Picking Patterns

[FoxHound4690]

Hey AGF,

I felt like my guitar playing had been hitting a brick wall until last night, I found a fantastic tutorial online on movable blues chord shapes, which is easy enough to get my head around, but what i'm really keen to learn now are some new picking patterns I can add to my vocabulary. does anyone have a good source for learning different picking patters? I'm getting a bit sick of just playing the standard "travis" picking method I learnt a while back when I started practicing finger style play

[robey]

Sort of on topic, but I love incorporating traditional finger roll banjo patterns on guitar. Especially forward/reverse rolls for turn arounds or something like an Osbourne roll on a chorus. Easy place to start and mix it up a bit in a song.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

Hey AGF,

I felt like my guitar playing had been hitting a brick wall until last night, I found a fantastic tutorial online on movable blues chord shapes, which is easy enough to get my head around, but what i'm really keen to learn now are some new picking patterns I can add to my vocabulary. does anyone have a good source for learning different picking patters? I'm getting a bit sick of just playing the standard "travis" picking method I learnt a while back when I started practicing finger style play

Hi, Is that the "CAGED" principle?

[TBman]

Take a look at what James Taylor does. What you really need to do is write finger style arrangements that compliment melody, without duplicating it.

Take a look at songs where the singer just plays piano too.

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by robey

Sort of on topic, but I love incorporating traditional finger roll banjo patterns on guitar. Especially forward/reverse rolls for turn arounds or something like an Osbourne roll on a chorus. Easy place to start and mix it up a bit in a song.

Yep, I realised early on that there was basically two fundamental picking patterns which I needed to learn and then later, vary them up. (4/4 Travis style with alternating bass and a simple 4/4 banjo roll pattern based on classical finger style guitar).

[SCVJ]

"I found a fantastic tutorial online on movable blues chord shapes"

How can I find this tutorial?

Thanks!

[robey]

When I hear movable chords I always think about Brownie McGhee and the way he breaks up chords. I saw McGhee in a Jazz Fest tent in the 80's and it flipped me out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkv0VdmieqA

I can not play like that and don't play blues, though I've totally copped some of his easier moves.

[Rick Jones]

True story; I've been forever chasing the Richard Thompson kind of fluid thing –– both hybrid picking and fingerstyle (although I cannot get on with fingerpicks). It just baffled me how he was doing a lot of what he does, seemingly effortlessly.

Then one day he was doing a Facebook live thing, and I asked him how on Earth he figured out how to pick rhythmically without doing the somewhat cliched right hand stuff. I didn't expect him to answer, I meant it more as a compliment, but he messaged me!

He told me not to drill Travis or alternating bass patterns too much or I'd never be able to do anything but those, and he told me to make my thumb or pick thump out a steady bassline on one low string (for now) whilst playing a very recognisable melody (insy wincy spider was his suggestion!) on a single higher string (the G or B) and think about where the bass note should be on what beat and where it changed in relation to the melody notes.

I still can't do it like him (who can?), but I am no longer restricted in my picking patterns.

Here's some of what I mean (I flub in a few places, I've had a radial nerve injury that I'm recovering from) using his 'beeswing' and you can see my right hand clearly.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

Hey AGF,

I felt like my guitar playing had been hitting a brick wall until last night, I found a fantastic tutorial online on movable blues chord shapes, which is easy enough to get my head around, but what i'm really keen to learn now are some new picking patterns I can add to my vocabulary. does anyone have a good source for learning different picking patters? I'm getting a bit sick of just playing the standard "travis" picking method I learnt a while back when I started practicing finger style play

Hi FH

Do you play Thumb-n-three fingers, Thumb-n-two, or Thumb-n-one (or a mixture of those)? A good source is YouTube.

Also, any pattern you play with thumb-n-three will take on new characteristics if you switch to thumb-n-two. I always taught people to play thumb-n-three, because then they can scale to playing less fingers easier than a thumb-n-two can add them.

I taught intermediate and advanced fingerstyle for 40 years, and we started with a handful of 'stock' patterns. I also taught them to play without picks, with thumb picks, and if they wanted to learn flat picking I had my gigging partner (who is highly skilled with picks) show them the ropes on his style of hybrid picking, strumming and individual string picking. They were also taught three string chord inversions (major and minor) on strings 1-2-3 and 2-3-4, and arpeggiating chords, and use of harmonics.

I also taught them to emulate patterns they saw others play. One of the skills they learned was to identify the key songs were being played in, and to take note of fingerings at concerts or in videos. Tommy Emmanuel will give me a life-time supply of 'methods' and variety…

People like Doc Watson, John Prine, Merle Travis etc played patterns for decades without being bored, because as singers, they were often focused on lyrics and melodies, not merely on the picking patterns.

Fingerstyle wizards like Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins were/are players who superseded set patterns all day long. They designed their combinations of fingerstyle, strumming, playing solos/leads and doing backing strumming all day long on the fly.

And many of of the best didn't/don't sing while playing much.

Interestingly guys like Mark Knopfler and others started playing in bands or groups as they became more seasoned. The best thing EVER for my playing was finding a highly compatible gigging partner to work on arrangements and do gigs with.

Something which causes me to up my creative game when finger styling even at age 71 (my main playing style) is our ensemble play. When I'm in a band or even a duo situation with another prolific player (or not so prolific), I'm going to be listening and adapting my style to fit the song, and the other person's capability.

My gigging partner and I often cover different ranges of the neck when playing at the same time. I taught it to students as teeter-totter playing. I used to teeter-totter with my sons when they were 5 by balancing my self closer to them so we'd balance and teeter-totter. Learning to balance one's play to fit in an ensemble as a teacher was an essential skill to equip students with.

When I'm playing, I'm watching the other guitarist to see if he's playing up the neck, at which point I drop down to first position. If he's playing loud and choppy, I play smooth and sustained to counterbalance. If he's playing soft and smooth in first position, I'll play light/quiet pizzicato high up the neck.

The point was we never just duplicated the same chord positions. And if necessary one (or both) used capos to vary chord voicings.


Hope this adds to the discussion…

[TBman]

I've been thinking about this, but haven't really tried it but how about
playing the chord progression (rhythm guitar), overlay the melody line (vocally) and then on the guitar play part bass accompanyment and part melody. It can be every other melody note, or every third melody note with double bass etc.

Assuming 4/4, just doing quarter notes. b = bass; m = melody

b m b m,

b b m, b

b m m b

etc. Of course working in some 8th notes would really enhance it. Also, the melody doesn't have to be in the same local scale as the vocal melody, it could go lower or higher.

Fun stuff to play around with. Maybe the OP should get GuitarPro or something similar to work in.

I write my own finger style arrangements, see below, but I've never tried to write guitar for vocals. I've never used "patterns" per se, but I can see what the OP is trying to do now that I thought about it more.