-
Flatpicking is my main "go-to", but fingerstyle playing offers great textural control over the polyphonic capabilities of the guitar. Classical players are lightyears ahead with this technique and pima is standard. My middle finger is near useless due to CTS so adaptation to work without it has yielded what you hear here- as of mid August 2022 anyway. Thanks as always for watching.
-
08-11-2022 10:58 AM
-
Sounds mighty fine to me!
Classical guitarist Matthew McAllister also relies primarily on p, i, a and his playing is top-notch.
-
thanks! I’m not familiar with him but have found him in YouTube and it’s fantastic for me to see him playing this way. Huge thanks for pointing me! I wonder why he’s not using the middle finger.
Originally Posted by Michael Neverisky
-
Maybe he was brought up to be polite. Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
-
Mark, your musicality and clarity makes the limits of technical execution irrelevant apparently. Inspired and beautiful as ever. Loved it. Thanks for sharing
-
Result of a childhood injury, according to comments on the delcamp forum. Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
-
Sometimes I use my i to hold the pick so then I play pma system
-
There’s something about the relatively equal length of the index and ring fingers that allows a comfortable i-a-i-a alternating picking where the angle of the hand can be more squared off to the strings.
-
I seem to recall Michael Watts mentioning the annular as the melody finger, and I do find it's often easier to get a sweet sound out of the 1st string with it. Probably a matter of angle of attack.
Sadly it's weaker from a neuro-muscular point of view. That said, I have a video lesson by Mike Dowling in which he mentions that he often uses pma4 (meaning the pinky) even when he is not hybrid picking.
My it would be worthwhile to experiment with hybrid picking where you hold the pick with thumb and middle finger (if that's possible-in general and for you), and see if that leads to something useful.
-
I love hybrid picking with the “a” grabbing the melody!! I think that’s part of why going fingerstyle has me favoring this finger. Mind you, I use all of the right hand techniques without prejudice. Originally Posted by RJVB
-
Alternating A-I is a somewhat common technique in classical playing. Originally Posted by Mark Kleinhaut
Best wishes for recovery.
-
well, that shows how much I know Originally Posted by vintagelove
it’s pretty comfortable so I just assume it must be wrong.
-
Same thing happened to me. They operated on the tip of my middle finger, so I try to use my nail as much as possible. Originally Posted by grahambop
In cold weather, it's especially sensitive.
I just finished a musical where it opens up with the guitar playing a repeated 8th and 16th note arpeggio pattern. It was fine til my middle finger nail broke. Then I had to use my fingertip- OUCH!!
-
Started with classical using fingers in all sorts of weird ways, I often ponder why jazz guitarists keep on playing with pick most of the time. The sound, yes - stronger. Speed yes. But sound again... fingers are like 100x more sensitive than a pick.
It shows with ballads - played with pick, um... feels always somewhat lacking.
-
There was a well know classical guitarist who became so debilitated from carpel tunnel syndrome, that he was unable to play. He then went on to retrain himself to play in such a way that did not cause problems with his carpel tunnel. He wrote a book on it. I can not remember his name, or the name of the book. I was supposed to buy it but never got around to it. If I find where, I wrote down his name, and the name if the book, I will post it.
(My guess in regards to way jazz guitarist still use a pick, can be heard with the typical shell chord big band comping. There is a percussive sound and feel that can be used to great effect, and in many different situations.
Anything can be done. There probably is a crazy good funk player out there not using a pick.
However there is the “this is my voice and it is different but it allows me to achieve x”, versus “here is my bag of stuff for a job”.
I think having some of both elements are important. I guess my goal would be to have enough bags to get the audition, and yet have enough individuality to get the gig).
-
I have a book by a classical guitarist who suffered from focal dystonia, but that's a different thing... Originally Posted by st.bede
-
Maybe it's easier to play fast with a pick (and it's undoubtedly easier to play fast and sound like a sewing machine Originally Posted by emanresu
) ....
There was a discussion on here a while back about an exercise/study in 16th that had to be played at a fast metronome setting and was considered very difficult. For giggles I asked about it on the Delcamp forum and as expected was told that this was definitely not out of reach for a good classical player.
I'd say there are 2 main reasons (for using a flat-pick)
- it's more suitable for speed and getting a well-defined attack on (heavy) steel strings
- there are no inter-finger synchronisation or strength/agility requirements so it's easier if most of what you do is strum chords or play runs that rarely jump back and forth between 2 or more strings that aren't adjacent.
It'd be interesting to know if there are jazz players who use fingerpicks.
-
There’s still a certain something I get from a pick on single lines that is unique to the plectrum that I really dig, though fingerstyle is coming along for me quite nicely and I spend more and more time every day with it. For comping I always prefer fingerstyle, period. By the way, the CTS I’m dealing with seems to be improving and it was NOT from guitar playing. Last November I needed dorsal biceps tendon reattachment surgery after losing a street fight with a dishwasher. The CTS seems to be a lingering after effect or complication from the tendon surgery. Guitar playing, whether fingers or pick, feels great!
