Slap-Strum technique (Stop this train - John Mayer)
 

This has been the story of my week. Trying to learn the thumb slap/ finger flick strumming technique that is used by John Mayer on stop this train. I made a few half attempts before, but this is the first time I spent longer than a few minutes working on it.

Have other people in here learned it?

He essentially slaps down with his thumb while strumming and single note with his index finger. It's quite challenging.

Anyway, the sound is awesome and you should check it out on youtube if you haven't seen it.

Yeah it takes a bit of a brain twist
I learned it for another piece, actually. Then I got to Mayer and found that it was needed haha

I'm sure you've found this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_AXlHOXhCc

I can't get it either...

OK, I'll bite...
 

...so I checked out a video of JM doing solo acoustic "Train". What I am seeing is more of a palm mute, with his fingers doing the percussive bit when the palm is engaged. If that is what you are referring to, there are plenty of good references to the palm muting technique. Clapton uses it a lot...here is a vid of Mayer and Clapton where they both employ the technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns0tW4c95aM

Not only is this one of my favorite songs, but is done by 2 of my favorite acoustic players.

Yep, that is the video that I was working from. But anyway, after a week of plugging away at it I am getting close and am starting to feel at least a little bit accomplished. But anyway, I just wanted to share because I think learning new techniques (be it fingerpicking or otherwise) instills that passion where you want to stay up until the wee hours to make progress. It had been a while for me to have that sensation again.

For those feeling bored or stuck in a rut, learn a new hard song that you don't think that you would be able to learn. I drives me and it will make us all better players end the end.

That video was also the one I used to learn this technique. John also uses it on "Heart of Life" which is a beautiful song and "Who Says" too. I find that using my middle finger instead of the index to pick the initial note before the flick out is much easier, probably cause most of us don't have giant, giant hands like Mayer does. But I got it after a week or two, and it shouldn't be hard if you keep practicing. It should be second nature in a while!

I'm trying to get the picking pattern in Mayer's "Neon" down, :D his acoustic stuff is poppy, but a lot of it is acutally fun to learn.

It isn't the exact same thing, but I love any acoustic guitar player who has a really percussive style

For example, M. Ward on this song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPl_XqGHZA

David Jacobs Strain with a slide on a 12 string guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKLIm...eature=channel

And pretty much anything Otis Taylor has done.

Funny timing this thread. I was watching You Tube vids of both these Mayer tunes. Couldn't believe it when I got the FIRST chord and pattern of "Neon" and almost sounded like the track. I want to learn "Train" too. Indeed it is a wonderful feeling when you can get at least part of a riff of tune you find challenging. And to me Mayer has a lot of them.

I actually learned this song this week. What really helped me out with the thumb slap and strum was I started SUPER slow and then worked up to speed. I plucked, slapped, strum, cross pick, slap, strum. Eventually the slap and the strum came together. I know some ppl use the thumb, index, and middle finger, but for me the middle finger got in the way. Just start super slow, and you'll get it. Hope this helps!

i learned this song last week... watched the video reference in the thread (great video btw). after about 2 weeks on stop this train, heart of life i feel like i have this down. i also went back to why georgia which is a song that i could never get the feel for but after learning this "slap and strum with the index finger" move why georgia seems to flow better for me now. this seems to be the key to JM's acoustic style - he slaps the thum on the 2 and 4 beats in almost all of his acoustic songs and this technique allows for a slap without muting which adds the percussive feel but also keeps the melody going... brilliant. - probably works on neon, clarity etc etc... very cool and definitely worth learning this!

I started out learning fingerstyle by myself and never picked up a pick until four years in (just recently). I absolutely don't ever regret doing that because, not only is fingerstyle way better than a pick for my tastes, but, a few weeks ago when I tried out this song, it took minutes to figure it out because I had basically done the fingerpicking pattern before. I attribute mostly the Beatles songs I learned for being able to adapt this technique. As a matter of fact, I was serendipitously already using this technique while playing some Beatles songs.

The one thing that I did learn from John Mayer was how to play slap bass on guitar and incorporate it into songs. I learned it from "Neon."

I don't know how hard "Stop This Train" is for you guys, but try playing it while playing slap bass. Basically, you play everything the same, but instead of muting the D string, you slap it and you play the D string every quarter note, alternating between plucking it and slapping it with your thumb. It's really cool because you get three different effects at once: (1) The slap, (2) the punchy bass note, and (3) the plucked treble strings, and I guess you can count (4) the plectrum-sounding noise you get from grazing your nail across the string as well. I personally think doing it the normal way sounds better, but simultaneously being able to slap, play the bass note, and graze the strings at the same time is a very valuable technique.

I actually thought that the stuff that the dude in the "Stop This Train" video played in the beginning and end was more difficult than the song "Stop This Train" or "Heart of Life." It looked like he may have been upstroking with his thumb while possible even upstroking with his fingers at the same time, which I consider harder than slapping the strings while flicking out.

Actually, that technique where Clapton is slapping the strings with is thumb while flicking out with his IMA fingers and muting it afterwards is not done with the palm, but with the IMA. He flicks out with them and brings them right back onto the strings. Starting at 2:18 in that video, you can watch Clapton do exactly what I'm talking about because it's from a close-up side view. His palm is actually above all of the strings in that case and his fingers are clearly coming back to the strings he was flicking.

Man, this is good stuff though that everyone is posting! Keep it coming!

Just to put in a word for a player who may not have invented this style, but was certainly adept at it and made it his own, back in the early 70s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOi_wxypeGc - drop D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beh7g6Iz4Vg - standard, but tuned down 3 half-steps (C#-F#-B-E-G#-C#)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_uv...feature=relmfu - CFCCGD

I've seen the style of music that John Mayer is using in "Stop This Train" from all the way back in the 60s when Paul McCartney was playing songs like "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son." The only difference really is the slapping with the flicking that McCartney doesn't do. All of today's tabs only do fingerpicking, but a true cover of McCartney's "Blackbird" will be the pick'n'flick style.

Well yes, the slapping is the distinctive - and trickiest - part.
Right. That's actually very easy (IMO), like a kind of lazy form of fingerpicking, a combination of fingerstyle and (minimal) strumming.
Personally I have no problem with people playing Blackbird in orthodox fingerstyle, but you're quite right about McCartney's technique. (and how would you tab that any differently anyway? Tab only shows left hand!)

I suspect the Martyn/Mayer slap-pick technique does date back to the 60s or further, but I don't think I heard it before Martyn. Bert Jansch occasionally did something similar, but it wasn't his main thing by any means - he didn't develop it or make a point of it.

That's kinda funny because I thought that Paul McCartney's pick'n'flick style was more difficult than the orthodox picking. I didn't get his style until later. What's even funnier is I thought that the slapping of the strings was easier than the flicking as well. Go figure, right? :D I practically play anything and everything with a slapping sound on 2 and 4 if it's in 4/4 so that's pretty much ingrained into my head. haha