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And for a little bit of inspiration:
George´s playing on this concert is simply outstanding, specially on the last tunes Billie´s Bounce W/ James Moody & Clark Terry 40:40 Misty W/ James Moody & Clark Terry 54:10 Dinorah, Dinorah.
The video quality is not that great but if you look closely, it's very noticeable the rest stroke on the downstroke and on every string change.
Enjoy
( Billie's Bounce start's at 29:14)
Last edited by nunocpinto; 12-11-2015 at 06:37 PM.
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12-11-2015 06:01 PM
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As an update I had the pickguard replaced on my Super Eagle with a much sturdier one that I had set higher. Makes all the difference. The original pickguard had no support and I would push it down onto the body of the guitar. This new one is rigid and much more supportive.
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another breakthrough!
mr styles said - if i remember - that if you work at it you will keep on having breakthroughs that take it all on to the next level (and periods when you don't seem to be getting any better)
anyway - the following seems to me a big one:
i was playing a 2 octave scale with a metronome and trying to get faster and faster without fluffing anything etc. and i was trying to swap between playing from the wrist and playing from the elbow to help overcome the articulation issues that were arising.
and suddenly i changed the angle of the pick so it was slicing (more or less) straight across the strings. the standard mode of address of pick to string is such that the wide flat side of the pick would rest along the length of the string. at the other extreme only the thin sideways-on edge of the pick sits against the string. i've been working in between these two positions for a long time - probably closer to the edge-on than the flat-face-on - but certainly a long way short of using the very edge of the pick.
well as soon as i changed the angle of the pick so that it was at 90 degrees to the string and the edge of the pick was cutting through the string - the FRICTION between pick and string dropped to almost nothing - and i was suddenly able to play the same scale with perfect articulation at a considerably brighter tempo.
the sound is also quite a lot darker and thicker - which is a good thing
it also tends to put arm and fingers into a very characteristically bensonian position
keep the faith!Last edited by Groyniad; 12-21-2015 at 06:31 AM.
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12-21-2015, 06:50 AM #1654destinytot Guest
^ Great stuff!
Seems to be enhanced by a sharp point on a pick (with smooth edges for smooth release).
Originally Posted by Groyniad
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Someone recently gave me a new Snark tuner and a Snark pick came with it, a Medium celluloid with "no-slip" grip. I liked it immediately. I've never dropped picks, so I thought my grip was fine. But as soon as I held a pick that really stayed where I put it, I realized normal picks are pretty "shifty" in my hands.
I mentioned this in a thread on Snark picks and someone suggested Lizard Grips, which are silicone dots one affixes to any pick (to both sides or just the thumb side, depending upon a player's preference). Well, their site seems to be down and I have heard from the people at Monster Grips that Lizard Grips were a copy of their design. At any rate, I ordered some Monster Grips (sixteen dots to a package) and the people at Monster Grips are offering a 30 % discount through Monday.
There's a promo code at the thread below. Also a link to the site with a demo of the grips. They're thin and although they stick fast to the pick, they aren't sticky to the player's hand. I'm eager to try some. Perhaps other Benson pickers will find them helpful. Worth a look-see.
https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guita...-included.html
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Does anyone know of a guy called Maurice Peter? He's on YouTube. This guy picks all his lines with thumb and index and absolutely nails the Benson sound and is just as fast...more so than most guys using a pick. Check him out!
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Hadn't heard of him.
Here's a taste:
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Have a listen to the clips of him with a band. He nails the Benson pick approach but with fingerstyle.
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Update: my Monster Grips arrived and I have to say, "Where have you been all my life?" The Benson grip is---for me--much easier with this grip. (The grip is a silicone dot that you can stick on any sort of pick you want, and wherever you want it on the pick. Why was this not thought of before? 16 to a pack, so you can experiment!)
I didn't turn into George Benson overnight, or even Me, But Perfect, but I can play with a more relaxed hand AND a more secure grip. It's amazing to me how it turns out that (the absence of) THIS was what bedeviled me lo these many years.
Setemupjoe ordered some too, I believe, and I am eager to here how they suit him. (Not that he seemed to need any help with his playing!)
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12-30-2015, 10:19 AM #1660destinytot Guest
Taking the liberty of copying Mark's comment (on another thread), in which he quotes Reg:
The wonderful Pasquale Grasso, winner of the recent Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Competition, gets my wow - but it's Dan Wilson that gets my yeah! Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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I'll second that yeah! Originally Posted by destinytot
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And I'll third that "yeah" for Dan Wilson's "Cotton Tail"
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01-06-2016, 09:35 AM #1663destinytot Guest
So... I had the best guitar lesson I could ever hope for last night. I can't recommend Peter Farrell's teaching highly enough.
Thanks to Groyniad, who helped me be open to Peter Farrell's teaching. Thanks especially to nunocpinto, without whom I might never have heard of the formidable Peter Farrell.
Here's what I have to share...
Firstly, Peter's words on hearing me play: "The melodies are great, but the fingerings are NOT OK." (Nothing that setemupjoe hadn't already pointed out - for which, thank you! - but I've understood why they set a speed limit on my lines and how to practise differently.)
