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Wes had thoughts on this. Some guys have made a career out of using a pick. Overall, which makes more sense? which is more musical?. very few bass players use a pick. Why?
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01-18-2014 11:55 AM
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One should be able to do both and hybrid too.
Originally Posted by bob dullam
Bass players, 1) it's a rounder tone with fingers, 2) no pick click, 3) using rest strokes you can mute the lower adjacent string. That's all I can come up with. Interesting question.
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have you heard sylvain luc or sylvain courtney or kevin eubanks? No need for a pick if that's the sound and feel you're after.
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Polyphony polyphony polyphony. But yeah all 3 are necessary. Hybrid picking being the hardest for me
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what about just plain sound? which is better? or has more appeal.
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to me , fingers have a better sound if you play with finger tips. You get that wes tone all the time. However, for funk rhythm you might miss the pick. What about a thumbpick? Best of both worlds. Originally Posted by bob dullam
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Another is Lenny Breau, he brought country Chet Atkins technique to jazz(and used a thumbpick).
Mick Goodrick, Steve Herberman(fingers) and Lorne Lofsky (thumbpick and fingers) are also great.
I tried playing exclusively with my fingers for a while(couple of times actually), I just couldn't get the alternating thing to be as fluid and grooving as when I use a pick. I get jealous when I hear Sylvain Luc and Sylvain Courtney (maybe the French have a special recipe...
).
Of course playing funk rhythm can be brutal on the fingers...
Love the tone though.Last edited by Ronstuff; 01-18-2014 at 03:22 PM.
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fingers(no nails) - advantages:
1. warmer sound.
2. string skipping. i.e. less effort going from low string to high string. more natural to do so.
3. separate parts, i.e. tuck andress. great for the wesmo sound. chord melodies. solo guitar.
4. easiest to do cascading harmonics. (I think...).
fingers - disadvantages:
1. less percussive. only soft attack.(discounting slapping, string poping).
2. no strumming. tough to cop a prince/earth wind and fire groove etc.
3. can't emulate FG, John M, or any other guitarist known for using a pick only very well.
regarding funk grooves.. I tend to pluck w/ pick in hand anyway. I almost never strum.
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i disagree with you disadvantage # 3. Sylvain luc can do that , plus when I play fingerstyle I can get sweeping using the thumb for downstroke and the index for upstroke.
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Does anyone know of good finger picking instructional material they'd recommend?
Flamenco players use a finger picking technique where they never pick with the same finger twice consecutively and can play some remarkable stuff that way. If you watch Sylvain Courtney that's basically what he does- mostly alternating between his index, middle and thumb. Whereas Joe Pass will play for long stretches picking with just his index finger and doesn't seem to have any sort of formal technique he's adhering to. Same with Jeff Beck. Most of the fingerpicking instructional material I've seen deals with how to play chord/melody guitar, which is awesome, but I'd like to find instructional on how to play regular lead guitar using fingers the way Courtney does, but I don't know if such material exists.
I can play pretty decent funk and reggae rhythm strumming using my fingers. I got tired of switching back and forth between fingers and pick so I worked on using fingers for rhythm. I basically just stole Don Mock's finger picking rhythm technique which he goes over in several of his videos.
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contact http://sylvain-courtney.com/ for skype lessons
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@jzucker Thanks! Will do.
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I've been in this mode for the past 4 months or so, where I'm playing almost exclusively with the thumb only. The tone is great, both for comping and for single-note lines, but the main drawback is definitely the lack of velocity. I've tried a couple of ways around this (classical i-m alternation, ala' Sylvain Courtney, and alternating p-i), but it's tough to transition between the two, due to variations in the angle of the wrist required. And the alternating thumb (where you use an upstroke) sound crummy (the thumbnail gets in the way on the upstroke, and it's weak sounding).
I've yet to find "the answer." I've tried Herco picks (they make my thumb go numb because of their small circumference), chicken-picken (never spent the time to get this down), classical guitar technique. Nothing is ideal.
Last night I broke out the pick for the first time in ages, and was surprised at how fast and accurately I could play single-note lines with it. Made me want to go back.
Jimmy Bruno plays chords and some lines with thumb, and holds the pick in between his index and middle fingers while doing so. Then he quickly places the pick in between thumb and index finger when he needs it. He can go back and forth at will. I've tried this but I always end up dropping the pick at some point, and it also forces you to give up some of the facility of i-m when you're holding the pick in between them.
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Wes started practicing with his thumb because he wanted to play thru his amp, but he got noise complaints from other tenants. His plan was to use a pick at a gig but he found that he couldn't feel where the strings were with a pick. At that point he never used a pick again.
I think most Jazz guitarists play finger style for certain songs and use a pick on others. i.e. Benson, Remler. Fast alternate picking is the advantage of using a pick. Playing fast becomes less important for some as they (we) mature. i.e. Jeff Beck, Joe Pass.
I've been a hybrid picker for a long time. The only thing is sometimes the ring finger (and pinky) have a weak attack compared to the pick and middle finger. Eric Johnson's 1st video basically covers different picking tecniques pretty well.
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I started a similar thread a few months back:
https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guita...+should+bother
In the end I decided to keep the pick in my stable, but the videos that people posted should give you some confidence that it can be done.
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@jzucker, it's the sound I'm refering to as well. ya, you could get all the same notes, but could you get the same sound as a pick, using bare skin?
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why not use a pick and fingers or a thumbpick and fingers? Originally Posted by bob dullam
Who says you have to get the same sound out of your fingers as you do with a pick though? Kevin Eubanks plays all styles and does it with the fingers.
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I guess I am a hybrid style player. I use fingerstyle for bossa and chord melody and a lot of comping but I need the pick for getting a good tone for improv lines. Often, I use both for Ballads.
wizLast edited by wizard3739; 01-19-2014 at 05:07 AM.
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I've been bouncing around the idea of using a thumbpick again...this is making lean a little harder to it...
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Use the technique that allows you to express what you want to play. Johnny Smith always used a pick while George Van Eps never used one. Both are masters of their technique, able to execute their ideas playing solo, chords & melody. Van Eps' tone is full and round. Smith's tone is sharp in comparison.
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+1 on Eubanks. His sound on Dave Holland's "Extensions" album is still one of my favorite recorded guitar sounds anywhere.
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I think I read somewhere that holland has a new cd out with eubanks on it. That extensions CD had great writing and great playing on it. Originally Posted by marcwhy
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i've always played with pick and fingers but have tried for years to switch to fingerstyle. I miss the attack and volume you can get with a pick and have never fully gotten used to playing with a thumbpick. I have been doing more pick and fingers lately, sometimes alternating with the pick and middle finger for lines. This works really well for wide intervals and legato playing. On the fingers, I use a combination of nail and flesh.
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Hello,
Thanks for your interest in my technique
I occasionally give skype lessons if you want to talk about it.
also i'll be featured in an upcoming issue of fingerstyle 360 where i'll be talking about my R.H technique.
Best,
Sylvain
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Originally Posted by sylvain54000
Hello,
Thanks for your interest in my technique
I occasionally give skype lessons if you want to talk about it.
also i'll be featured in an upcoming issue of fingerstyle 360 where i'll be talking about my R.H technique.
Best,
Sylvain
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