Anybody here do hybrid picking?

[Cecil6243]

As in using your fingers and a pick at the same time? Looks like it would be a fun challenge and make for some beautiful tones. Just messing around I can see how it would be done, but would take some getting used to if one has not done it before.

That said I am still working on my flat picking although I started out fingersyle, and am pretty much used to that.

Thanks in advance!

[jseth]

I started out using a flatpick for strumming and learned Travis picking for a lot of other music... mostly folk stuff, back in the early 60's. When I started playing gigs, I'd have both flatpick and thumbpick with me, but the reality of performing back then was that fingerpicking was REALLY underpowered - because amplification was stuffing a microphone near the soundhole and hoping for the best!

In the later 70's, I kept running up against issues switching back and forth between thumbpick/fingernails and flatpicking for strumming and single note lines. Either I'd forget the thumbpick, or drop the darned thing on a darkened stage when I was switching between the two.

I decided to try using a flatpick in lieu of the thumbpick, still using fingernails on my picking hand. It was really awkward at first, but I gradually became accustomed to it and became fairly proficient with my Travis picking... of course, it is a boon to go from fingerpicking to single note lines to chording without having to fumble around to switch picks.

For me, the "litmus test' for having gained sufficient proficiency with the new style was playing "Anji" by Davey Graham... took me a long time to learn the song and it's a great measure of fingerpicking.

At this point in time, I've used this method for so long that it is second nature to me... I wouldn't even consider going back to using a thumbpick. I've learned to keep my fingernails short-ish, filing and polishing them to get even tones. I've learned that I have much less chance of breaking a nail when I keep them shorter.

I'm a big fan of hybrid picking, even though I never even knew the name for it when I first began learning that style!

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by jseth

I started out using a flatpick for strumming and learned Travis picking for a lot of other music... mostly folk stuff, back in the early 60's. When I started playing gigs, I'd have both flatpick and thumbpick with me, but the reality of performing back then was that fingerpicking was REALLY underpowered - because amplification was stuffing a microphone near the soundhole and hoping for the best!

In the later 70's, I kept running up against issues switching back and forth between thumbpick/fingernails and flatpicking for strumming and single note lines. Either I'd forget the thumbpick, or drop the darned thing on a darkened stage when I was switching between the two.

I decided to try using a flatpick in lieu of the thumbpick, still using fingernails on my picking hand. It was really awkward at first, but I gradually became accustomed to it and became fairly proficient with my Travis picking... of course, it is a boon to go from fingerpicking to single note lines to chording without having to fumble around to switch picks.

For me, the "litmus test' for having gained sufficient proficiency with the new style was playing "Anji" by Davey Graham... took me a long time to learn the song and it's a great measure of fingerpicking.

At this point in time, I've used this method for so long that it is second nature to me... I wouldn't even consider going back to using a thumbpick. I've learned to keep my fingernails short-ish, filing and polishing them to get even tones. I've learned that I have much less chance of breaking a nail when I keep them shorter.

I'm a big fan of hybrid picking, even though I never even knew the name for it when I first began learning that style!

Thank you! I like how it started out as a necessity thing!

[Gordon Currie]

Yes, I do it often when playing two notes on non-adjacent strings.

I had to work on it a lot because the 'picked' note was much louder than the 'plucked' note at first, yet the 'plucked' note was often the melody note I wanted to emphasize.

I also do a lot of cross picking, and often blend the two approaches.

It's definitely not a simple thing to master.

[Driftless]

Yes. I started as a flatpicker, then started playing nylon string with bare fingers, which led to hybrid picking mixed with my flatpicking. Then I got into thumbpicking. Now I will hybrid pick in a thumbpicking style sometimes, but it's awkward for my hand. If I need to switch from thumbpick to flatpick in a song, I'll use a black mountain spring loaded thumbpick. If I'm just regular flatpicking, especially on electric, there is always some hybrid mixed in. On electric I will often have a pick in my hand but be playing with only my last three fingers.

[Bob Womack]

I'll do it on a limited basis on a song I'm playing with a pick that needs more complexity but doesn't offer me tome to pop the pick into my lips! I play both fingerstyle and with a pick and am better with either of those than in hybrid picking.

Bob

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

As in using your fingers and a pick at the same time? Looks like it would be a fun challenge and make for some beautiful tones. Just messing around I can see how it would be done, but would take some getting used to if one has not done it before.

Can confirm.

That is, I have occasionally tried, but being accustomed to fingerpicking it felt really awkward and pointless to tie up the index to hold a pick with the thumb. It not only gave me one less finger to play with, but it inhibited the movement of the other fingers.

