flatpick or fingerpicking

[Woolbury]

Originally Posted by JLee1

Am a hybrid picker.. Can get a Chet sound with rhythm and melody. Much more pleasing to me and sounds fuller playing solo.

One of my problems is I'm a thumb and 2 finger finger style player. I try my best to incorporate my 3rd finger, but its really weak, and always sounds better if I just forget about it. So Hybrid leaves me with the pick and one good finger, and I can get a decent rhythm going, but not like my finger picking. Just need to train that ring finger to really get the most out of it though.

[Llewlyn]

Learned how to flatpick but have been exclusive fingerpicker in the past 2-3 y. Love it.

Ll.

[tnvol]

I do both but am a better flatpicker.

[vintage40s]

Originally Posted by Woolbury

One of my problems is I'm a thumb and 2 finger finger style player. I try my best to incorporate my 3rd finger, but its really weak, and always sounds better if I just forget about it. So Hybrid leaves me with the pick and one good finger, and I can get a decent rhythm going, but not like my finger picking....

That describes me. Two-finger travis picking since 1962. I could do bump-ditty country flat picking but thought it simple and boring. And hybrid picking was and still is awkward.
But a few years ago on YouTube I saw complex picking. First with the songs of Steve Goodman, then with Clarence White, Norman Blake, David Grier. It is a new challenge, even more interesting than finger picking.

[Cobby]

OK, this got me thinking about what I'm actually doing when I play. So I went through my repertoire and came up with this (percentages add to more than 100% since I often use multiple techniques in a song):

47%: Strum with pick, but adding a lot of bass notes
36%: Strum with pick (without the bass note work)
21%: Flatpick riffs or fills without strumming
19%: Fingerpick (often, but not always, Travis picking)
19%: Flatpick solos
14%: Flatpick Arpeggios (often with a little mini-strum at the top of the arpeggio)
05%: Strum with fingers (this is always for fingerpicked songs that have a strummed part)
03%: Straight-ahead flatpicking. I have a few bluegrassy songs like this

So, I guess I have a pick in my hand more often than not, but I'm comfortable with all of these techniques.