Acoustic guitarists that play hybrid picking solo compositions?

[birdsong]

Not a contemporary song but in case you want to see/hear it, Tony Rice hybrid picking his arrangement of Shenandoah


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xswwXOPhoTU

(sorry I could not get the embedded video to play here so, URL it is)

[thepassivevoice]

Originally Posted by vintage40s

Is it easier for a flat picker to put his two unused fingers into action for hybrid picking, or for a finger picker to pick up a flat pick and use his two remaining fingers to hybrid-pick?

I don't think it matters. At least in my case, the 3rd finger has much less natural strength and dexterity than the first and second fingers. It has been unexpectedly challenging to replace fingers 1, 2 with 2, 3.

[mondoslug]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Ah yes, Julian Lage I'd forgotten about him. I remember him featured in a guitar mag a while back. Great guitarist for sure, and I've checked his stuff out before but musically it doesn't appeal to me for some reason.

Understood, this is what makes the world go around.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by thepassivevoice

I don't think it matters. At least in my case, the 3rd finger has much less natural strength and dexterity than the first and second fingers. It has been unexpectedly challenging to replace fingers 1, 2 with 2, 3.

In my experience its the demands of the repertoire - and usually musical style - that pretty much eclipses how you learned, and what feels easier. I am classically trained and play solo pieces with fingers only, fingers plus thumbpick, hybrid style and pick only - so basically every possible way. Pieces with wide hand stretches (eg bass line on 6th string with melody on top string) are uncomfortable with hybrid style for example, especially on a nylon strung with wider string spacing. Pieces with lots of single line runs are almost always easier with a pick and for alternate picking I find a normal pick moves much easier through the strings than a clunky thumbpick. Travis picking I feel is made for thumbpick and fingers, and so on.

[thepassivevoice]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

...
Travis picking I feel is made for thumbpick and fingers, and so on.

Travis picking is exactly what I'm struggling with. But I will press on! I'm never going back to thumb picks or the bare thumb.

[Ramesses]

Charlie Worsham



Carl Miner

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by birdsong

(sorry I could not get the embedded video to play here so, URL it is)

Hey Bird... Youtube directions are HERE. Just click on EDIT at the lower right of your post to see what I did.

[RP]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I play that way. I learned to do it to play lead country guitar and by the time I started to learn fingerstyle, it was so ingrained I was having a hard time not doing it. It has it's advantages. Here's a video I did recently. When it gets to the hard rock part, I just don't think I could do that without a pick and have it sound right. Around 4 minute mark. A few clams in there, but it'll illustrate my point.

BRAVO! I really enjoyed that, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I wasn't familiar with this playing technique...

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by RP

BRAVO! I really enjoyed that, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I wasn't familiar with this playing technique...

Thanks! The place I see it most prevalently is in "chicken pickin", or lead country guitar. Check out this guy and watch his right hand:

[fuman]

Originally Posted by lowrider

Richard Thompson plays fingerstyle, hybrid, and with just a pick. Plays acoustic and electric. Plays solo and with a band. Is consistently listed in the Rolling Stone top 100 guitar players

Has written some good songs. And some dreadful ones. Named his first solo album Henry the Human Flea.

And written one Masterpiece;

Richard Thompson has written more than one masterpiece. Valerie, Tear-Stained Letter, Two Left Feet . . .

[mercy]

hybred seems such a disadvantage when playing fingerstyle. Youre limiting yourself. Not that it cant be done to good effect but I cant think why someone would want to. I use a very small thumbpick and when needed I can grasp it like a plectrum and yet I dont have to use my pinky.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by mercy

hybred seems such a disadvantage when playing fingerstyle. Youre limiting yourself. Not that it cant be done to good effect but I cant think why someone would want to. I use a very small thumbpick and when needed I can grasp it like a plectrum and yet I dont have to use my pinky.

Yea, you loose that 1st finger, so it's got it's downsides for sure. But I have a lifetime of using a pick, so the transition was fairly natural for me. Plus I've tried over and over with a thumbpick. The only thing I was able to do successfully was turn my thumb blue.

[mercy]

I played electric guitar, some acoustic, with a pick for many years and experienced the transition to be painless. That was the way it was supposed to be done so I learned it in about a weekend of wearing a thumb pick all the time and learning Freight Train, Deep River blues song from Doc Watson and then Windy and Warm. I dont recommend W&W till after youve played fingerstyle for a year. Chet's songs sound easy but not when you go to play them. Theres some books out there too that give you time with your fingers. The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking is one I used. Its strictly Travis style but itll give you time with a thumbpick and is pretty easy.

[drive-south]

Darrell Scott also uses hybrid picking on some tunes.