Secondly: "Both hands work together ALL THE TIME."
I think you need more than a little guitar skills and musical knowledge to take on the work, but his approach is crystal clear. Peter Farrell teaches how to go about building chops - sans special grips or anchoring, sans special scales or licks, sans shortcuts.
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Sounds great destiny! Congrats.
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01-24-2016, 10:50 PM #1665destinytot Guest
My second farewell and adieu to all the good people on this thread. Peace - and a big THANK YOU for your kindness.
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What!!!! No more thoughtful posts by Destinytot!! Noooooooooooooooo.....
One of the Benson Picking Team on the bench forever?
Please come back when you feel like joining us again.
Your class and style will be greatly missed.
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Whaaaaat?! Originally Posted by destinytot
I enjoy all your posts man, I hope you decide to come back VERY soon!
55
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I second that emotion. Better, I hope he stays. (The site administrator is slow to honor requests to close an account because so many people think better of it if given a cooling-off period.) Originally Posted by Philco
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01-26-2016, 07:42 PM #1669destinytot Guest
Last night I sent as many individual responses as I could to PMs and posts on my 'So Long' thread, but I forgot to post in my favourite thread: sorry - and THANKS!
I'll post on-topic on Thursday.
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Getting into Benson picking now via Miles Okazaki.
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He's giving some great 'Blue Steel' here - or is it 'Le Tigre?' Originally Posted by David B
Getting into Benson picking now via Miles Okazaki.
BTW I've noticed few guitarists seem to have a technique that is sort of half way to Benson picking... Kurt for example
I hold my pick very much like this when I play electric. You support the pick with the middle finger as well.... I understand this is bad Benson picking, but I like the softer attack you can get this way... I'm sure there's good reasons why it is a Bad Thing...
It seems clear that Kurt is using leading edge picking - which is what I used to do, while Benson picking is a trailing edge technique (which is what I do now...)Last edited by christianm77; 02-07-2016 at 12:22 PM.
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Here's a great shot showing how GB holds his pick and how much is protruding.
Last edited by guitars; 02-15-2016 at 11:10 PM.
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The bent index is a must and the straight index is comfortable but not how GB grips. Originally Posted by guitars
Here's a great shot showing how GB holds his pick and how much is protruding.
I had much trouble with this in the early days. I always thought my thumb was rather long and pushed the index "out" and straight.
This was because I thought the index had to be rigid but this is not so. Nothing is rigid. Straight, yes. Pressing hard into the index.....no.
The next break through for me was seeing how much GB's pick moved. IMO he is not holding with a vice like grip at all.
It's flopping all over the place and it pivots on his light thumb grip up in the right hand corner.
GB and PF both hold the pick like "flag on a pole". Let it hang out sideways and down....per the GB picture. I think PF even let's more of the pick protrude sideways than GB......perhaps ask PF about it?
This is where the slapping sound is coming from and if you get this right you won't have any difficulty strumming.....in fact you can bash the crap out of the strings (as GB does) and the pick will just flex and flop and stick to your fingers.
Combine this with downward rest strokes and you just may have an "aha" moment.
This completely disallows thick plectrums but it does allow accuracy and clean articulation on the thickest of flat wound strings.......even in the lowest positions.
Hold the plectrum light and pick as hard as you like.
Embrace the flex.
My opinion only.
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Observe the flex with a Fender Medium.
Once again observe the EXTREME flex of Perry Hughes....looks like a thinner plectrum than a FM.
It seems that Perry is getting pick flex between the fingers and also the actual pick itself is flexing.
GB is only getting the pick flexing between the fingers because a Fender Medium is quite hard to actually bend.
Also note that Perry's index appears to be fairly straight sometimes. GB's is always bent unless there is some odd camera angle that makes it look only slightly bent......it's never like a right angle though.
Last edited by Philco; 02-21-2016 at 07:45 PM.
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Upstroke.
The lowly upstroke.
I've been wondering about the upstroke.
Here is why. I got some picking exercises from Frank Vignola. Frank stresses tone above all else. Tone, accuracy, and eventually speed. Some exercises start with quarter notes (-some with half notes) and all down strokes. Then twice as fast with alternate picking.
Doing this, I appreciated the tone from using all downstrokes. Then I thought, "hhmm, what would all upstrokes sound like?" Answer: not pretty. My upstroke was erratic. Sometimes I seemed to be pushing the pick upward, other times pulling it, and still other times it felt like I was pecking the string with it. The downstrokes were uniform in tone as was the picking motion that produced them. The upstrokes were a bumbling committee. Sometimes it feels like the tip of the pick is caught on the string and my hand rolls over it. That can't be efficient...
We've talked here about the rest stroke: continuing a downstroke past the struck string until in comes to rest on the next one down. One cannot (can one?) call the upstroke the opposite of that. But what is the mechanism here? I have become aware that I have at least three different upstrokes in my arsenal and I suspect that is two too many....
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