I appreciate the tone question, although for me the difference from normal fingerpicking was negligible - even when I use my thumb, not a thumbpick. I.e., the flatpick gives a slightly different tone than the thumbnail, but nowhere near enough to make me work on hybrid picking. And the difference in tone between flatpick and thumbpick is even less significant.

But I do understand (or think I do) why players use hybrid picking. Either (1) they want to be able to switch been flatpicking and fingerstyle in the same song; or (2) they have never learned fingerpicking and have always used a flatpick, so hybrid is a natural development from that (keeping the pick and adding another finger or two); or (3) they have no thumbnail, and find thumbpicks uncomfortable.

Those are all good reasons! Just none of them apply to me!

I play acoustic and electric, btw. I began on acoustic, and taught myself fingerstyle before I bought my first electric - so naturally there's a bias there. I was using thumbpick and fingerpicks to start with - I like the tone - but eventually found them too uncomfortable, and use nails only.
But I always use a pick to strum, so if I do want to switch to fingerstyle in the middle of song (happens quite often on electric in my band), I need palm the pick: hold it with curled pinky or ring finger. Sometimes in curled index, because my middle and ring are my main picking fingers. For me, that's a little awkward, but much less awkward than hybrid picking.
But of course - as you're saying - it's just a matter of practice! As with all techniques, if you want it enough, you will get there...

[ljguitar]

Hi Cecil
When I met my gigging partner (over 20 years ago) he was skilled and amazing with a flat pick.

I only fingerpick (all flesh and no thumb pick). We've been arranging elaborate instrumentals for the entire time we've worked together.

As time passed he began to pickup the fingerpicking, which after 10 years he began experimenting with hybrid (flat-pick and 3 fingers), which he has mastered marvelously.

This is the most common way he plays. And it's so ingrained now that it's effortless and he doesn't even think about it…and added to his creativity it results in very tasty playing.

He is a non-pick bass player (his main instrument) but over these decades his guitar playing is a match for his bass playing. He's incredible at both, and the hybrid picking on acoustic and electric makes him a great asset for every musical group he plays with.

[mr. beaumont]

Hybrid picking is my bread and butter when playing steel strings.

I kind of figured it out by necessity. I was in a band for a long time that started out with two guitar players and a keyboard player and over the course of a few years wound down to a power trio.

I needed to be able to fill in space, even when soloing, so I started to grab some extra strings when playing out of chord shapes. I found out later I hadn't invented anything

[jseth]

Another aspect of "hybrid" picking is that it was essential for me to get a consistent tone and volume from both the flatpick (currently a Blue Chip TP-1R 50) and my short-ish fingernails...

I had to learn to temper the flatpicking volume while increasing the strength of the fingernail volume... I've gotten very good at it, but in certain circumstances I can easily "default" to hitting the strings much harder with that flatpick!

Amplifying the guitar when performing has really helped me achieve a decent balance betwixt the two...

[ceciltguitar]

I don’t know if what I do would be considered “hybrid picking” or not.

I mostly play Fingerstyle, and I sometimes “flat pick” and / or strum with my index finger / fingernail.

Some years after I “discovered” this technique, I found out that Chet Atkins was using the same technique before I was born.

[Cecil6243]

Thank you all for the interesting feedback!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by ceciltguitar

I don’t know if what I do would be considered “hybrid picking” or not.

I mostly play Fingerstyle, and I sometimes “flat pick” and / or strum with my index finger / fingernail.

Some years after I “discovered” this technique, I found out that Chet Atkins was using the same technique before I was born.

Hi ceciltguitar
Hybrid picking specifically refers to using a flat pick combined with fingers 3-4(-5) as opposed to using a first fingernail, or Thumb pick+finger. No matter what we finger stylers do strumming with first finger+thumb for up/down (↑↓) will not parallel the deployment of a flat pick.

The flat pick has more variability, flexibility, choices of thickness, tone etc.

What you described is a modification of fingerpicking.

[Railroad Bum]

If you check out Michael Palmissano's videos on YouTube, he almost exclusively hybrid picks. And he offers lessons, etc.

[highfigh]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

As in using your fingers and a pick at the same time? Looks like it would be a fun challenge and make for some beautiful tones. Just messing around I can see how it would be done, but would take some getting used to if one has not done it before.

That said I am still working on my flat picking although I started out fingersyle, and am pretty much used to that.

Thanks in advance!

Have you tried using a thumb pick? Chet Atkins and Brent Mason have done OK with that....