Does anyone use the rest stroke?

[Marty Grass]

I wasn't aware of this technique until yesterday. Maybe I'm the only ignorant one.

Steve Herron teaches this. A rest stroke involves strumming a chord or an interval and resting the pick on the string higher than that involved in the chord. For example, Cmaj7 played in the third position would involve dragging the pick over the 5th to 2nd strings then resting the pick on the 1st string. This would only apply to inside chords. If the 1st string is part of the chord, there is no string left for the pick to rest on.

Steve describes the advantages of this for chord melody playing for improved tone. For me, it mandates more focus on precision. That may be a good thing- I don't know.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Basically every single gypsy jazz player uses this technique for everything. Look up videos of Stochelo Rosenberg for a good example.

[Marty Grass]

Holy mackerel, that's some great playing.

The context Steve Herron was advocating this in is with chords mostly. This clearly works with single notes as well.

You can hear Steve's explanation here. http://www.chordmelodyguitarmusic.co...npickstyle.htm

In the upper left click on play.

[ecj]

Lest we forget how great the original sounds:

[mr. beaumont]

Ah...Django. The oldest version of this tune, and yet, the only one I've ever heard that doesn't sound old and corny.

[Frank67]

I have been studying gypsy technique for a while now and love the restroke technique and the sound one gets out of it. On an archtop it works well, but on solidbodies some adjustments are necessary. I love the earlier Joe pass videos where he is using a pick and restroke technique. Looks and sounds super fluent to me.

[destinytot]

Thanks for posting that link; I'm going to start using the visualisation process Steve Herron explains Visualization (entitled "How To Analyze, Memorize, And Retain Guitar Music").

[matt.guitarteacher]

Steve Herron teaches this. A rest stroke involves strumming a chord or an interval and resting the pick on the string higher than that involved in the chord. For example, Cmaj7 played in the third position would involve dragging the pick over the 5th to 2nd strings then resting the pick on the 1st string. This would only apply to inside chords. If the 1st string is part of the chord, there is no string left for the pick to rest on.

Yeah it's a pretty effective technique for this kind of playing. Mostly slower tempo stuff. I use it pretty early on even with younger students playing simple chord type solos. Those chord melody études in William Levitt's modern method almost REQUIRE this technique.

Steve describes the advantages of this for chord melody playing for improved tone. For me, it mandates more focus on precision. That may be a good thing- I don't know.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks.

Yeah, focus is cool , but I think you'll find that, in the long term, this technique actually makes things easier , not harder. It's actually very FREEING once you learn it on inner string chords . Doesn't have to take a super long time to learn either.

It's kind of the pick-equivalent of string muting . Eventually makes everything easier and can become a very natural, confidence-building technique in playing. Gives you something tactile to feel with that hand instead of just floating.

It's a lot easier to land on the first string than to "miss" it, and you can really bring out that second string melody note.

[EddieLastra]

I use rest strokes pretty extensively, on single note lines, arpeggios, and chord strums. It's pretty natural for me, the way I've learned to pick from the very start

[Marty Grass]

Sorry. What is the restroke technique?

I have been studying gypsy technique for a while now and love the restroke technique and the sound one gets out of it. On an archtop it works well, but on solidbodies some adjustments are necessary. I love the earlier Joe pass videos where he is using a pick and restroke technique. Looks and sounds super fluent to me.

[Frank67]

Ouups ... This is the spell checker if my iPad :-( ... Just a typo

[monk]

Ah...Django. The oldest version of this tune, and yet, the only one I've ever heard that doesn't sound old and corny.

Oldest only in that this is the tune's entrance into the Gypsy Jazz canon. It was over a decade old and had been recorded many times before Django recorded it.

[Bikewer]

This is standard classical guitar technique as well. Back when I was reading Guitar Player every month, I would read the classical column just for general knowledge.
They talked all the time about rest strokes and free strokes, and how the rest strokes generally produced more volume.

I confess that though my fingerstyle technique is based on the classical style, I don't use the rest stroke at all.
(If I want volume I turn the little knob....)

[Stu Foley]

So if I understand this correctly; If you were to perform a fast alternating tremolo on a single string and you were using a true rest stroke, then the pick would actually make contact with the higher string at the end of each down stroke. This seems to me to be a long way for the pick to travel.

[matt.guitarteacher]

So if I understand this correctly; If you were to perform a fast alternating tremolo on a single string and you were using a true rest stroke, then the pick would actually make contact with the higher string at the end of each down stroke. This seems to me to be a long way for the pick to travel.

Yeah. I don't think you'd use it in that context. I'd think of it more as a tool, not necessarily a reference technique for every passage you'd play on guitar.

Again, if you're playing chord voicings on inner strings , especially chord melody , it can be really helpful. When you start talking about ALWAYS using any given technique, you're going to run into limitations. It's just tool.

[Shadow of the Sun]

They gypsy jazz players use rest strokes when they're playing tremolo lines on single strings, and they can definitely burn.

