Chord Melody with only a pick?

**DRS** · 06-17-2016, 10:18 AM

I play fingerstyle and with a pick - both standard and hybrid style.

**vsaumarez** · 06-19-2016, 02:07 PM

I would say 80% of chord melody is played with a pick. As many have said above J Smith was probably one of the earlier innovators. Just about everyone else who was anyone played this way with a few notable exceptions. There used to be graded exams in plectrum style guitar, which was mostly pulled from the jazz repertoire.

**matt.guitarteacher** · 06-19-2016, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by vsaumarez

I would say 80% of chord melody is played with a pick. As many have said above J Smith was probably one of the earlier innovators. Just about everyone else who was anyone played this way with a few notable exceptions. There used to be graded exams in plectrum style guitar, which was mostly pulled from the jazz repertoire.

I would be surprised to find this to be true. Many teachers of CM seem to assume playing with fingers as the convention.

**wolflen** · 06-19-2016, 05:03 PM

just looked at "Howard Roberts Guitar Manual/Chord Melody" I have gone through most of it long ago using just a pick and gained much from the exercises..I now see if played finger style you can add some moving inner voices to enhance the exercises and come of with nice "mini-progressions" and once learned you can do the same exercises with a pick..

and yes..this will take some time...I think the book is out of print..but should you find it..try it out

**ronjazz** · 06-19-2016, 07:31 PM

The archtop guitar was rarely played with bare fingers until the mid-to-late 60s, except for Van Eps and
a few performances by Charlie Byrd on his D'Angelico. The advent of more "electrified" guitars and lighter strings brought more fingerstyle and hybrid playing into the mix. I imagine the need to project as rhythm guitarists was the main reason for the plectrum's use, even in chord-melody styles. Joe Pass morphed himself from strictly plectrum to hybrid to fingerstyle over the course of his career. Segovia, of course, played chord-melody style with fingers, and nails.

**David B** · 06-19-2016, 07:58 PM

Peter Leitch performs solo guitar mostly with a pick. Some chords are played with pick and fingers together.

**David B** · 06-19-2016, 08:04 PM

As does Pasquale Grasso.

**dcharles** · 06-20-2016, 12:18 PM

Just thought I'd chime in. I guess I missed this thread earlier. I'm a dedicated plectrum player doing things based on the old Van Eps chord melody style. Before he got mellow with fingerstyle stuff that is. Here's a take on a bossa tune I recorded a month ago as an example:

**monk** · 06-20-2016, 02:48 PM

Here's a textbook example of George Van Eps plectrum playing. Chord melody, chord solo, comping behind the bass solo.
It's all there.

**dcharles** · 06-20-2016, 07:05 PM

Nice example. I vastly prefer his acoustic stuff, but then again it's all I play so... Here's my favorite example of what plectrum chord melody playing can be in great hands:

**jakeyboy1216** · 06-21-2016, 10:20 AM

I believe Howard Alden also plays primarily with a pick.

**John A.** · 06-21-2016, 10:22 AM

Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Oscar Moore, Kenny Burrell, Benson, and on and on.

John

**runeo** · 06-21-2016, 11:39 AM

Like it!
Jens Larsen: "This is a video from a practice session where I play the standard "I Fall in Love Too Easily" Demonstrating an approach where I play a chord on each beat of the measure while playing the melody and later soloing."

**christianm77** · 06-21-2016, 01:31 PM

Well there's a whole plectrum guitar exam you can do in the UK. Solo pieces in various styles meant to be played pick only. Probably should take it, I'm sure I'd learn a lot!

**hot ford coupe** · 06-21-2016, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by harrye

Hi RonDen,

Django Reinhardt performed several solo-guitar compositions, many of which he used a pick for, including:

Echoes of Spain:

Improvisation #1:

Improvisation #6:

All the best

Harry

For a guy with a serious messed up hand, he could play the hell out of that ax. Could you imagine how he would sound if he had the full use of his left hand?

**hot ford coupe** · 06-21-2016, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by harrye

Hi RonDen,

Django Reinhardt performed several solo-guitar compositions, many of which he used a pick for, including:

Echoes of Spain:

Improvisation #1:

Improvisation #6:

All the best

Harry

For a guy with a serious messed up hand, he could play the hell out of that ax. Could you imagine how he would sound if he had the full use of his left hand?

**Chris Whiteman** · 07-01-2016, 09:17 PM

Here is a simple arrangement I did of Tenderly using a pick.

**christianm77** · 07-02-2016, 05:03 AM

Have we mentioned Peter B yet?

