The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    I've switched picks to the Clayton teardrops, come in gauges from very thin (.63mm) to pretty heavy (1.52mm), and I'm finding that on the nylon, 1.26 sounds like my thumbnail, while on the electric 1.00 works very well. Also, some of the easier studies by Aguado, Sor and Giuliani, along with the Villa-Lobos Etude #1 can really help to get the balance between the plectrum and the MAC fingers. I do the Villa-Lobos three ways: thumb and MAC, Hybrid, and pick only, excellent workout. I have set no goals except to move the metronome up 3 clicks every week, but the progress is very steady and noticeable among my bandmates. There is a very good Tim Lerch video above on right-hand "attitudes" for plectrum, hybrid and fingerstyle playing that's worth looking at.

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  3. #27

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    It’s gotten better but it still doesn’t feel as natural as 100% finger style. I think the act of physically holding the pick still has a bit too much tension. One issue that I’ve located is I need to articulate the single note lines in the bass better with the pick, well also learning to mute so they don’t ring out constantly.

    It’s going to take more time.



  4. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
    3 note chords are big.
    I found one of those little "How to play like: Freddy Green" youtube vids. Entirely unmemorable BUT the whole 3 (and even 2) note chord thing was a whole new rabbit hole.

  5. #29

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    I like using my fingers quite a bit for comping 4 note chords. I've always used PIMA from my classical playing but wanted to do it hybrid so I wouldn't have to reach for the pick to do lines.

    So for the last month I've been building up my pinky. Pick+MA and C. It's going great. I do 90% of my comping like this now.

    For practice I just comp with Ireal and do a little bit of alternation with A and C (which feels pretty odd,lol). It gets easier as I go.

  6. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by DS71
    I like using my fingers quite a bit for comping 4 note chords. I've always used PIMA from my classical playing but wanted to do it hybrid so I wouldn't have to reach for the pick to do lines.

    So for the last month I've been building up my pinky. Pick+MA and C. It's going great. I do 90% of my comping like this now.

    For practice I just comp with Ireal and do a little bit of alternation with A and C (which feels pretty odd,lol). It gets easier as I go.
    Yep that’s coming along. I think the most difficult voicing to execute correctly The point of view of the C finger is the split voicing, ie, Drop two drop four. Still so much easier and more natural using fingers only but it’s getting better.

    The goal is to have absolute technical freedom to execute moving and flexible one, two, three, four note voicings wherever they are.

    There is a really excellent player out of Portland name Christopher Woitach who chimed in and said this is the absolute best way to play the guitar, and he learned, as did Pasquale, from Chuck Wayne as well. For sure, those three players alone are the ones that convinced me to really change to this technique. I’m really glad I did, there are lots of worts and bumps in the road.

    This is the way to go. Obviously, except on a nylon, I could always go back to PIMA.

  7. #31

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    hi guys,
    I have been reading your opinions on hybrid picking with interest.
    having put down the guitar about 7 years ago and picked it up again only 6 months ago,
    I am starting yet again and this time jazz is the order of the day; its a voyage of discovery.
    having got into chord melody I have been finger picking mostly on my new Eastman.
    I decided to give Dirks rendition of Autumn Leaves a go as I liked it very much; very tasty soloing that is a delight to listen to.
    i am into the solo now and still finger-picking it, whereas i think he was hybrid picking up to that point and then presumably the flat picking took over for the single note work. here's my question; is it going to be harder work for me to get a nice fluidity finger picking the single note work or is it entirely possible to finger pick as well as flat pick?
    i could just keep a flat pick close at hand (a JD 3 mm stubby was my pick of choice in my aimless noodling years) and grab it in the almost one bar break between melody and solo, but this seems less than ideal. hybrid picking seems to be a convenient best of both worlds, but...but...but i am becoming an old dog and this is a new trick. i have grown my nails, but am still on round wounds and find that unless i am really on the ball with my angle of attack, the scratchy nature of nails rasping on round wounds is not anywhere near pleasant tonally; the advantage of this is its making me adopt a more classical posture in both raised neck and picking hand.
    any responses gratefully received.
    Aidan-the-noob-jazzer.

