#1
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Benefits of learning flatpicking?
I'd like to improve my playing with a pick... something more than just strumming and/or chord appegios ..etc...
So - My question: How much does learning flatpicking from a bluegrass perspective (which most of it seems to be) help with OTHER genres? I just purchased, and am awaiting the arrival of, Dan Miller's Flatpicking Essentials to see where it gets me. I've read so many positive reviews of this series. I like folk/singer/songwriter type music and am not really as much of a bluegrass fan - (but I could see it growing on me).... so I'm hoping it improves my playing skill across other genres.... Any thoughts on that? Thanks!
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#2
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Flatpicking is a marvelous skill to be able to add to your musical arsenal. Becoming a proficient flatpicker can be quite helpful, not just in playing bluegrass, but in other musical genres as well. Embellishing arrangements of folk/singer/songwriter material with flatpicking leads or fills can make your performances more interesting and allow you to grow as a musician.
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#3
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I like bluegrass, but not enough to actually do it. If I were to become good with a flatpick, I'd try to copy Verlon Thompson. Love his style. |
#4
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Not to diminish Flat Picking, but that's just playing individual strings on a simple Cowboy Chord.
If you want to expand, look at scales, Pentatonic, look at Circle of Fifths, look at inversions, look at Alternate Chords. To be concentrated on Flat Picking is a fork that can get you places, but won't expand your knowledge of overall Music Application. Totally my Opinion, J |
#5
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Benefits of learning flatpicking?
Flat picking is picking individual strings with a flat pick. It’s not limited to cowboy chords.
Bluegrass flat pickers often cross-pick on major chords, good technique for any rhythm guitarist. You pick an alternating bass, and roll between the upper strings to play the melody. Here’s a nice intro lesson by Molly Tuttle. https://youtu.be/4EusasuLnEE I’m not great at it yet, but I use it sometimes along with strummed chords when I’m playing rhythm - the syncopated feel bounces a song right along. A lot of Avett Brothers songs sound good with it, or most any other Americana group. |
#6
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Flatpicking is a pretty broad term that can apply to many styles of music...so learning to do it does integrate well with whatever you already know how to do...I have always played with picks, fingers and sometimes both....
....flatpicking standard fiddle tunes is just plain fun and even though it’s not my main area of concentration these days I generally bust out a couple of em regularly...keeps my skills somewhat intact and is a nice way to mix things up when I’m just running through my repertoire... ....and you don’t need a specific type of guitar to flatpick.....or pick...or strings...but you may develop preferences over time... |
#7
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Wow, it never even crossed my mind that one wouldn't want to learn both flatpicking and fingerstyle. I've alway enjoyed both.
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#8
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Learning good pick control is a transferable skill. Period. It can help with anything you set your mind to that involves a pick (even on electric guitars)
The notion that "flatpicking" only applies to cowboy chords, or that it precludes learning theory is nonsense. Tony Rice, for example, plays up the neck plenty, and has lots of jazz influences, an album like California Autumn is flatpicking, but I'd hardly call it bluegrass.
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#9
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Learning how to flat pick has helped me big time. (Outside of being able to improvise fast bluegrass lead lines, it quickly became the basis for playing fast country lead lines on my mainly Telecaster. (Down/down/up cross picking motion over strings and then mixing that combination up and combining with a whole lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs, bends and pre-bends allows me to to play fast allover the neck and sound country at the same time, given I'm not a hybrid picker also).
I also use lot of flat picking rhythm techniques (strumming/flat picking combination on acoustic and electric) when I'm normally playing just to keep it interesting. Last edited by Steel and wood; 07-26-2020 at 05:10 PM. |
#10
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So true... Tony Rice makes a standard 3-4 chord progression into something that can barely be comprehended by your average Joe! There is nothing simple about it. |
#11
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For 20 years, I played folk/americana, doing the typical simple fingerpicking and/or strumming. Then I decided to take in-person lessons to learn bluegrass-style flatpicking. (I had moved to NC so it was a natural fit). My instructor was great, and showed me the styles of various players, and got me to think about coming up with my own “stuff”. To do so, we got deeper into some theory. Keep in mind this was about 20 years ago.
I took the cue, and studied up on the likes of Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Clarence White, Doc Watson, David Grier, and Norman Blake, and a young gal named Nina Gerber who used to play with Kate Wolf. When I say “studied”, again this was long ago so I was working with cassettes and CD’s, reversing, slowing down, etc. But it worked. The cool thing was to hear and begin to understand all the scales and modes these folks use. It’s so far from “country chords”. Not sure why anyone would think that, if you listen to what these players play. Rice and Grier are off the charts with complex theory. And Blake's strum-flatpick style is unique. Nina Gerber's style is both exciting and "approachable". But there’s one who was in a way, further off – and that’s Mark O’Connor. It seems the guitar was too limiting for his genius-ness and he switched to fiddle. If you can, go listen to his guitar playing when he was about 16 years old. His one guitar CD, “Markology” is pretty amazing at any age. As Grisman once quipped, (and I have to paraphrase, it was many years ago): “That kid sure knows his scales….”. You can learn a LOT by learning to flatpick some “fiddle” tunes. Bluegrass ones are easy to find but other cultures have their instrumentals and they can also be much fun to explore. And many of the bluegrass standards are indeed from other cultures and adapted. I’ve applied a lot of my instrumental learning, to the folk songs I still love to play. I have little trouble now improvising leads, in a good 8 keys now. I’m now noodling around with some old jazz standards, both chordal and single-line work. But again, the knowledge I gained from the initial flatpicking time I can now adapt to other styles. Like to warm up with a couple. And as some are primarily 'modal', and others 'scalar', I can also move them around to practice in different keys and get different sounds in my head, skills in my fingers........ John
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#12
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If Doc Watson wasn't dead He'd probably want to have a word with you.
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#13
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This is so true...watch a few Youtube videos of Doc, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, David Grier, Bryan Sutton, Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings just to name a few as the list of outstanding flatpickers goes on. I think you might possibly reconsider the "cowboy chord" idea as it relates to flatpicking.
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#14
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Of course there's more to Flat Picking than Cowboy Chords, but, its a good start. If i was going to teach someone how to Flat Pick, I would tell them, first learn the Cowboy Chords and the technique of Flat Picking (Right Hand Technique) and take it from there. But that's just me, that's how I learned. J |
#15
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