Jazz guitar playing without the pick

[kris]

I use this technique long time.
fingerstyle...?
John Aebercrombie,Mick Goodric,Joe Pass and more...
anybody play that kind of technique? any expierience?

[m78w]

yeah I only use my fingers, have for about 8 or 9 years now, I really like it, it was slow going at first but it allowed me to play chord solos more easily and accompany singers with bass-chords at the same time.

getting my single lines up to speed took some time but over the years I worked up my technique to the point where I can play just about as fast with my fingers as I could with a pick.

playing fingerstyle jazz isn't for everyone, but for me it was the right choice.

[TruthHertz]

It was the jazzers that got me into really listening to guitar but it was Julian Bream's music that got me to playing. Fingerstyle forever here. I use a mixture of up-down (like a pick) with my index sometimes on single line runs, something I picked up from Indian music and playing with a misrab. Chordal and most other times it's like classical style; all fingers. Sometimes index and thumb like lute style. I am not even aware of which approach I use, the phrase determines and I just play what feels right.
By the way, you mentioned Goodrick. He recently switched to no nails (clipped to the quick) for both hands. 'mentioned he loved the softer sound. It was his goal to play that way when he did the duo with Pat a few weeks ago. I forgot to ask if he pulled it off... or clipped it off so to speak.
David

[NSJ]

I've changed my approach to playing only with fingers. One word: Polyphony. The instrument opens up for you, in the words of George van Eps, it becomes a "lap piano". I've found that, for whatever reason, I've also become much more cognizant of functional fingerboard mastery. So you have the F not he 2nd string- P5 on the 1st string. Can you find the M3 in the bass without a coffee break? Those open voicings, requiring "spread fingerings", can't really play that with a pick.

Apart from speed of single note lines, what I sometimes miss (a lot) is the beautiful sound of chords played with a pick, particularly the Freddie Green thing. That sound is very much inferior with the nails/flesh. Well, IMO.

[mr. beaumont]

While I pick up the guitar and play fingers only pretty often, I think overall I'm a "hybrid picker"--I need both (unless I'm playing nylon string, then it's fingers or gypsy jazz, then it's pick only)

[mtierney]

m78w, what do you do for your fast lines? alternate index thumb, index middle, all three?

I hold on to a pick in my pinkie while playing. I can switch between picking and using fingers in the span of one beat at a fast tempo. However, I usually just stick to fingers.

[m78w]

I use alternating index and middle on the upper four strings and then throw in my thumb when I get down to the lower two string, and if I'm ascending a line, arpeggio or scale based, I usually start with my thumb and then alternate fingers after that.

[loydb]

I'm a jazz newb coming from a fingerstyle background, so I'm all fingers, all the time as well.

[Jake Hanlon]

over the past month I have taken to spending a portion of the day without a pick just because I find the phrasing of it to be a little bit more swinging at certain tempos and it just sort of gives that warmer sound. I think it's just another form of articulation.

For a long time I never used fingers, always with the pick and it was great, I learned to get a lot of different sounds with it. Now my non-pick interests are going to grow, while somewhat random technique wise I'm working on getting an actual efficient right hand thing going.

[kris]

I think playing by only fingers is more musical...:-)
it is my opinion.
thanks for writing interesting coments.
jazzingly
kris

[ah.clem]

I play finger style and I like the sound. I have never been very skilled with a pick. I like the sound of a pick, I'm just not good at it.

[hot ford coupe]

I'm another fingers only guy. I practice soloing with the pick but that's only in the practice room to keep my skill up to standards. Playing chord melody with a pick just doesn't sound right to me in my hands. I've been using the fingers for over 20 years both chording and soloing. It was easier since I was originally an electric bass player. Even during bass solos, it was all fingers.

[cosmic gumbo]

I'm a thumb player 90% of the time.

[Markyboy]

I haven't touched a pick in 25 years. Playing fingerstyle has advantages and disadvantages, but it's my style of playing and I'm not tend to change it anymore. Playing with a pick just dousn't feel naturale for me anymore

[loydb]

Originally Posted by hot ford coupe

It was easier since I was originally an electric bass player. Even during bass solos, it was all fingers.

Yes, fingerstyle transfers really well to 5-string bass. Never understood bass players who use a pick...

[TruthHertz]

Originally Posted by loydb

Never understood bass players who use a pick...

Can't help thinking of Steve Swallow. Sounds more like an upright player than some upright players! Pick player. Always has been. But I attribute that to him being Swallow more than anything he uses. Ain't it the case with the greats?
David

[mr. beaumont]

Steve gets a pass because he's awesome.

I do like how fingerstyle playing keeps me "honest." Forces me to slow down a bit, which I like...so maybe I shouldn't get too goo at it!

[TruthHertz]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Steve gets a pass because he's awesome.

There was a period in Burton's band when that band really embraced the "everything goes" attitude of exploration. During that time, Swallow switched from being an upright player to being an electric bass guitar player using a pick- and the guitarist in the band, Mick Goodrick went from playing guitar with a pick to fingerstyle. Both unheard of things, but in those crazy days of youth, there really was a great joy in not having to walk in any one else's footsteps.
'turned a few heads at the time.
Small footnote, I've heard Pat (Metheny) is playing more and more fingerstyle, using these special glue on nails (something he apparently picked up from James Taylor, I believe) that allows him to play his index finger like a pick, his other fingers used like full fingerstyle.
David

[urso]

I guess it depends on the style, personally i prefer fingerstyle because i am more a harmonic oriented player and i love the feeling of my nails touching the strings. I would like to learn to play with a pick because it has its own advantages but i think with fingerstyle playing the possibilities are unlimited.

See what i mean with helio delmiro, a great player that should be more recognized
‪Round Mid Night - Helio Delmiro no RTC SOM - TV Cultura(SP)‬‏ - YouTube

[zonedout245]

I started using my thumb when I lost all my picks. I didn't use the fingers because I thought it was cheating (first months of playing).

I like the sound of picks, but I don't like using them. I've always felt picks made playing less intuitive for me.

I recently discovered a nice book on right hand development: 120 Studies for Right Hand Development by Mauro Giuliani. There is a preview of some of the pages on Amazon if you click on the picture of the cover, so I'll buy it once I'm content with my performance on those first 12 exercises. I like it because it forces me to use the appropriate fingers. It's easy if I do it any way, but doing it the right way is the challenge.

Amazon.com: 120 Studies for Right Hand Development (Classical Guitar Study Series) (0029156149524): Mauro Giuliani: Books

[Butzmark]

I started playing with my thumb in the sixties when I wanted a jazzier sound from my strat. I knew Wes played that way I and was using some octaves which seem to always sound better played with flesh. I assumed Wes backpicked with his thumb so that's how I did it. In the internet age it appears he didn't for single notes.