**matt.guitarteacher** · 07-02-2016, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Have we mentioned Peter B yet?

He's a great musician. I don't know what I think about his tone with that pick like that. Maybe it's the recording?

Anyway, I've been playing mostly with a pick, the last year or so , even though I initially was all fingers for CM. Looking at PM play in this video, the way he breaks up the bass and "the rest" into two separate voices basically (I'm talking about rhythm as well as geography ), I realize that I do the same. (That one aspect. Not comparing to him.)

The thing is, I feel like I really learned this way of playing from having first done it with fingers, where it seems natural to break it up that way. To me, that way of playing sounds/feels more like Joe Pass solo guitar style with pick.

Am I right in thinking that the more traditional style of strummed CM, from back in the day, was more about four string chords, with notes on consecutive strings, and fewer "dead string chords"? Maybe PB is more of that "solo guitar with pick". I would guess that in this style (which we might call "solo guitar") that it's less common to play with a pick. PB is a good example.

Thanks for the video.

**christianm77** · 07-02-2016, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher

He's a great musician. I don't know what I think about his tone with that pick like that. Maybe it's the recording?

Anyway, I've been playing mostly with a pick, the last year or so , even though I initially was all fingers for CM. Looking at PM play in this video, the way he breaks up the bass and "the rest" into two separate voices basically (I'm talking about rhythm as well as geography ), I realize that I do the same. (That one aspect. Not comparing to him.)

The thing is, I feel like I really learned this way of playing from having first done it with fingers, where it seems natural to break it up that way. To me, that way of playing sounds/feels more like Joe Pass solo guitar style with pick.

Am I right in thinking that the more traditional style of strummed CM, from back in the day, was more about four string chords, with notes on consecutive strings, and fewer "dead string chords"? Maybe PB is more of that "solo guitar with pick". I would guess that in this style (which we might call "solo guitar") that it's less common to play with a pick. PB is a good example.

Thanks for the video.

I actually love his sound here, kind of earthy and semi-acoustic with a lot of pick - to me this is a perfect jazz guitar tone, listen to the variation he's able to get out of the guitar - this is not something you hear very often IMO.

IIRC this is a pretty good reflection of his live sound playing solo when I have heard him live.

I sometimes find a pure electric sound a bit flat & bloodless, although it works well for ensemble playing.

Different strokes for different folks though!

**matt.guitarteacher** · 07-02-2016, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by christianm77

I sometimes find a pure electric sound a bit flat & bloodless, although it works well for ensemble playing.

Different strokes for different folks though!

Yeah. Different strokes. I guess it's a balance. I like woody to a degree. Honestly, there are other modern players who have really rich warm tones but who lose something in clarity, in my opinion, when it comes to thicker textures, chordwise.

It occurred to me a couple years ago, listening to Joe Pass, that no matter what I think of his tone at times, I can always hear exactly what he's playing. I wonder how much PB's penchant for larger chords has to do with the way shapes his guitar's tone?

**christianm77** · 07-02-2016, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by matt.guitarteacher

Yeah. Different strokes. I guess it's a balance. I like woody to a degree. Honestly, there are other modern players who have really rich warm tones but who lose something in clarity, in my opinion, when it comes to thicker textures, chordwise.

It occurred to me a couple years ago, listening to Joe Pass, that no matter what I think of his tone at times, I can always hear exactly what he's playing. I wonder how much PB's penchant for larger chords has to do with the way shapes his guitar's tone?

Peter talked a bit about his training with Jim Hall - Jim was very much into projection. When teaching he would go into the next room and make students play to him while he was making a cup of coffee.

It's interesting because we think of Jim as having a soft, warm attack, but actually there was a very assertive pick stroke there, which you can really hear on those early recordings.

So no doubt some of it comes from that. It's almost a swing era aesthetic of guitar tone production, very old school.

**Durban** · 09-28-2016, 07:03 AM

hi Lawson sounds good, i prefer the ES-165 it was not so bright, bit pinch more middy, hard to tell on laptop though,

what strings on there and pick? D

**mathieu76** · 10-20-2016, 04:41 PM

Here is Johnny Smith explaining how he adjusts chords form to avoid hitting dead strings. Starts around 3'00.

**fep** · 10-20-2016, 05:10 PM

A Modern Method For Guitar by William Levitt changed my right hand picking and improved my rest stroke technique which was conducive to playing chord melody with a pick. In addition the book has clever chord solo arrangements to learn from and to add ideas to ones tool box. I suggest you look into that book if you haven't already.

For example, here I am playing one of the exercises in that book: