too much percussive....

[fazool]

I like an occasional percussive touch here and there.

I am not a big fan of the over-the-top use of percussive techniques.

I've seen manufacturers touting their guitars and pickups as being specifically for percussive playing.....when did that become the main goal?

I was trying to compare two acoustic pickups and the videos I saw are more percussive playing that picking or strumming - I couldn't even tell what the pickups sounded like.

It's fine once in a while and when done tastefully. But there is a reason I'm a guitar player and not a beat-box rapper.

/rant over

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Just like mom said, "enough is enough".

[steelvibe]

Mmm, so don't listen to it?

I completely understand. I don't hate it but I realize that this is the current style. I think it can be done tastefully and rather than talk about those who I don't think do it tastefully I'll talk about those who do. Artists that come to mind who are really good at using percussive elements; Peppino D'agostio, Michael Hedges, and Calum Graham.

Playing like this gets knocked kind of a lot around here but to each their own. I come from an electric guitar background listening mostly to playing rock and metal back in high school. When I saw Andy Mckee and Antoine Dufour in 2006 it literally changed my idea of what could be done with an acoustic guitar. I put down electric guitar to pursue modern fingerstyle but it is interesting how much more music I've been exposed to by going to that show. If not for being floored by watching those two live I may not have discovered modern greats like Hedges, D'agostino, Bennett, and Ross. I also have fallen in love with lots of other players that run the gamut of all kinds of music. Chet Atkins, Doyle Dykes, Jerry Reed, Robert Johnson, Daddystovepipe, Lightnin' Hopkins, Tommy Emmanuel just to name a few.

I love it all. I was listening to Fryderyk Chopin last night to wind down and was listening to Tom MacDonald's viral new rap just last week. Are these things my preference? No, but I just love music and guitar is my instrument of choice.

[Tannin]

I agree Fazool. A lot of the time it is all about "Look how clever I am and what I can do" rather than "here are some beautiful sounds". The music gets lost as the focus has shifted to technique. It's really impressive at first, but as soon as the "wow factor" wears off, it turns into same-old-same old.

Like you, I am not against the techniques, they can be really effective when used well, but I simply want to see them used in the service of music, not the music used as an excuse to hit the guitar in as many ways as possible.

Recently I watched a demo video for a guitar I was interested in buying (don't hold me to this but from memory it was a Guild) and at the end of if I had no idea what the instrument sounded like because practically the whole video was percussive stuff. Did it have a good, rounded tone? Plenty of sustain? Some good, crisp bass? Who could tell from that video? If it hadn't had strings and some tuning pegs I'd have thought I was on the Pearl or the Ludwig channel.

[SongwriterFan]

Or perhaps they are referring to "percussive techniques" such as palm-muting, or even just tapping the pickguard once or twice during the song to emphasize a beat where the strings aren't being played?

[Shuksan]

Gabriela Quintero's complex percussive playing is totally in service of the music. I love listening to her playing.

One percussive technique I can't stand is when the player hits the low E or the A string with their thumb so it strikes against the frets and makes a sharp percussive sound as a rhythmic device. For me, it's very distracting. It seems like this technique has been adopted by many fingerstyle players and when I hear it, I almost automatically stop listening.

[KevinH]

You mean like this?

[Shuksan]

Originally Posted by KevinH

You mean like this?

No, that's not it. He's largely hitting the body to get different percussive tones. The sound that bugs me can also be made by striking the strings with the backs of the finger nails and then quickly muting.

OK, I found a Paul Davids video in which he does both the hitting the bass strings against the frets with the thumb and the striking the strings with the backs of the finger nails. Several examples in this video. The percussive sound starting at 9:06 is particularly irritating, to me.

[steelvibe]

Isn't all interesting acoustic playing, especially when solo, more interesting if it is a bit percussive? Listen to this guy's sense of rhythm! Nothing like the string tapping and harmonic slapping that I do also find annoying. This is just good rhythm.

[AndrewG]

I have to say the percussive stuff does nothing for me. While it may be a clever technique and not easy to master it always sounds to me like technique first, music second. Remember when all the electric guys were tapping their fretboards like Eddie Van Halen? Nobody seems to do that any longer and I suggest the percussive acoustic thing will also fade as a new 'fashion' takes over.

[Jimmy Recard]

Not to be rude, but sometimes I think strumming is a nice effect that has been taken way too far.

[TDavis]

Not my cup of tea...at all. The only good thing about that style of playing is that I don’t have to listen to it if I don’t want to.

[fazool]

Case in point:

this was the video that prompted my /rant

I was trying to compare the sound of these two pickups.

I miss Tony Polecastro being in the Acoustic Letter

[TBman]

I'm okay with some, if it enhances the tune that is being played. I don't like it when its obvious that its just being thrown in * just because *. Then its like watching a juggling act. Not something I can do, and not something I want to do.

[archerscreek]

To answer the question as to when it became the main goal or way to play a guitar ...

I think it traces back to the movie, August Rush. The movie presented this orphaned kid as a musical genius because he never took a music lesson but yet instinctively played the guitar in a percussive manner that made everyone who listened think they were in the presence of someone so special and talented that he made Jimi Hendrix look like a hack. In fact this percussive guitar music was so special that it brought about a supernatural power that miraculously brought the boy genius’ two parents, who hadn’t seen one another since the kid was born, back together and the three then lived happily ever after as a perfect loving family.

I am not a fan of the movie or the style, but I have no doubt it influenced people.