-
It's interesting to compare the two - finger-picking and flat-picking. Since I consider myself a failed flat-picker... I never really got over string-hopping, and while there are plenty of ways of incorrectly finger-picking, there is no real equivalent of string-hopping and the 'cure' for string-hopping I found not to my taste (i.e. playing or trying to play something fast over and over again in various different ways before you discover the correct way). Originally Posted by RJVB
Maybe it's easier to play fast with a pick (and it's undoubtedly easier to play fast and sound like a sewing machine) ....
There was a discussion on here a while back about an exercise/study in 16th that had to be played at a fast metronome setting and was considered very difficult. For giggles I asked about it on the Delcamp forum and as expected was told that this was definitely not out of reach for a good classical player.
I'd say there are 2 main reasons (for using a flat-pick)
- it's more suitable for speed and getting a well-defined attack on (heavy) steel strings
- there are no inter-finger synchronisation or strength/agility requirements so it's easier if most of what you do is strum chords or play runs that rarely jump back and forth between 2 or more strings that aren't adjacent.
It'd be interesting to know if there are jazz players who use fingerpicks.
The way I see it is that with finger-picking, the process is similar to how one develops the left-hand, i.e. a case of building muscle, finesse and economical movements over time. This makes sense because we are dealing directly with the fingers and not having to deal with a wedge of plastic that might be operated from the fingers, wrist, forearm or elbow! So, providing you have a sound basic technique with fingerstyle, you can work at it and make progress over months and years. I've heard it said that instruments that use an implement to play are more difficult than ones that don't but I'm not sure how true that is, I think a lot depends on what you want to do. Somethings will be less difficult flat-picking than finger-picking and vice versa.
I love incredible flat-pickers like John McLaughlin and Julian Lage and so it was a shame that I felt I didn't have natural facility in that area. It affords a player a consistency of tone and a kind of attack and range of dynamics that is especially efficacious on electric guitar. There are some great fingerstyle jazz guitarists like Matteo Mancuso, Francesco Buzzuro, Lionel Loueke and people like Martin Taylor (obviously) and Antoine Boyer who are great at finger-picking as well as flat-picking.
-
One of the pieces I'm currently working on is Jonathan Stout's Frontporch Swing - giving myself the nice extra challenge of getting as much as possible the same sound with my fingers as when "picking" with just my thumb. Fortunately the piece is interesting and fun enough to stand prolonged practice
-
David Leisner is the guitarist who "recovered" from Focal Dystonia. Many listeners think that he sounds strained and that his tone suffers, thus he has not fully recovered, but has found fairly effective work-arounds. His book is about taking a relaxed approach to learning and playing classical guitar, and may help students to avoid this deadly condition, which I developed 20 years ago and have struggled with ever since. It forced me back into plectrum playing, with some hybrid mixed in, so I can still make a living, but I do miss the classical and flamenco repertoire and gigs. Julian Lage was on his way to FD in his left hand, but worked with FD specialist Jerald Harscher and avoided it, but it was a major influence on his switching to lighter strings and a lower action, thus the Collings that he currently plays.
-
Mark - I always enjoy your playing, and Stella is no exception. Check out Phil Keaggy, who is missing his middle finger on his picking hand due to a childhood farming accident. He is a top fingerstyle player with plenty of albums, awards, and youtube videos.
All I can say is that if you are missing or not able to utilize your middle finger, you would not be able to drive here in Minnesota.
Tony
-
thanks! The middle finger on my left hand is working fine. In New York, where I live, that’s the critical one for flipping it outside the driver’s side window Originally Posted by tbeltrans
Mark - I always enjoy your playing, and Stella is no exception. Check out Phil Keaggy, who is missing his middle finger on his picking hand due to a childhood farming accident. He is a top fingerstyle player with plenty of albums, awards, and youtube videos.
All I can say is that if you are missing or not able to utilize your middle finger, you would not be able to drive here in Minnesota.
Tony.
-
I always enjoy your playing.
As for technique... When I play with fingers I use mostly lute right hand technique - not classical (though I studied classical many years).
I play without nails.
Alternate p-i-p-i lute technique could be especially helpful in your case. Though many lutists use it with thimb inside. Some use it also with thumb outside like Nigel North.
Actually Mark Knopfler and Kevin Eubanks use it a lot too and both came to it naturally try to imitate plectrum-like articulation without plectrum having all fingers free (as well as lutists of the early days did when they began to play polyphony)
Around 01:10 it is very well visible here
-
Same here (not trying to imitate anything, really) and as a far better reference, so does Rob MacKillop from what I understand. Originally Posted by Jonah
Reply With Quote
It all begins with “Preparations”
Today, 06:49 PM in Improvisation