Different fingerpicking approaches
Hi Neil, I was taught several years ago by Stefan Grossman. I used his recommendations for fingerpicking. I plant my pinkie on the guitar top and I mainly use my index and middle finger. I usually only use my ring on some three- fingered pinches. I noticed you advocate all three fingers and not to plant. I have tried to switch, but I always go back to planting. Have you had any success in helping someone to unlearn( word?) this style? should I even consider switching? I am somewhat confused on what to do!
Hi Monnster,
Welcome to the Forum and thanks for asking a great question. Stefan's approach is based on many of the old blues guy's techniques, Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Merle Travis, to name a few, and he feels you can get more power out of your index and middle fingers. I don't find this to be true, and it makes using your ring finger very difficult, especially if you need it on the 2nd or 3rd string. Anchoring also increases the tension in your hand and makes it difficult, if not impossible to play with a delicate touch for quieter songs or passages. In general it limits your tone to sounding very heavy-hand. John Fahey comes to mind as a player with only one tone available to him.
Learning to play without anchoring, and to use your ring finger equally with the other two can only add to your tonal possibilities. A good approach to this would be to start with simple arpeggio exercises, either my lesson on House Of The Rising Sun or Hector Garcia's on Giuliani's Right Hand Studies. The next step might be to practice changing where you strike the strings, moving from the saddle towards the neck, to get a feel for different tones. Then try to incorporate it into songs with regular picking patterns. Brain Damage is one I particularly recommend for this as it uses the 2-finger position for some chords and the 3-finger position for others.
Hopefully this helps- give it a try and check back in a week or two with a progress report.
Neil
Welcome to the Forum and thanks for asking a great question. Stefan's approach is based on many of the old blues guy's techniques, Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Merle Travis, to name a few, and he feels you can get more power out of your index and middle fingers. I don't find this to be true, and it makes using your ring finger very difficult, especially if you need it on the 2nd or 3rd string. Anchoring also increases the tension in your hand and makes it difficult, if not impossible to play with a delicate touch for quieter songs or passages. In general it limits your tone to sounding very heavy-hand. John Fahey comes to mind as a player with only one tone available to him.
Learning to play without anchoring, and to use your ring finger equally with the other two can only add to your tonal possibilities. A good approach to this would be to start with simple arpeggio exercises, either my lesson on House Of The Rising Sun or Hector Garcia's on Giuliani's Right Hand Studies. The next step might be to practice changing where you strike the strings, moving from the saddle towards the neck, to get a feel for different tones. Then try to incorporate it into songs with regular picking patterns. Brain Damage is one I particularly recommend for this as it uses the 2-finger position for some chords and the 3-finger position for others.
Hopefully this helps- give it a try and check back in a week or two with a progress report.
Neil
Hi, you don't should be cunfused,,its better not ancker your pinky and for many fingerpickin pieces it is better to use your three fingers and feel free,,an learned habbit cost a long time to unlearn it but keep trying(maybe on new songs/pieces or the simple must learn song ''the house of the rising song'',,I know you ask Neil this question but it is very common that the community comes in and when the advice is not correct maybe the master comes in....I know also that many people ancker there pinky and then you can pick the strings a bit stronger I believe..
Goodluck,,it is a adventure here..and there are many fingerpickers..
W.
EDIT.... GEE the master was first.....
:laugh: Happy new year!!!!
Goodluck,,it is a adventure here..and there are many fingerpickers..
W.
EDIT.... GEE the master was first.....
:laugh: Happy new year!!!!I've never learned any other way besides Neils approach.. It seems totally natural, although I'm sure I use my thumb on a lot of notes that Neil would rather me use other digits.
Sometimes however, I do some OVER thinking about "what finger would Neil have me use on this one"? "Oh no, maybe I'm using the wrong one"
The song that this would apply too, is the most recent "Fly on the wall" with Larry. Working on Mad World, without an official lesson were Neil explains which finger to use in great detail. To me the natural finger for a specific note, may not be what Neil teaches. I've gotten past the point, that I won't work on a song, unless I get the gospel from him, and sometimes when I learn a song well enough to make it sound musical, thats good enough for me.
Just food for thought.
Scott
Sometimes however, I do some OVER thinking about "what finger would Neil have me use on this one"? "Oh no, maybe I'm using the wrong one"
The song that this would apply too, is the most recent "Fly on the wall" with Larry. Working on Mad World, without an official lesson were Neil explains which finger to use in great detail. To me the natural finger for a specific note, may not be what Neil teaches. I've gotten past the point, that I won't work on a song, unless I get the gospel from him, and sometimes when I learn a song well enough to make it sound musical, thats good enough for me.
Just food for thought.
Scott
I was originally taught to use three fingers without planting the pinky and I still don't plant the pinky. But in learning some blues songs, I experimented with two fingers (index and middle or even middle and ring) or even just one. The fingers I use depend a lot on the sound I'm trying to get. For Dylan's "Don't Think Twice," for example, I find myself using the middle and ring fingers, with the index finger just sort of hanging out there in space. This let's me get a heavy emphasis on the notes that are played by the thumb and middle finger, which I think works well on this song. For "Just Breathe," I use just the index and middle fingers, which I believe is also the way Neil teaches it. For some of the Lightnin' Hopkins tunes I've tried to learn (with one of Steve Grossman's colleagues), I've been using just the thumb and middle finger -- not that I've come anywhere near mastering these yet; but it seems to be working in the right direction.
-Stuart
-Stuart