Joe Pass's Picking Technique

[Christian Miller]

I'm surprised no one talked about how these techniques relate to hybrid picking. Or it's possible I missed it. Long thread.

As the thread is nominally about how Joe Pass played the guitar, probably didn’t seem relevant? Did Joe hybrid pick?

I use hybrid a lot these days. It is great in some ways, but has annoying issues.

I would say that rest stroke picking - at least the type of identified here - is not compatible with hybrid picking. Mostly it’s because picking from the elbow or wrist rotation just puts the whole hand out of position and the position, so you can’t play simultaneous notes, and your starting and finishing position will also change depending on the string.

OTOH string skipping is far less of an issue with USX style picking than conventional alt picking styles so it’s more the sort of thing you’d want for chords and counterpoint etc.

So I find myself switching. You can absolutely do it in the same right hand position, but you need to pick from the finger joints.

It’s more compatible with Chuck Wayne style picking or circle picking which of course is what you see people like Pasquale doing. But then you squash the dynamic range.

That said I think Django may have hybrid picked chords sometimes. An example is Tears, where the chords don’t sound strummed.


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[John A.]

As the thread is nominally about how Joe Pass played the guitar, probably didn’t seem relevant? Did Joe hybrid pick?

I'm tempted to say he must have at least occasionally when he didn't bother to stash the pick in his mouth, but I don't find any evidence of it in videos. It sort looks like he's hybrid picking sometimes because his fingerstyle "grip" looks the same as his picking grip (thumb and index finger close together), but he's not actually holding a pick.

I use hybrid a lot these days. It is great in some ways, but has annoying issues.

I would say that rest stroke picking - at least the type of identified here - is not compatible with hybrid picking. Mostly it’s because picking from the elbow or wrist rotation just puts the whole hand out of position and the position, so you can’t play simultaneous notes, and your starting and finishing position will also change depending on the string.

OTOH string skipping is far less of an issue with USX style picking than conventional alt picking styles so it’s more the sort of thing you’d want for chords and counterpoint etc.

So I find myself switching. You can absolutely do it in the same right hand position, but you need to pick from the finger joints.

It’s more compatible with Chuck Wayne style picking or circle picking which of course is what you see people like Pasquale doing. But then you squash the dynamic range.

That said I think Django may have hybrid picked chords sometimes. An example is Tears, where the chords don’t sound strummed.


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I mainly comp hybrid and solo with a pick, though not exclusively either way, and sometimes I stash the pick in my mouth and go all fingers. I started out on nylon string as a kid (classical and folk/fingerpicking, though all at a very beginner level), stopped playing, then started again in my teens, initially fingerstyle blues, but still on nylon string. Then came electric, picking, and steel string acoustic. So blending has always seemed natural to me, and I've never really given it much thought.

As near as I can tell, Pasquale only hybrid picks when comping or playing chord melody, and not when single-line soloing (other than for the odd chord stab here and there, which he doesn't do much of when soloing over other chord instruments). This is in contrast to people who hybrid pick while soloing, mainly for texture (e.g., Sco).

[grahambop]

I saw Joe Pass playing solo guitar several times at Ronnie Scotts from quite close quarters, and I don’t recall seeing him hybrid pick.

Mostly he seemed to play fingerstyle and only used a pick for one or two fast tunes (he nearly always played a really fast I Got Rhythm ‘party-piece’, and as I recall he usually rummaged in his jacket pocket to find a pick!)

At least that’s how I remember it, but it was a long time ago.

[CliffR]

Beat me to it! I was just about to post this video.

I have his book, but I admit to not getting much from it. I don't think a book can really teach you to pick in this style, at least not the mechanics/technique of it.

Anyone else had a go at learning either of the licks Denis presents? I've got one on the fingers and plan on working on it as a long-term, back-boiler sort of thing. Some great language in there.

[James W]

Cecil Alexander's plectrum technique is similar to Benson's. Here he is apparently demonstrating its compatibility with hybrid picking.

Alright here we go - YouTube