Ok to flat pick a fingerstyle tune?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

I really love how permissive you guys are so far.




So, Barry...what do you mean "play all the notes when indicated"? Do you mean whether with fingers or with pick you need to play them all? Because I am playing them all with the pick, but the song doesn't have that rolling cadence that Andre talked about. And does "hybrid" mean playing finger pick and flat pick in the same piece? I doubt I'll ever achieve that kind of dexterity at this point! I wouldn't mind finger style except that I have no nails and the notes just don't ring as beautifully as they do when I hit them with a pick.

How would you play 3xxx3x? Would you just strum it and get all those muted strings in the sound? Hybrid means using a flat pick and the rest of your fingers too. Don't sell yourself short, you can do it. Try the flat pick on the low E string and pick the A string with your middle finger at the same time.

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

Is there any reason not to flat pick a song that is normally finger picked?
For instance, Landslide. Lindsey Buckingham himself plays it fingerstyle, but I like flat picking it better. I like flat picking in general anyway.

I mean, I know there are no laws about playing anything you want any way you want. I'm asking if songs written as fingerstyle will always, or at least usually, sound better if they are played fingerstyle?

I'm not even going to read the other answers. Play it the way it pleases you. That's the way you're going to do your best work on the song, and that's the way it will sound best to your severest critic: Yourself.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Oh yeah, for sure. I was lucky when I started playing in the early seventies that my first teacher was really into Mississippi John Hurt. I learned all those fingerstyle tunes off tablatures he wrote out for me.

For many years I played with a thumbpick, but about twenty years ago that began to fall away, so now, when I play fingerstyle, it's bare fingers.

But the cool thing was I began to cross pick, because I had that motion of the them that transfer to flatpicking. I love it.

Try it!
scott

[Guitars+gems]

Originally Posted by TBman

How would you play 3xxx3x? Would you just strum it and get all those muted strings in the sound? Hybrid means using a flat pick and the rest of your fingers too. Don't sell yourself short, you can do it. Try the flat pick on the low E string and pick the A string with your middle finger at the same time.

So, hybrid is using a flat pick plus fingers? A flat pick, not a thumb pick?

How would you play 3xxx3x?

Could I just pick the G and the D, one right after the other?

Try the flat pick on the low E string and pick the A string with your middle finger at the same time.

OK, so I tried that. It's easy enough. Then for Landslide I guess I would use the pick for the bass strings and my fingers for the others? Like the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers? Hm...tricky. I'll work on that tomorrow. You know, I saw a Cat Stevens video where sometimes he was using a pick and then he would sort of shift the pick out of his way and use his fingers, them use the pick again. Was that hybrid picking?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Guitars+gems

So, hybrid is using a flat pick plus fingers? A flat pick, not a thumb pick?

Flat pick

Could I just pick the G and the D, one right after the other?

No, that's why I said earlier "play all the notes when intended"

You know, I saw a Cat Stevens video where sometimes he was using a pick and then he would sort of shift the pick out of his way and use his fingers, them use the pick again. Was that hybrid picking?

No, that's just good dexterity to get the pick out of the way because he doesn't like to play hybrid. Hybrid is using a flat pick and your fingers at the same time. You can do it, just take your time and take it slow.

[Mr. Jelly]

Sometimes when I watch someone finger picking I notice that they hit two strings at once but I only herd one of them. Because it was the dominate sound of the two. When I was flat picking and cross picking I'd pick the most important notes and play them. Now that I'm finger picking more I find I can't finger some of the chords that some others can so I find myself in almost the same position. I guess that's why I keep ending up sounding like me.

[nuclearcarnie]

I am a finger style player 99.9% of the time. But when I was just starting out, I learned how to play Love in Vain Blues (based on the Eric Clapton acoustic version) with a pick. I have since gone back to it and tried to do it finger style, as God intended it to be, and just can't quite do it as well.

Like the others have already said... If it feels good and sounds good, you can do it any way you like. Have fun!

[Riverwolf]

I just watched a justinguitar lesson on "Wonderful Tonight".
He shows how that pattern for that song sounds good with a pick or with fingerstyle.