A question for thumb pickers

[merseybeat]

Hi

Recently I am beginning to hate my pick! I have been playing guitar for over 30 years (Jazz for around 5).
Here's the dilemma!

I'm currently in Saudi Arabia and for the last few weeks I was pickless! I mean I had no spare picks so I started playing with my thumb! Quite simply the tone and accuracy I got was unbeatable! When my picks finally arrived from Amazon I hated them. The cons of a pick in my case are a complete loss of feel and sensitivity when playing!

In fact this leads me to the conclusion that the only advantage of using a pick is speed!

Speed?- I know a lot of players say speed is not important? But IT IS! Some tunes require a particular tempo, end of!

So here's my question....

Any advice on training your thumb to pick a little quicker without mashing it?

All I need to add to my current thumb picking tempo is another 10 BPM or so and I will donate all my picks to the bin!

Any advice is more than welcome!

Thanks and kindest regards

Eddie

[Scot Tremblay]

I'm not a pick user really and come to jazz/steel string guitar from a classical guitar/lute background where the thumb and all fingers (well, index, middle, annular and some pinky) are used for picking.

So for single line stuff, soloing etc, I borrow a technique from renaissance lute and early guitar which kind of imitates the down - up feel and sound of using a pick...alternate plucking down with the thumb and up with the index finger. The arm/hand motion to do this is very similar to the motion while using a pick and some of the Renaissance lute playing guys can burn up the strings like nobody's business with this picking style. You can adapt it to your regular picking style as you see fit as all you're really doing is substituting thumb and first finger for what the pick usually did...make sense out of that description?

I'm sure others will be along, very soon, with lots of great ideas. Just thought I'd pass on something that works for me.

[merseybeat]

Cool thanks! Will try that at lunch break!

Here's something

One of the beauties of working in health care is that I just spent the last 30 mins with the physio manager (who is specialized in sports and musician injuries), now get this!

Apparently the thumb has almost the exact same mechanics as your fingers! It also has the ability to outdo your fingers as its potentially a lot more powerful! He was actually really interested in the possibility! He suggested (like any other athletics training) using resistance training! i.e. get an elastic band (not to tight), wrap it around your thumb and fingers and try and perform your daily guitar work out with the elastic band on and just picking with the thumb!

So watch this space!

Eddie

[larry graves]

Cool thanks! Will try that at lunch break!

Here's something

One of the beauties of working in health care is that I just spent the last 30 mins with the physio manager (who is specialized in sports and musician injuries), now get this!

Apparently the thumb has almost the exact same mechanics as your fingers! It also has the ability to outdo your fingers as its potentially a lot more powerful! He was actually really interested in the possibility! He suggested (like any other athletics training) using resistance training! i.e. get an elastic band (not to tight), wrap it around your thumb and fingers and try and perform your daily guitar work out with the elastic band on and just picking with the thumb!

So watch this space!

Eddie

The speed will come in time Eddy. Get Jim Mullen up if you want to see speed with a thumb.....L..

[merseybeat]

Wow enough said!!! He kicks in at 3:18 its amazing! Thanks Larry!

[pingu]

So here's my question....

Any advice on training your thumb to pick a little quicker without mashing it?

All I need to add to my current thumb picking tempo is another 10 BPM or so and I will donate all my picks to the bin!

Eddie

Hi Eddy , interesting stuff
I've heard Jim Mullen talking about his thumb technique
saying that it just evolved by itself
and that its all downstrokes with pull offs hammers and slurs etc
One thumb downstroke can give 3 or 4 notes so there's the speed

It shows what you what can be done with that tech

I'm nearly all downstrokes with a pick myself and Jim is a big inspiration to me too
The thing is ...... his time is soooo good , and he swings mightily
Jim Mullen is my fave straight ahead guitar player

I've tried soloing with the Thumb but I didn't like the sound of my thumb
apart from for very quiet things ......

Did the edge of your Thumb pad get sore ?
Jesus mine did !

I'm making a concerted effort to do more alt picking now
cos I'd like to be able to throw in a couple of Benson/Martino type long lines occasionally
(hey wouldn't we all ?)


another 10 BPM will come by itself anyway Eddie

[larry graves]

Wow enough said!!! He kicks in at 3:18 its amazing! Thanks Larry!

There's an interview with him in this months "guitarist" magazine!...L...