  8. #32

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    I don’t know, man but I would say that it takes a long time of consistent practice. I posted that video and that’s after practicing for months so it’s still not natural. I think you have to recognize that it’s not something you can dabble in and whip it out and use it when you need it. It should really become the Swiss Army knife of right-hand a technique that allows you to do everything.

    I concentrate on playing Notes in the soprano register with the fingers while simultaneously playing Notes in the bass with the pick. I just view it as finger style with the pick substituting for the thumb. Maybe some people think if there is some single note lines involved they have to be play with the pick. I don’t agree and try to play single note lines with the pick, with fingers and with both.

    I would maybe recommend you pick up Jack Zucker‘s new book on legato lines he uses hybrid picking exclusively or mostly. Not just pick and fingers but also, importantly, slurs . It’s got over 100 exercises and it is quite good.

  9. #33

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    thanks NSJ,
    I will check out that book, despite having enough on my plate, what with catching up on all things jazz at this late stage. I did try a bit of hybrid but it felt very awkward and I quickly gave up. its just a matter of persevering, and I'm sure a book specialising in this skill would help encourage me. perhaps I will give being a quick change artist a go first, and by that I mean see how smoothly I can stop finger-picking and start flat picking (blue tacked somewhere close by-sounds ridiculous but I am sure many a better musician has done something similar, having had their in-hand pick go flying during a performance) .

  10. #34

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    Hi NSJ,
    I am still grappling with the long-term ( to the extent that I have long-term left) picking path. With standard hybrid picking, the obvious downside for me at least, apart from having to gain a whole new way of playing, is the angle of attack of nails on strings of the designated picking fingers while holding the plectrum. Clearly this has been overcome by experienced hybrid pickers but my early attempts seem to result in very unsatisfactory glancing contact between nails and strings...nowhere near acceptable tone. Here's a vid of a guy that combines picking and pleck-ing ( can I get away with that?). I learned yesterday that George Benson does something similar, but more of a tucked- in -the -palm -of -the -hand -until -needed approach. I got into the standard pimac method through the easy guide to chord melody ( there's a brief note about hybrid picking, but left at that.)
    Bye for now.
    Regards from Aidan-the-noob-jazzer


  11. #35

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    Hi Aidan

    If it's any consolation, I have been playing jazz guitar for 30+ years and I have just started attempting hybrid picking, and it's not going very well! I am used to playing either with pick or fingerstyle (I started out with classical guitar so no problem there).

    Like you I am finding the middle, ring and pinky fingers do not pluck the strings nearly so well for some reason (yet using index, middle and ring is fine, when I play fingerstyle). The tone is very weak and unbalanced compared to the pick.

    I think it is just a case of slogging away for as long as it takes, until my hand gets used to it and adapts. This might take months!

    To be honest, I remember it took me a similarly long time to get used to using a pick, way back when I started using one.

  12. #36

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    Jazz Textures - Christopher Woitach - TrueFire

    The above is the true fire course taught by Christopher Woitach

    https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!...zz/dLYIa_yHYDM


    https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/atta...icking-jjg-pdf

    I do not think that Taylor’s video is an example of hybrid picking: he switches back exclusively between fingers only and pick only. True hybrid picking means you can use both at the same time, for example the pic maybe playing some bass notes well the fingers play Melody notes on the top strings.

    The people do you want to study are Chuck Wayne, Pasquale grasso and Christopher Woitach .

    Christopher told me personally that he studied chuck’s method to get hybrid picking down . Pascuale has said the same on many videos that he has made. And even studied with someone who studied with Chuck, and Italian musician named Augustino Digorno.

  13. #37

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    +1 for another classical guitarist who switched to jazz and fell in love with Pasquale.

