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You should read this article by Tuck Andress. Andress attended Stanford Univ., though he may have dropped out to pursue his musical career. He is clearly very, very intelligent, and describes himself as having a "logical engineering type of mind" and his analysis of pros/cons of various picking approaches is valuable, I think. He pursued finger style because it is more powerful for accompaniment, allowing himself to tour with his wife, and use fewer personnel.
In other writings, he has interesting insights into sound production in a commercial setting, as in when asked about how important his vintage L5 was to his "sound"---he said not very, and that no home "living room" player could replicate his sound, anyway, without using the industrial-strength EQ equipment that he tours with. This is pricey but essential gear, according to him, and he said that he spends a LOT of time before a show tweaking it to get the sound he wants. These articles use to be available on his web site, and may still be, though I haven't looked at them lately.Last edited by goldenwave77; 12-09-2014 at 01:36 PM. Reason: Responding to post #262
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12-09-2014 01:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Kiefer.Wolfowitz
i just posted on exactly this on another thread. after months of hard work playing from the wrist, i suddenly discovered the advantages of playing from the elbow. its really very striking indeed. it seems to make changing strings MUCH smoother and quicker - i'm very excited about it.
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Originally Posted by Kiefer.Wolfowitz
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Howard Roberts spoke of using the elbow as well as the wrist and fingers as a lever. Fine control is in the wrist in fingers. Roberts also suggested not to anchor too heavily, but to keep the right hand partially free. Of course different strokes for different guitarists.
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Originally Posted by paco
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Funny, I emailed Troy back-and-forth discussing a few of the finer points with him. His take on CtC, which is congruent with your conclusion, is that he's trying to document the right hand techniques for future guitar players so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel on their own.
For me the lights came on after checking out CtC and then reading what Tuck Andress had to say about RH technique. Glad to see my long-ago education in engineering has paid off!
In case you haven't seen Troy's Kickstarter Magnet. Obsess over your own weaknesses...captured on high speed video!
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I have been reading this thread and Benson picking thread for the last week and a half and I would like to thank you all. Because of you, I am now for the first time aware of my right hand to the point that nothing works anymore.
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Was trying to find a video clip of Hank Garland playing jazz. No dice. Here's what I found. Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland - Sugarfoot rag:
Last edited by ChuckCorbis; 03-23-2015 at 12:56 AM.
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HANK GARLAND JAZZ GREAT PLAYING RIOT CHOUS:
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Originally Posted by ChuckCorbisiero
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"Technique should be the servant . . . not the master" (Jim Mullen)
I heard him say this in an interview a while back. It resignated with me then as it still does.
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Originally Posted by ChuckCorbisiero
Actually, I've never even seen a video of Hank Garland playing. I've got to check out the ones you've posted here . . they'll probably lead me to others on You Tube.
When I first started playing guitar, I took the pick in my hand . . looked at it . . saw the pointy end and figured, "this must be the end that you hit the strings with". Never gave it a second thought since and never had any of the jazz guitar instructors comment positively or negatively on my right hand technique. There were only two comments ever made on any of my technique. The first one, I'll never forget and it is still a technique that I live and swear by. Al Faraldi once scolded me because the fingers on my fretting hand weren't perfectly parallel to the frets and perfectly perpendicular to the strings. I took me about 3 weeks of solid concentration to correct that glitch. But, now it's the only way I can play. When I see Jimmy Bruno play, I just say to myself . . "yeah . . that's perfect form". When I've seen Tal play . . I'd just wince. But, hey . . he was Tal. Didn't much matter how he positioned those massive meat hooks.
The second time was when Vinny Corrao told me I shouldn't be holding my guitar in between my legs in the classical guitar position. We had some words about it. But, I just continued to hold my guitar the way I felt most comfortable with it . . still do!!
OOPS!! There was a third time!! One of my teachers told me that when I'm playing runs, I lift my non fretting fingers too high away from the fret board. I worried about it for a while . . . until I saw Pat Martino and Barney Kessel play. Then, I stopped worrying. ;-)Last edited by Patrick2; 03-23-2015 at 09:49 PM.
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Originally Posted by m_a
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Originally Posted by christianm77
Last edited by m_d; 03-25-2015 at 03:01 AM.
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Floating or anchored - I think their both good. Ive been tryin all that stuff for alot of years playing Yngwie, Macalpine, Racer X, ... And sliding fingers on the pickguard too like Yngwie does. The most important thing to me with the pick is to keep the index and thumb stiff so you force the movement to come from wrist and/or arm and not the fingers. I had a bad habit of moving my index finger for upstrokes and when your trying to pick fast that is like a wrench in the machine - it slows you down.
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Yes I agree. It must be locked. On the other hand tension is not the desired outcome.
I've watched more of Troy's videos. They are pretty clear, recommended. Rest stroke picking for shred metal. Who'd have thought it, eh?
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Sure. It's important to establish a technical understanding that'll work for everyone though. I think such a thing does exist out there.... 'Classical pick technique'....
Gypsy picking is a great starting point because it is so well understood and works great - being able to play fast is pretty standard on the gypsy jazz scene (even if everything else is lacking sometimes haha.)
The fact that Troy's DWPS technique is the electric guitar version of that is very nice... I mean, even if you don't like their music, Yngwie and Eric Johnson get a great tone out of the instrument as well as uber-chops.
Although I do find some difficulty adapting my gypsy technique to incorporate RH muting. Just got to keep practicing it....
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Interesting thing is, it turns out that picking is picking.
The main difference is the need for RH muting for electric/heavily ampified playing. Archtop/acoustic players don't need to worry so much.
Playing the guitar is playing the guitar. What you choose to do with your technique us up to you and your ear.
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Alessio Menconi with a great right hand tecnique
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Thanks for the video! That's exactly the RH technique I'm trying to develop...only about 8,000 hours left to go for me...
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I find floating can make the "Troy Grady Pick Slant" (downward) easier, but I still tend to want to anchor the hand (more touch, not so much anchor) while doing so as a physical touch reference so that I can more easily judge the distance of the pick to the strings without actually looking at my picking hand.
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Originally Posted by 3625
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Originally Posted by jbyork
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It does matter if you want to play acoustic and project. I mean actually acoustic (no amp.) It matters rather a lot, it's a very unforgiving thing (but freeing if you can do it.)
That said Julian Lage uses a anchored electric style pick hand and sounds pretty darn nice on an acoustic. I wonder if he gets sufficient projection without amplification and if so how. Often the struggle is balancing strummed chords and single note lines.
I've started practicing with an amp (because I was struggling to get my amplified sound clean.) As I mention above my acoustic picking technique is great for levels of amplification, but if I want to play more at true electric volumes, my hand naturally wants to mute and go to a 'lazier' way of doing things.
A challenge for me is not to pick as hard, not feel I have to make every note super-assertive, and then I get a more legato, modern tone.
Another struggle is when I pick softer to make everything even. This, I suspect, is why alternate picking is so popular with electric players.
So I think it's an unconscious or semi-conscious 'feel thing.'
I see a lot of players locking up their forearm and wrist and anchoring to the top E string near the bridge. Good players too. It looks uncomfortable to me, but they sound great. Can get away with that on an electric.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
Last edited by MatsP; 05-31-2015 at 07:06 AM.
So what kind of blues is this (or not?)
Today, 03:32 PM in Other Styles / Instruments