I think the advantage is that since you're not relying on using your muscles to stop the pick's movement, you can be almost completely relaxed and make up for any lost speed due to the increased distance that way.

[Frank67]

I am not sure about this. I have watched Joscho Stephan and other amazing gypsy players doing tremolo and in my mind they don't rest stroke then. They radically change hand position for tremolo and softly brush the strings where the tremolo all comes from a very fast but relaxed wrist motion (that I can't figure to safe my life). Everything else is rest stroke but IMHO not tremolo ... But it may also change from player to player.

[skykomishone]

Yes, when playing w/o a pick, and certainly when playing the nylon stringed classical guitar. The rest stroke includes not only the down stroke with the thumb (P)ollex, but also plucking upward with the (I)ndex, (M)edius or middle, and
(A)nnularis or third finger. I can't say that I do this with a pick, although I've never thought about it. I'll try and pay attention to see if I'm doing this unconsciously, and maybe try consciously doing it with the pick. I've wondered if Wes did the rest stroke with this thumb. When I manage to practice scales or arpeggios on classical, it's common to do both free and rest stroke technique.

[christianm77]

Yep I do.

I learned Gypsy picking a couple of years back, but now I kind of play rest strokes with alternate picking too. I think it makes a strong sound for acoustic guitar and for quiet archtop gigs with brush drums and a respectful audience ;-)

On loud gigs, it's a bit problematic, because I find to do floating hand rest stroke technique means that I get a lot of strings ringing, which becomes an issue when you are turned up. In this case, I revert to standard electric style picking with the heel of the hand resting on the bass strings (I see a lot of jazzers doing this) and free stroke alternate picking (more or less) - the way I used to play.

It's a bit annoying, I wish I could use the same technique all the time, but there you go.

Anyone else had the same experience?

[christianm77]

I wasn't aware of this technique until yesterday. Maybe I'm the only ignorant one.

Steve Herron teaches this. A rest stroke involves strumming a chord or an interval and resting the pick on the string higher than that involved in the chord. For example, Cmaj7 played in the third position would involve dragging the pick over the 5th to 2nd strings then resting the pick on the 1st string. This would only apply to inside chords. If the 1st string is part of the chord, there is no string left for the pick to rest on.

Steve describes the advantages of this for chord melody playing for improved tone. For me, it mandates more focus on precision. That may be a good thing- I don't know.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks.

If I understand you right, this is the same technique as George Van Eps 'Arpeggio Picking' in his Guitar Method (his first book.) Lovely effect, Django also had this in his repetoire, albeit in a more limited way due to his disability (the famous diminished run, for example.)

Lage Lund demo'd a similar technique in a masterclass I was in - but he went DDU on strings 432 say. Same as Tony Rice style crosspicking, right?

[christianm77]

Yes, when playing w/o a pick, and certainly when playing the nylon stringed classical guitar. The rest stroke includes not only the down stroke with the thumb (P)ollex, but also plucking upward with the (I)ndex, (M)edius or middle, and
(A)nnularis or third finger. I can't say that I do this with a pick, although I've never thought about it. I'll try and pay attention to see if I'm doing this unconsciously, and maybe try consciously doing it with the pick. I've wondered if Wes did the rest stroke with this thumb. When I manage to practice scales or arpeggios on classical, it's common to do both free and rest stroke technique.

Yeah, I've wondered that too.

I find the thumb rest stroke quite natural when I play jazz with my thumb (it gives you a surprising amount of projection, and I like the tone.)

[Stu Foley]

So has anyone who's been playing for some time successfully converted from free stroke picking to rest stroke picking? If so how did you do it? Did you work on it systematically? Does keeping within the plane of the strings allow you to play more accurately and faster?

[Marty Grass]

I've been toying with it a little while. In my case it has slowed me down, but any technique change may do that initially.

On the positive side, it seems to accent each note. In a four note internal chord, the last note is more evident with a rest stroke.

My two cents.

[Frank67]

I am musically a sub-nobody ... but for what it's worth - I have been unhappy with my bad right hand technique for quite a while and always felt constraint by it. I have been admiring the right hand of the great gypsy players for a long time and finally decided to give it a go. Hence, I have been working on gypsy picking for over a year now and it finally starts to come together. I am faster and more accurate than before on some things but still slower on others but I can definitely play some things that were out of reach before. But even if I fall back to regular alternate picking, I pick a lot more from the wrist than before and overall I feel that the drill really did pay off.

The tone and volume from rest stroke picking is more satisfying and overall, I feel, it provides more control and dynamics than regular alternate picking (others may disagree - just subjectively). It also starts to feel natural and I find it easier to relax my right hand. I'll definitely continue practicing.

A good book has been written by Michael Horowitz - but overall I found it most useful to play actual tunes from Django (and others) slowly and repeat difficult licks slowly many times using a looper or Band in a Box.

[Eddie Lang]