[merseybeat]

Quick Update -

Its been 3 weeks now and I'm almost where I want to be, actually the Thumb is an amazing agile beast!
Remember I started this under the observation of a sports physiotherapist and the trick is to work on upstrokes too!
Now the upstrokes don't sound great but that's not the goal. By practicing upstroke apparently you keep the required muscle groups in Balance and lessen the chance of any injury! Also, even if you just using down strokes the thumb still need to recover for the next note!

It was amazing how clumsy and slow my thumb was at upstrokes at first but even more amazing at how quickly you can develop its accuracy and speed!!!

Last note - I'm not getting into the speed debate but I do understand that some feel speed is a necessity to play certain heads! So I'll just say that currently my thumbing is comfortable doing 4's per beat at 120 BPM with a nice tone and a lot more fun. I don't need anymore than that lol.

Thanks for listening!

Eddie

[medblues]

Quick Update -

Its been 3 weeks now and I'm almost where I want to be, actually the Thumb is an amazing agile beast!
Remember I started this under the observation of a sports physiotherapist and the trick is to work on upstrokes too!
Now the upstrokes don't sound great but that's not the goal. By practicing upstroke apparently you keep the required muscle groups in Balance and lessen the chance of any injury! Also, even if you just using down strokes the thumb still need to recover for the next note!

It was amazing how clumsy and slow my thumb was at upstrokes at first but even more amazing at how quickly you can develop its accuracy and speed!!!

Last note - I'm not getting into the speed debate but I do understand that some feel speed is a necessity to play certain heads! So I'll just say that currently my thumbing is comfortable doing 4's per beat at 120 BPM with a nice tone and a lot more fun. I don't need anymore than that lol.

Thanks for listening!

Eddie

You may find it interesting from around 56:30 of

long video of Tuck Andress.

[tribeo]

Cool thanks! Will try that at lunch break!

Here's something

One of the beauties of working in health care is that I just spent the last 30 mins with the physio manager (who is specialized in sports and musician injuries), now get this!

Apparently the thumb has almost the exact same mechanics as your fingers! It also has the ability to outdo your fingers as its potentially a lot more powerful! He was actually really interested in the possibility! He suggested (like any other athletics training) using resistance training! i.e. get an elastic band (not to tight), wrap it around your thumb and fingers and try and perform your daily guitar work out with the elastic band on and just picking with the thumb!

So watch this space!

Eddie

I'd be very interested to hear exactly what you do training-wise, and how it works out for you. I have a friend who is physical therapist, and she says that trying to apply strength training techniques to your fingers will just result in damage, i.e. tendonitis, arthritis, etc. I'm not convinced she's 100% right, but she has seen it happen.

[johnny67]

Check out if you wish the classical guitar technique called tremelo and also the flemanco type of tremelo. That uses the thumb and three other fingers.

[larry graves]

There are no short cuts, practice, practice, and watch "Wes".....time will do the rest!!....

[2bornot2bop]

and his day job is a Captain in a fire dep't.

[Larry Feldman]

The fire captain is pretty impressive. He even has the 3 finger left hand technique down. Makes it sound even better.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Does anyone use a thumb pick for thumb picking? You know, one of these?



Sometimes I put one on when I'm "finger picking" then I'll switch to just the thumb, sometimes squeezing the thumb pick with the index finger as well, and doing down-and-up strokes. It's not that must different than using a flat pick, but it's guaranteed not to more around!

[MarkRhodes]

Does anyone use a thumb pick for thumb picking? You know, one of these?



Sometimes I put one on when I'm "finger picking" then I'll switch to just the thumb, sometimes squeezing the thumb pick with the index finger as well, and doing down-and-up strokes. It's not that must different than using a flat pick, but it's guaranteed not to more around!

I have several thumb picks and experiment with them a lot lately. I don't care as much for the Dunlop in the picture (or the National thumbpick, which is similar). I like Fred Kelly bumble bee thumbpicks---they're like a Jazz III with a loop on top. (It's the shape of a Jazz III but the material is Delrin and mine is thinner than a Jazz III, though heavier ones are available.)

[johnny67]

I gave up guitar picks entirely after around 30 years of playing. It was having the internet and seeing what was possible by the fingerpickers that switch me to that way of playing. I couldn't be happier with my decision.

Guitarnick.com is good for fingerstyle begginers.

I use no pick and love it.

[BertScrogshaw]

I like this feller. I like to use my thumb like he does. (Not as well as he does it though)!!