Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

you tube can be a great teaching aid when it comes to observing how different techniques playing guitar are acted out.. I did not realize the Merle Travis got such a fat fingerstyle sound using only THE THUMB AND THE INDEX finger, Chet Atkins used THUMB INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGERS only, while Jerry Reed used THUMB MIDDLE FINGER AND RING FINGER, and surprisingly have never found him ever using his index finger to pick with, he sort of curled it up into a ball.. amazing how every guitarist develops his own identity, no two guitarists are or sound the same..

I never learned to properly fingerpick, best I can do is a fake thing, and my little finger just hangs out there doing nothing!

if you were doing Segovia compositions there would probably be a correct way to fingerpick, but judging form watching several notable fingerstyle guitarists on you tube, I have come to the conclusion there is not right or wrong way to fingerpick unless you a re doing flamenco or classical music..pretty sure classical and flamenco guitarists assign a certain plucking finger to a certain string, but that's all a formality I think and they don't want to break tradition for the most part?..

being first and foremost a bassplayer who also plays other instruments....i'm most comfortable using my fingers when playing gtr. working on my skills playing w a flatpick has been an ongoing battle!

i just started reading Gary Burton's new autobiography and he's talking about his love/hate relationship w practicing, he quotes segovia...


"anyone who claims to practice 8 hrs a day is either a liar or an idiot"

I use a pick and two fingers for guitar. I'm not really good enough at finger picking to go all the way but I do practice it a lot more than I used to. Could be the Jeff Beck influence.

On bass though - it's finger or pick - never both.

One thing I've tried several times is finger picks but that doesn't work at all for me. Works for Johnny Winter though.

I wonder if some atom in DNA dictates how we approach our instruments?

Talbot

I use the thumb, 1st finger, 2nd finger, and little finger.

I use thumb, index and middle fingers. Tried adding ring finger long ago and could never get comfortable with it. I got into finger picking mainly because I got really tired of being in a bind if I dropped a pick onstage..I'd have to run back to my amp and grab one. Now I have a pick holder on my mic stand, but those didn't exist in 1972 when I started learning.

For a while finger picking was hell, I had an ingrown wart on the middle finger of the right hand, had to have it surgically removed. I couldn't touch anything with it for a year...

I started seriously learning finger picking around 1980 or so, partially so I could still play if I dropped a pick, partially because of Mark Knopfler, I was learning some of his songs. (Sultans of Swing mostly) And a few that are all finger picking too, Frampton's Penny For Your Thoughts, Garden Gate (Joe Walsh), a few Jethro Tull songs and so forth.

A couple of songs on my profile are all finger picking, Silhouette of A Daydream, written about 2005, and Desperately Electric Tea, the one I wrote in the late 70's. I have a couple more but haven't had a chance to record them yet. Hopefully we'll be doing some recording soon, maybe I can pull out one of the other originals too...We're playing a couple that are finger picked... Black Water, Dust in the Wind, South City Midnight Lady, probably Sultans of Swing, and I think a couple of others I can't remember, and I've been finger picking a few leads too.

Jerry Reed...hell of a picker, he probably developed that style by finger picking while holding a pick in his index finger, I've seen people do that. That way you can go back to the pick when you need to.

One of my favorites is Jeff Beck, he swapped over to all finger picking 20 years ago or more. Mark Knopfler has always done all finger picking, one of the guys in Marshall Tucker did, and Johnny Winter uses finger pick on his thumb and the rest is fingers, no regular pick. All have different styles...

I used a bic Lighter once when I forgot my ping pong ball . . .

Does that count

I use all of them at times.

for bass: thumb, index, middle

for gtr and dobro: thumb, index, middle, and ring w pinky lightly "brushing" or planted on gtr top. for classical i CAN play "floating" but it's not natural and it doesn't feel quite as comfy.

I never got past thumb and index... Probably the whole practice thing but I do love the Delta Blues players especially John hurt. How cool would it be to see Robert Johnson singing and playing hellhound or stones in my pass way.

Slacker G wrote:I use all of them at times.

Yeah... But you are one of the greatest. Can't learn that overnight.

BIG ! ( thats smile for all you dumbass idiots)

Thank you for every thing you have shared... You old goat!

GLENNY J wrote:

Slacker G wrote:I use all of them at times.

Yeah... But you are one of the greatest. Can't learn that overnight.

BIG ! ( thats smile for all you dumbass idiots)

Thank you for every thing you have shared... You old goat!

Ditto, Slacker you are my favorite guitar player on this site. In fact I would like to officially nominate you as the guitar player that never go the props you deserve (as far as I know)!

Cheers!

You guy always make my day.

You old goat

HECK Slacker... I'll even go so far as to say that if Duane Allman had your picking hand... He would have become a great slide player.


I love your playing, YOU OLD GOAT!