringing this little guy under control?

It's almost impossible to really articulate it effectively by itself. There is a reason classical players almost completely ignore it.

You can plant it with the other fingers - on it's own string - to arpeggiate an additional note. I don't know that I would waste hours on exercises to try to develop it. Other than grabbing the occasional extra note, leave the real work to the other fingers. There are plenty of players out there who only use 2 or 3 fingers of their right hand anyway.

[derek]

Originally Posted by Shadow of the Sun

John Pizzarelli, who is absolutely smokin', plays chord melody stuff with his pick in his mouth, which he grabs for soloing.

Same was true for Joe Pass. I say if it works for them, who am I to argue? It is what I do as well.

[SammieWammie]

If anybody is still watching this post, how about thumb? As in just thumb, Wes style. I haven't seen Wes ever play solo guitar like that but on youtube there's some George Benson on an acoustic playing solo with only his thumb. Doesn't seem like it's often used by guitarists though.

[jazzuki]

I have been playing guitar for a long long time-started off with a pick.However,to really learn to read and and know the finger-board I did 2 yrs of classical guitar where it is all fingers and you have to play whats in front of you.I still played jazz guitar but noticed I started to use my fingers more and more when playing " electric ". Consequently,over the last 30 yrs I play chord melody using all fingers or if straight ahead bop lines/ comping at a medium tempo thumb only, as I find I get a better tone anything faster pick and thumb. Hiding the pick in middle fingers or on my lips.Its up to you to play as you feel the style of music will dictate as you progress.Keep playing!By the way George Benson is a guitarist!

[coolvinny]

Originally Posted by derek

Same was true for Joe Pass. I say if it works for them, who am I to argue? It is what I do as well.

But I think Joe Pass used a pick on his landmark "Virtuoso" album which is all solo guitar. I understand that later in his career he used the pick less and less, and eventually not at all, but Virtuoso was early in his career.

[seanlowe]

mostly use pick and fingers, sometimes just fingers, rarely all pick stuff tho.

TBH even if im playin with just fingers, i have a pick wedged at the 2nd or 3rd knuckles of index and middle finger. Easily retrievable once you practise it for 5 mins. Just means you cant really skip strings with those two - never seems to be an issue.

I've not made a serious effort to bring it under control as its bloody awkward, but i know a guy who plays chord melody with a pick at the treble strings, and other fingers clawed under to the bass side. Obviously has great dynamic control and clarity over the lead note/s, and a lovely warm end on the lower freqs.

If you can work past the cramps its gorgeous.

[kenbennett]

The pinky on my right hand, I pretend like it doesn't exist.

[SammieWammie]

Originally Posted by seanlowe

I've not made a serious effort to bring it under control as its bloody awkward, but i know a guy who plays chord melody with a pick at the treble strings, and other fingers clawed under to the bass side. Obviously has great dynamic control and clarity over the lead note/s, and a lovely warm end on the lower freqs.

If you can work past the cramps its gorgeous.

How???? Does he hold the pick in his fingers and use his thumb for the bass or hold his pick normally but twist his hand around? I can't see how it's possible, I probably look like an idiot now trying to do it.

[seanlowe]

pick between thumb and index finger, hand points straight down the guitar, other fingers appear above. Thats why im not fussed about trying it, looks like a recipe for RSI.

[SammieWammie]

That feels ridiculously uncoordinated, I'd love to see a person doing that well. Interesting...

I will ask again, anybody do or know much about thumbstyle? Like this:

George Benson The Art Of Jazz Guitar chunk 1 - YouTube

[pauln]

I use a pick most of the time.

Sometimes I play with my thumb. I like the softer tone of the thumb for strumming chords. Since my picking style is circular economy, I'm used to articulating the thumb for picking with a pick, and when I switch to just the thumb, it feels very similar - I can do fast down strokes all night, and I can do full speed up and down strokes with the thumb for a few minutes at a time.

I don't know the name of the technique, but I use the pick and my second finger quite a lot to play voice leading. I play the chord (either a 6-4-3-2 or 5-4-3-2) with the pick, but reserve the B string for my second finger. This makes a nice sound because the chord takes the character of the pick tone, and the voice on the B string is louder but has a softer attack with more body and depth - makes it stand out nicely above the chord. The B string seems to be the sweetest voice on most guitars I've played.

When playing blues I often ditch the pick and play with my index finger stroking up and down. This also feels natural because of the circular picking style I use with a pick.

*Circular picking is where the only things that move are the pick itself and the thumb and index finger holding it. No elbow, wrist, or hand movement is going on. The up and down motion is coming from the bending and straightening of the thumb, and the index finger justs bends along with it - but the thumb is the driver. The hand stays motionless except to move across the strings so the picking is in the right place. Because the motion is small and precise, it is quite fast and controlled.

*Economy picking is the abandonment of any rigor in whether the current note is being picked up or down. There is no formal scheme like alternate picking. It uses whatever takes the least time, energy, and distance; which usually looks like continuing the same stroke when changing to another string in the same direction as the last stroke, but not always depending on the phrase, rhythm, slurs, shifts, mood, etc. It lends itself very well to the "swing" of jazz because of its distinctive characteristic articulation. It is also potentially the fastest picking style, or at least the easiest to get up to speed once "learned" - I write "learned" because economy picking is not really learned, it is acquired without trying to learn (some would say it helps if you are a little lazy).

I'm self taught and naturally found circular economy picking decades before I knew what they were called. I suspect from this thread that using a pick and second finger might be classified as hybrid picking.

[Carpal55]

This is probably a weird answer I've spent the last 30 years or so using my fingers. I do a lot of single note work in my arrangements (maybe I should say "I DID a lot of single note work"!). Mostly I would use my thumb and middle finger. Not sure why it evolved that way but probably because I started with a hybrid technique. Anyways, after all that time my middle finger on my picking hand is now roughly 3x the size of the other hand and it hurts all the time. The pain has been coming slowly - at first I blamed the laptop but now I get it. I was also doing fingerstyle arrangements of Joe Satriani tunes etc so kind of aggressive I guess. Haven't hit the doc yet but I'm sure I've beat the crud out of it permanently. I'm now re-learning with a pick and finding it really hard to do. Retrospectively I think I probably should have stayed with a hybrid technique and spared my hand the abuse and would suggest that method for the long term. Of course this probably could have been avoided by learning proper right hand technique from a teacher....