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Old 09-10-2018, 07:47 AM
bluesguy63 bluesguy63 is offline
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Default What exactly is this guy doing....

I recently discovered Ben Danaher and he is awesome and I love this song but I'm having trouble trying to figure out just exactly how he playing this. It's a fingerstyle style kind of loose strumming and I can't it to sound like his. Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d52u2KoY8_A
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Old 09-10-2018, 09:42 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluesguy63 View Post
I recently discovered Ben Danaher and he is awesome and I love this song but I'm having trouble trying to figure out just exactly how he playing this. It's a fingerstyle style kind of loose strumming and I can't it to sound like his. Thoughts?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d52u2KoY8_A
Well, the audio is out of sync with the video, which makes it look odd. He seems to be strumming with thumb and fingers - together or alternately - and it sounds like he's using fingernails (strumming down with those, while thumb would strum both down and up).
It's obviously quite subtle in terms of dynamics, and he's adding various hammer-ons, etc, in the left hand, and maybe muting some strings sometimes.

IOW, although it's loose, it's quite sophisticated and has plenty of skill behind it, a very secure command of time and feel. I.e., you can tell he could play a lot more complicated than this if he wanted.
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Old 09-10-2018, 09:50 AM
FwL FwL is offline
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I can approximate his sound by pretending to hold a pick and letting the tip of the index finger do most of the work. Looks to me like that's pretty much what he's doing.

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Old 09-10-2018, 12:01 PM
BFD BFD is offline
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Well . . . he's strumming a guitar Lotsa ways to do it, he's doing it his way. JPR & FwL have summed it up but there's really not a lot to it. He's using simple, tasteful chord ornaments as fills. It definitely is not fingerstyle.
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Old 09-12-2018, 09:26 PM
patrickgm60 patrickgm60 is offline
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Not familiar with him; nice song.

I seldom use a pick, even for strumming; have developed a technique similar to what he is doing. He occasionally picks with thumb and index, but mostly "invisible pick" as someone already described it as. To my ear, it is a more organic, satisfying sound than a flat pick delivers.
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Old 09-14-2018, 04:15 AM
SunnyDee SunnyDee is offline
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A new one for me. Thanks for sharing. I think this is what strumming should be. That relaxed style that comes from your own hand and your own feel, impossible to copy, but easy for the player.
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