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Originally Posted by 3625
As for sandpaper, is there any special grain of sandpaper. (I've never bought sandpaper and wouldn't know what to look for.) Is "general purpose" okay?
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10-15-2014 09:48 AM
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Just get the finest grade of sandpaper available - ask for 'wet and dry' sandpaper. Also get a nail file buffer with a couple of different surfaces (ranging from almost smooth to very smooth) to polish the edges once you're done shaping the pick - that's really important, otherwise the pick will sound scratchy and feel horrible.
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Originally Posted by 3625
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Originally Posted by Patrick2
1964 GB (age 21)Last edited by wesmont17; 10-17-2014 at 12:40 AM. Reason: forgot to post date of video
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Originally Posted by destinytot
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About the wrist. When I first started trying to play this way, I took an underhanded approach. That is, when looking down, I could see into the palm of my picking hand. (I believe Mark Cally, aka setemupjoe does it this way.) But lately I'm doing it a bit different. (Warning: this may last no more than 2-3 days, like so many of my other changes that didn't pan out...)
Here's how it started. I've been doing a bit more fingerstyle work, esp working on an walking bass / comp chorus of "All the Things You Are." (And also blues in F and Bb but that's nowhere near the same level of challenge.) I'm also working on Tim Lerch's walk / comp of "Sweet Lorraine," and that's fingerstlye too. I take these things slow and try to get a good feel going. Nothing special, but I do enjoy it and hope to get better at playing this way. I don't think it will ever be my main thing, but I probably will do at least one tune a day this way.
Anyway, when I play fingerstyle, my wrist is more of a handshake position, certainly not in an underhanded one. I wondered what it would be like if I kept that hand position and inserted a pick. I notice that my pick attack is more forceful this way and the angle is not as steep as I get with the underhanded approach.
Just something I'm messing with today...
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Really nice playing/singing destinytot!
Edit to add: for everyone who thinks you can hybrid pick with Benson picking.Last edited by ecj; 10-21-2014 at 12:03 PM.
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Originally Posted by guitargeo
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I am using a "fender delrin 1.14". I know, medium pick work better, but this one is different, I don't know why.
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Apropos of nothing, here's a link to a pic of George Benson, JC Stylles, and Russell Malone with a couple beautiful guitars in a Manhattan restaurant. Russell Malone posted this picture on his Facebook page with the caption "Some days are better than others." I reckon so!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater
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10-31-2014, 06:02 AM #911destinytot Guest
Joining the dots...
(Funk master) Nile Rodgers's right hand @0:45
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10-31-2014, 07:54 AM #912destinytot Guest
Benson shows his true mettle and sets the bar high (his solo @3m48secs):
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Nice clips, destiny. Thanks.
My own grip has morphed into something different---I have more pick jutting out under my index than above it. I had tried this before and moved away from it, thinking it was a bad habit, but now I'm committed to it because it is the cleanest way for me to play. I don't know how fast I will be able to play this way, but that's not my main concern now: playing clean is.
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Thanks for posting that clip destiny. I've seen it before, but it's always a pleasure to watch.
Benson is just so bad ass. His vocabulary is so leaps and bounds beyond almost every other guitar player. Rhythmically, harmonically, melodically. Damn.
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Ok, time to chime in again. This benson picking thing is just great for jazz. Comping, single note lines all with superior tone. I'm sold.
BUT as much as I try and try again, I cannot make it work for more intricate prolonged strumming (funk or Latin rhythms). It just doesn't work. I have even started switching back to traditional grip when I need to strum like that but it sucks because although the medium pick is great with benson technique, its crap for anything else.
I wrote this after seeing that clip of Nile Rogers with a benson grip. If he can play funky like that, then it must be possible. But it doesn't work for me.
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Originally Posted by AlainJazz
I think the trick to strumming is to use a smaller angle and more of a doorknob turning/elbow motion. I try to brush the strings rather than whacking them by turning my hand.
I mean, look at Benson. It's obvious that Benson picking works for funky strumming. Because, George Benson.
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Thanks ecj. Its good to know that others manage somehow. It's just frustrating because I don't have enough time between gigs to get it to work. So I'm up there and can't keep a simple rhythm that used to be so easy. I constantly feel like that damn pick is going to fly out of my hand. I've tried holding it looser or tighter, changing angles. It just doesn't work. Some of those Latin rhythms are not trivial and doing it with this technique makes some of them almost impossible (for me). I feel like a total noob with bad time.
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try moving the top of the pick closer to the headstock. tilt the pick towards the headstock - so the tip of the pick is closer to the bridge than the long-edge top of the pick. this can be really boring stuff to try to specify verbally - but its the simplest physical modification and it has an immediate effect. it softens the sound - makes it easier to brush rather than to strike the strings - and will make it much less likely that you'll have any problems holding onto the little flucker.
i think that as one moves from strumming to single note lines one stops tilting the pick in this way - or tilts it less - and this enables you to 'dig in' to the strings more (in the way you will want to for single note playing).
i've been spending most of my time working on the transition between (fast) strumming and line-playing - and this tilting thing has become a major theme. it makes a huge difference to the amount of control you feel you have over the guitar's 'output' - and it seems obvious to me that you need it to open up the fast strumming aspect of this right hand technique.
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Originally Posted by AlainJazz
When I'm doing really fast strumming across all the strings, sometimes I use the middle finger to stabilize the pick.
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Originally Posted by AlainJazz
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Somebody post a quick clip of something you're having trouble with, and I'll see if I can play it with Benson picking and post a vid to show what I'm doing.
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Originally Posted by Groyniad
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Alain - check this out and see if it works for you. I think the strumming motion has more to do with making sure the pick is "brushing" the strings rather than driving through them. I'm sure it's different if you have 0.09s on and are doing the rock thing, but I use 0.14s and can't drive the pick back and forth through the strings without dropping the pick. Even if I can hang on, it sounds pretty awful. Here's my solution:
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11-01-2014, 08:01 PM #924destinytot Guest
I seem do be strumming in the opposite way to what Groyniad's doing, too. I point the tip - i.e. the picking end - towards the headstock. (I'm writing at 1am from the computer in the office of the restaurant where I do a weekly solo gig. I'd like to add that I value this conversation very highly indeed. Thanks everyone for making it happen. )
PS I'll add a video tomorrow.Last edited by destinytot; 11-01-2014 at 08:03 PM. Reason: add PS
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Originally Posted by ecj
Enharmonics
Today, 09:59 AM in Theory