Alternate flat-pickin

[Retired1]

So I alternate flat-pick all the time - no matter what the value of the note - 1/8 or 1/4. So at times I'm not playing down on the down beat etc. Just comes easier. Am I doing myself wrong ? I realize if I play down on the down beat only I will be playing a more steady speed with my picking hand but i'm ok slowing down and speeding up as necessary. Do I really gain anything working on playing down on the downbeat only ?

[Robin, Wales]

I think that I would struggle with that, if I understand you correctly.

My hand alternate flat picks too, except my upstrokes (or downstrokes) don't always hit the strings! So it may seem like I'm hitting two consecutive downstrokes on the beat (rather than a downstroke then an upstroke) but that's because the upstroke between the two downstrokes isn't playing a note - and I find that quite intuitive.

[k_russell]

You can play with a metronome. See if you hit the beats.

If you can play with the proper time and you like the tone, you're good to go.

You might find some more complex rhythms challenging using your method. If you have some Latin rhythms (Tango, samba, etc) written out or on a recording, see if you can play them using your flat picking scheme.

[Bluenose]

Straight alternate picking is downstrokes on the downbeat and so on but once you get into cross picking it's not so cut and dried. Or so they tell me.

[Railroad Bum]

Here's Tony Rice describing his concept of timing in playing music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IRiZ_IQus

As far as your picking technique, you can vary it as much as you want as long as it sounds good in regard to the general timing of the piece of music you are playing. In the end you want your playing to sound very human and soulful and not mechanical. That's my take on it anyway.

[zuzu]

About a week ago I started in on learning "Lester Flatt" picking, thumb pick and single finger pick on the index finger. I was demonstrating my struggles with the plectrum to a good friend and killer guitarist who suggested that I, as primarily a bassist and banjo picker, might find that technique more natural and stressed the role that relaxed motion plays in good technique.

I owe him one! I haven't taken to anything so quickly since I started fooling with the banjo. It just feels natural to me, as the plectrum never has, and has already advanced my playing.

Finding that "human", "soulful", sound appears to be greatly assisted by finding that natural, relaxed, non "mechanical" motion in your technique. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and there ain't no rules here. I've heard no less than Mark Knopfler describe his technique as "a guitar teacher's nightmare."

[Railroad Bum]

Originally Posted by zuzu

About a week ago I started in on learning "Lester Flatt" picking, thumb pick and single finger pick on the index finger. I was demonstrating my struggles with the plectrum to a good friend and killer guitarist who suggested that I, as primarily a bassist and banjo picker, might find that technique more natural and stressed the role that relaxed motion plays in good technique.

I owe him one! I haven't taken to anything so quickly since I started fooling with the banjo. It just feels natural to me, as the plectrum never has, and has already advanced my playing.

Finding that "human", "soulful", sound appears to be greatly assisted by finding that natural, relaxed, non "mechanical" motion in your technique. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and there ain't no rules here. I've heard no less than Mark Knopfler describe his technique as "a guitar teacher's nightmare."

Not very many people play that style like Lester did. That is too cool.

And, yes, you will find that lots of great players kind of find their own ways to do things that a teacher would never advise.

This is a great thread!

[marciero]

Originally Posted by Retired1

So I alternate flat-pick all the time - no matter what the value of the note - 1/8 or 1/4. So at times I'm not playing down on the down beat etc. Just comes easier. Am I doing myself wrong ? I realize if I play down on the down beat only I will be playing a more steady speed with my picking hand but i'm ok slowing down and speeding up as necessary. Do I really gain anything working on playing down on the downbeat only ?

That's the one thing about strict alternate picking is that it automatically keeps time. For electric jazz and rock I pretty much do this almost exclusively. But for acoustic styles, the use of "rest strokes", often on repeated downstrokes on adjacent strings, can greatly affect tone and give notes power and emphasis. The tone and volume for a rest stroke is subtly different than a non rest down stroke, and is very different from an upstroke. Gypsy jazzers, at least those who go all in on the technique, have a very strict rule regarding right hand technique, that you use a downstroke on every string change. That means often playing a downstroke followed by anther downstroke on a lower string. This is very difficult at the hyperspeeds involved, and is, I think, the main reason that American players never quite sounded "authentic", or frankly, as good, as Europeans, until recently. It still sounded like American jazz. The reason is that we were jazzers or rock and rollers who picked up Gypsy jazz later. The Euro kids were steeped in it from the beginning. This is simply the way the greats always played, starting with Django Reinhardt, and so it was just something that was learned as "this is how you play guitar"- not even thought of as a technique. Nowadays you do have young American players with frightening technique who came up in the style and sound every bit as good as the Europeans.

I never realized until later in my playing that players like Tony Rice used rest strokes too, but they do.

[rllink]

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