Flatpicking v. Fingerpicking

[HHP]

It's probably easier to get adequate on fingerstyle than flatpick. Getting to a very high level of flatpicking is much more difficult. I can name 50-60 topnotch fingerstyle players and less than 20 top level flatpickers.

[David Hilyard]

Originally Posted by HHP

It's probably easier to get adequate on fingerstyle than flatpick. Getting to a very high level of flatpicking is much more difficult. I can name 50-60 topnotch fingerstyle players and less than 20 top level flatpickers.

Maybe there's just more instrumental fingerstyle players (who tend to play solo) than instrumental flatpickers (who tend to play with backup musicians) and it has nothing to do with difficulty. Maybe it's interest and not ability that makes is lopsided. Just a thought.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by HHP

It's probably easier to get adequate on fingerstyle than flatpick. Getting to a very high level of flatpicking is much more difficult. I can name 50-60 topnotch fingerstyle players and less than 20 top level flatpickers.

If you mean flatpicking as a style, that may be true (I don't follow many flatpickers myself, so I can't really name many), but as a technique, I think it's the opposite. Just name your favorite or non-favorite shredders, Vai, Malmsteen,Van Halen, etc. There're hundreds of well known, highly proficient pick-style players for every fingerstyle player. Flatpicking as a style as opposed to a technique tends to mean bluegrass, which may be why we can't think of as many, but I imagine someone who's into bluegrass would name lots.

As far as which is easier (I don't know what "better" means), I think it depends on what you do with it. To play at a high level with fingerstyle, to be a Peter Finger or a Pierre Bensusan or a Christopher Parkening takes a lifetime, to do a little folk fingerpicking can be learned in a few weeks or months of practice. Same for being Dan Crary or Tony Rice vs someone who can strum a few chords with a pick. It's all what you put into it.

[Herb Hunter]

Originally Posted by HHP

It's probably easier to get adequate on fingerstyle than flatpick. Getting to a very high level of flatpicking is much more difficult. I can name 50-60 topnotch fingerstyle players and less than 20 top level flatpickers.

I quite disagree. For most people, learning to adequately use all the fingers of the right hand is more difficult than learning to work a flat pick with the same degree of proficiency.

Originally Posted by HHP

Huh????????????

I corrected the typographical error but am quite sure you knew what I meant.

Originally Posted by HHP

Each style is defined by it's limitations more than the volume or speed. Fingerstyle tends to stand on it's own in a solo context better but flatpicking is unparalleled for delivering drive and punch.

I only have a vague idea what you mean by drive and punch but did you try the link below?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7jjO5is-nE

[DMBfan]

I started off playing fingerstyle and switched to using a pick just because it goes with my sound better but I still like to incorporate fingerstyle in some of my songs.

[mellowman]

There are some fingerpickers that seem to be able to play blindingly fast single note lead lines by combining downstrokes with the thumb and upstrokes with the finger. I'm always blown away when I see this because, as a flatpicker mainly, I tend to think of this as the domain of the flatpicker (e.g. Bryan Sutton).

I do think fingerpickers have an edge for solo instrumental performances, although using techniques like crosspicking, flatpickers can get a fairly full, complex sound as well.

For me, one big benefit of flatpicking is the ability to alternate between single note lead lines and strumming. I find that I have much more versatility for strumming when I use the flatpick.

[BigRed51]

Originally Posted by johnra

For playing mostly instrumentals and solos which is best? Why, please.
To accompany singers which is best? Why, please.

History tells me that any question involving the word "best" is going to stir up controversy! There will be opinions presented as facts, and generally be some strong differences of "facts."

My opinion: Most people believe that what they do and/or like is "best." Most people also believe that what they do is the most difficult. I believe that while there are differences in what can be accomplished, it just comes down to personal preference.

I played almost exclusively fingerstyle for more years than I care to think about, using a flat pick only to strum when that was appropriate. About 5 years ago, I started transitioning to flatpicking, as I became interested in bluegrass and traditional country, but also wanted to keep playing restaurant music. I have found that people enjoy my flatpicked versions of Classical Gas and Summer of '42 as much as they did the fingerpicked versions I did for years. It is, however, impossible for a guitar to fulfill it's role in a bluegrass band without a flatpick.

