For some time I have known I seriously needed to learn to fingerpick. I have been trying and making some progress but it is not coming very fast.

What should my expectations be? How did it go for you?

Billy

My first instrument was banjo. Now that I am playing mostly guitar I was glad to drop the finger picks.

My suggestion is take it slow and get the timing right. I just pick it like the banjo (minus the finger picks) and it seems to be working out for me.

...Deb

Thanks Deb,

I have in mind to buy a banjo just to learn that "claw" finger technique.

Actually, I am both playing with my fingers and both metal and plastic finger picks. Also with a flat pick. I am ok will all of that.

I guess that could be called hybrid picking. Palming the flat pick is beyond my skillset as of yet.

Also in the hunt for a National Steel Dobro.

Thanks,

Billy

I settled on hybrid picking about 20 years ago.
One of those little fender Jazz picks and 2 or 3 fingers. Whatever it takes
Danny Gatton showed me a bunch of Earl Scruggs licks on the telecaster.
I was hooked.


Downsides.
Can't hardly flatpick any more. At least not Blackberry Blossom at Tony Rice speed. who can?
Can't hardly comp Freddie style.

I do it with thumb and two fingers...anything more is beyond me.
banjo...I bought the finger picks and worked at it couldn't get my head around it so just do the thumb & two with that too.

Have a look at this series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhxyQ7ayMEM

I taught myself fingerpicking using only my thumb and first finger. Eventually, I composed a song that was recorded on an album and as the recording progressed, the engineers and producer interrupted the session and advised I was playing 'wrong'. Two real studio musicians were present and one overdubbed the part and made more than a few attempts but the rest of the group couldn't grasp the change and lost the groove of the song.

Although I'm left handed, I was taught to play guitar right handed. I guess this along with my abstract fingerpick technique created an unquantized and odd pattern lick the others had become use to and they were unable to play along with correctly played instrumentation.

In the end, my unique style riff made the final take. After the recording, I learned proper three finger style fingerpicking.

Hi Charly,

In today's world, I am not sure there is a "proper way to fingerpick". Using the thumb and two fingers is a very common way and there are likely more people who know how to do that than more conventional "three-finger methods"

Mark Knopfler is a famous example of someone who uses the thumb and two fingers. If he is doing it all wrong then I want to do it all wrong also...lol

Clarence Gatemouth Brown is a world-famous guitar player well known for playing with his thumb and first finger.

The fact that someone creates a pattern that certain studio musicians can not follow does not make that pattern "wrong".

An engineer decided what you were doing was "wrong"?
Really. Was the producer some famous classically trained guitar player from some famous school who knew everything there is to know about playing guitar?

Every now and then I have been around an engineer who did not understand who was paying the bill and who was working for who.

Playing with three fingers and your thumb with your little finger resting on the top of the guitar playing "Travis picking patterns" is a well-known method. But that does not make it right or wrong.

I can assure you I have a guitar player that could follow what you were doing.

I am finding I am learning to use all my fingers at times and only one finger at other times. If you have a thumb and four fingers, why not use them?

Cheers,

Billy

Thanks Billy. For sure, all those years ago, even the janitor had more understanding of being in a real studio than myself and my bandmates. Actually, the producer went on to become a well respected session player and moderately successful producer in Nashville. The other player could hang with Brent Mason on guitar licks... The engineer worked on many top albums. We were out of our league but I learned an awful lot asking questions and watching. And, ultimately, my riff made the cut...

The real issue was time and money... our manager was paying for everything and he's the one who had the ear of the producer and engineers. It wasn't so much those players but the 'studio style' playing needed by us inexperienced band members to adjust what we had learned and practiced prior to the limited time we booked for actual recording. It was easier (and cheaper) to adjust the session to us than for us to spend time and money working things out.

Hi Charley, I hear you. Everything revolves around money. My only experience in a professional studio has been when I was paying the bill so I never had the pressure of dealing with someone else nickel.

I am pretty sensitive to people telling musicians that they lack the skillset and we don't have time to deal with you and what you are doing does not meet my idea of what is acceptable.

The lead guitar player I have played with most of the last part of live performances could play anything, note for note. Lewis liked to play in a much more complex way than I liked. I would never prevent him from expressing art as he saw it. If I would have been unhappy with his playing I would have got someone else.

Truly professional musicians can play to anything. I have played with Larry Carlton who is someone who can outplay almost anyone. He made everything work with my limited ability and made me feel very welcome and a part of the deal. He is a true professional and a kind person.

On a very few occasions at jam sessions, Lewis and I have had to deal with people who had very limited skills. If they played out of time we just followed them out of time. If the vocalist went to the four chord when they should have gone to the five chord we just followed them. What sort of arrogant knucklehead would try to make someone feel less than?

Obviously, the studio world is its own special case. Studio time costs a lot of money so there is limited time to do things. Situations can be controlled intelligently without saying things the have the effect of hurting people's feelings.
I am always consulting with the studio engineers and value their opinion. But they are damn sure not going to dictate to me what to play.

If I don't have the time or money to treat someone with kindness and respect, why would I let them in the door, to begin with?

Music is a very emotional endeavor and there are way to many people who are so self-centered they have no concern for other people's feelings.

More than once I have seen people leave a blues jam almost in tears because of the way they were treated by stupid uncaring arrogant musicians.

I am sure part of my dislike for the way people get treated comes from the LA music scene which has an overabundance of arrogant musicians.

I will get off my soapbox about this issue...lol

Cheers,

Billy

Charlie and I were blessed to live within a family filled with exceptional musicians. Looking back in time I'm always amazed at how much patience was given and how enthused and happy these musicians were to watch and listen to us learn. The biggest smiles I remember were on their faces when we were playing with them.

Many years later I experienced the other side. Both of my daughters were learning to play violin (they actually learned to read sheet music!) and had progressed to the point they were practicing "She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain When She Comes". They asked me to play guitar along with them. Pure bliss.

Target skill with flat pick is to achieve automatic, if you'll permit that term, response; that is, to strike the right string (out of six.) By automatic, I mean without thinking. At first it seems counter-intuitive to alternate the up stroke and the down stroke, but that is exactly the skill that leads to accurate flat picking. You jump around the chord and learn to keep bass time.
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