    He is my favourite guitarist. Even greater than JP imo

  14. #38

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    Thanks for the links NSJ, I will get to them after this.
    Sorry I didn't make it clearer that I posted the Taylor vid to demonstrate the alternative to hybrid picking, not as an example of hybrid picking which of course it is not. For me it's encouraging to see how deftly he manages to get the best of finger picking and flat picking, simply by a quick flick of the fingers. I guess I am looking for a way out of adopting the hybrid method. I have enough on my plate in terms of practice without making it any more challenging. If I can get good tone, then my practice is more rewarding.

  15. #39

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    Some useful stuff about hybrid picking in this Tim Lerch video:


  16. #40

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    Tim Miller video. He uses a combination of nail and flesh on the fingers, to match the pick sound.


  17. #41

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    I use flesh and nail as well. Classical background. Just getting the Pinky involved for comping 4 note chords. I've never needed it for classical guitar, but it's great of my comping fingerstyle because I don't have to do anything different with the pick. I can seamlessly go from comping to lines and back again. Getting easier/better all the time.

  18. #42

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    Coming from classical and flamenco, I'm using flesh and nail, with nails well-shaped and polished for a good sound. However, I'm also playing a nylon-strung 7-string guitar, so the classical style is perfect. The steel-string archtop sounds good, though, and I just have to be careful not to pluck too hard so I don't damage the nails. As DS71 says above, it's a very cool way to be able to utilize the speed and swing of the pick style, as well as creating nice arpeggiated or block chords for comping, along with voice-leading moves.

    I do find that the 7-string, having so wide a fingerboard, makes it a little more difficult to use the pick in place of the thumb for bass lines, and I have stuck a pick-holder to the upper side of the guitar so I can quickly stash and retrieve the pick if the situation gets sticky. Eventually I hope to be able to move the pick in between my index and middle fingers without dropping it when using my thumb. I am working from classical studies by Aguado, Sor and Carcassi, as well as Gustavo Assis-Brasil's excellent book and Tim Miller's materials. I have a gig this weekend where my trio will accompany a singer in the Tony Bennett style, and my partners are a drummer and a sax player, so the 7-string and the hybrid techniques will get a workout.

  19. #43

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Hi Aidan

    I think it is just a case of slogging away for as long as it takes, until my hand gets used to it and adapts. This might take months!

    To be honest, I remember it took me a similarly long time to get used to using a pick, way back when I started using one.
    I've been working diligently every day for 2-3 hour on it, and I'm 7 months in, just starting to get a good sound and some independence. Tone is a function of nail shape and length, that's still an experiment, but I've managed to get a pretty fat sound out of the little finger by growing the nail out and filing it to shape. Slow arpeggio practice is most important for the kind of control needed, along with pick alternating with diads and triads in the fingers in a variety of rhythmic patterns. Check out Martin Taylor's youtube lesson on walking bass, and try it with the pick, it's fairly easy but can really get you going.

  20. #44

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    I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks now, but just doing a little each day it is starting to feel a bit more natural now and the sound is improving. So definitely worth persevering.

  21. #45

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    I learnt PIMA as a young guitarist, and picked up hybrid picking from that standpoint, shifting it over to accommodate the loss of the index finger independence I found Simon & Garfunkel stuff to be useful ("Sounds of Silence", "I am a Rock", and "The Boxer" especially) useful in learning how to separate my pick from my fingers while still keeping my pinky active.

    If you want to involve your little finger in your playing, there's no way around it but to use it.

  22. #46

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    you should try thumbpicks. A friend of mine who plays jazz and classical guitar, Jim Roberts uses a thumbpick on guitar and it works out great.

  23. #47

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    for those classical players trying to get th4 hybrid stuff down, try spending a few minutes each day working on simple arpeggio studies using the thumb and the last 3 fingers: m, a, c. Getting control of those fingers will be easier, and adding the pick then becomes less trouble.