Picking

[john]

Hey

Do you do any exercises or practice focused specifically on picking? What do you do?

Cheers

John

[Rudi]

Sometimes.

Pick (plectrum) : alternating up and down strokes. Sometimes the cross to another string, eg: from D to B will feel awkward. That then is the thing to practice. Also, reversing the direction of the cross is useful. Try the same thing beginning on an upstroke instead of a down; that is very useful practice.

Finger picking (With or without a thumbpick) : A great deal more to think about of course. When I was younger I would practice different picks. Now I don’t need to. I will create the feel of pick I want intuitively and if any part of it is awkward, I will pay special attention to it by slowing it down, considering variations etc. until I am happy with what I am going for. Then its back to plain old repetitive practice. When it can be played naturally (ie- without body tension or mental tension) then its good enough.

[thelevellers]

Personally I only practice anything on guitar if it's giving me problems, so last summer for example I decided to learn to finger pick (and actually went to a guitar teacher!) and had trouble with learning and remembering the different picking patterns, but now a lot of them are second nature, those that aren't I still practice lots!

As for picking with a plectrum, I probably SHOULD practice that a bit, but as I'm not a lead guitarist (not showy, or talented enough for that) then for the moment at least I don;t have difficulty as it is...

Just one word of warning about Rudi's advice - personally I find there's a stage just after it starts feeling natural where I screw up because I've relaxed too early! So I have to keep practicing for a little longer... Lol...

[john]

any more?

[Guitargodchris]

I dont practice perticular things, if I see a song I want to play I will learn it until I can play it, I guess that's how I now have pain in my fretting wrist when playing

[Roflcopter]

I have about a dozen picks for special jobs, but I use stubbies mostly for lead picking. I usually hold it very tight (you'd need a pair of plyers to take it from me) and am always surprised when strings *don't* break (ofcourse they never do while I play, but I often think they should have). Angle and force used, and exactly how you use palm mutes, are all very important.

Can't whisper into a microphone either and expect a bellow

I remember reading Stevie Ray Vaughn even cut off part of the calluses on one of his feet and superglued that to a ravaged finger, so he could play. He played steel cables BTW, not strings. (.013)

Currently working on my circle picking:

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/circle_picking.html

[Rudi]

circle eh? Sounds weird so I'll give it a go.

[thelevellers]

Just out of interest, I have a friend who I intermittently teach new songs and maybe skills to, and he is adamant that it is far more natural for him to finger pick than get strumming patterns right... Is he the freak I (jokingly) call him, or is this quite common? I always assumed strumming was easier, but that's just cause it is for me really, I've never thought about it before...

Anyone else learn guitar 'backwards'?

[Rudi]

Yes sounds most odd. Finger picking takes quite a while to learn, wheras strumming comes quite naturally to most newbies.

Of course he must have a sense of rythym to fingerpick, so why cant he strum?

As for learning backwards. I knew a fellow who was left handed but taught himself to fingerpick a regular right handed guitar held upside down (with the thin strings uppermost). He was pretty good too; bizarre!

[Pretense]

Just out of interest, I have a friend who I intermittently teach new songs and maybe skills to, and he is adamant that it is far more natural for him to finger pick than get strumming patterns right... Is he the freak I (jokingly) call him, or is this quite common? I always assumed strumming was easier, but that's just cause it is for me really, I've never thought about it before...

*raises hand* I had that problem when I first started. Even more amusingly, when I started I could fingerpick and sing (or what counts as singing in my case) but not strum and sing. I since got over it, but I still find that I play more accurately when fingerpicking and not strumming - probably because with fingerpicking I'm more focused on the music whereas with strumming I just kinda "go with it" - it's still really difficult for me to maintain a single strumming pattern for more than a minute, I tend to lose focus and start "improvising".

[thelevellers]

Interesting... I don't suppose you'd have any tips for me in teaching someone such as yourself to strum?!

Failing that, I might just let him be, and get him to teach me some cool finger picking stuff... He's ahead of me as far as that stuffs concerned, he's halfway to learning classical gas I believe!

[Pretense]

Interesting... I don't suppose you'd have any tips for me in teaching someone such as yourself to strum?!

I remember going through a period of randomly googling chords for songs I liked and just jamming them out - maybe that's what did it. I really can't think of anything I did beyond that (probably why I still suck). Playing the song top to bottom a couple of times without singing will prolly help. No clue beyond that, sorry mate.

Maybe singing's not his thing? It sure as hell isn't mine.

[thelevellers]

Nah, he's not much of a signer... I think I'll just stick how I'm going about it now, slowing it right down, and working out exactly what I'm doing to try and explain it all a bit better for him... It's quite interesting, as I've never thought about it before, as strumming patterns usually come pretty naturally to me...

[Pretense]

Nah, he's not much of a signer... I think I'll just stick how I'm going about it now, slowing it right down, and working out exactly what I'm doing to try and explain it all a bit better for him... It's quite interesting, as I've never thought about it before, as strumming patterns usually come pretty naturally to me...

I just thought of another way to do it - start him out with just downstrokes at regular intervals (let's say 4ths), have him sing the song that way. Then once he's figured that out, gradually complicate the pattern (up-down, down-down-up, etc)untill you get the desired results. I *think* that's what one of my teachers did to me back when I still had one.

Edited July 28, 2008 by Pretense

[thelevellers]

Ok, cool., thanks for the tip, when he returns I shall try it!