Originally Posted by billy

bluegrass probably has a greater percentage of flatpickers vs. fingerpickers, although both techniques are used.

I cannot think of a single instance of a fingerpicker playing in a bluegrass band. I have heard many play solos or duets of what are traditionally bluegrass songs ... and some have been very good ... but bluegrass goes far beyond just the songs.

Originally Posted by BULLSPRIG

I think a fingerpicker can control the tempo better on particular songs. He/she can pick a bass line to compliment the rest of the piece. Potentially 5 digits on the picking hand, versus just 1 with a pick. ... Both have there strengths and weaknesses.

I salute you for saying "I think!" I think differently on the first half ... I think the ability to keep tempo has more to do with the player than the style, and an intermediate flatpicker must use creative bass lines. But I agree about strengths and weaknesses ... simply, fingers allow you to play multiple notes and strings that have one or more strings between. Flatpicking allows strumming, bass line, and lead line simultaneously.

Originally Posted by Sugarlander

... the intermediate flatpicker who will mostly strum with an occasional run.

I would argue that strumming with an occasional run should not really be considered flatpicking, and at best is a beginner.

Originally Posted by Herb Hunter

Learn to play fingerstyle and you will, for the most part, be able to play flat-pick style. Learn to play flat-pick style and you won't be able to play fingerstyle without a lot of long, hard practice.

I respectfully disagree. I have seen MANY accomplished fingerstyle players try to flatpick. Including myself. I don't recall ever knowing an accomplished flatpicker who tried to go back to fingerstyle, but it could happen. The differences go far beyond the utensils you use with your right hand ... the left hand is used entirely differently as well.

Originally Posted by Herb Hunter

Put another way, the learning curve for a finger-picker to learn to play like a flat-picker is shorter than for a flat-picker to learn to play like a finger-picker.

Put another way, I still respectfully disagree. I just don't see where either direction would be more difficult than the other. It is, IMO, almost like learning a new instrument.

I don't believe there is a black and white answer to your question ... there are many gray areas, starting with definition. I find the flatpick a much more versatile tool than fingers, and I am sure that many find the opposite to be true. But is sure is funny to watch even an accomplished fingerstyle player try to come into a bluegrass jam and take a break on "Old Home Place" or "Clinch Mountain Backstep."

[David Hilyard]

Bigred51,

I pretty much agree with most of what you said. They are different styles and spending time in one doesn't make you likely to be any further ahead in the other. I started out with a flat pick and learned "Wildwood Flower", "Walk Don't Run", "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy", etc. and how to chunk out rhythm. Then I started playing fingerstyle and have pretty much played it exclusively for many years. I can still use a flatpick, but I haven't moved beyond what I learned at the beginning, technique wise. I see what the best can do, and am totally humbled by their skills.

A couple of noted pros who can hold their own either fingerpicking or flatpicking. Wayne Henderson plays fingerstyle and mostly bluegrass/old timey stuff and is hard to beat. Tony McManus is a monster with both a flatpick and fingerstyle as well as a great mandolin player. Ledward Kaapana can handle anything from fingerstyle slack key to blues, rock, and bluegrass with a pick. Laurence Juber excels at both styles. Doc Watson does okay with both, too. I'm sure there's a bunch more.

But generally, the rest of us are just human. It's one or the other, mostly.

[billv]

And let's not forget Lester Flatt as a fingerpickin' bluegrasser!

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by David Hilyard

A couple of noted pros who can hold their own either fingerpicking or flatpicking.

Stephen Bennett's another. Stephen's flatpicking often sounds a lot like his fingerstyle. And of course Tommy E combines both effectively.

And on a related note, I recently heard some of the fastest guitar I've ever heard in my life, and it was indeed a classical player running scales, "fingerpicking". As fast as any shredder I've heard, let alone "flatpickers". Just a choice of tools and what you want to do.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by billv

And let's not forget Lester Flatt as a fingerpickin' bluegrasser!

It's interesting that bluegrass guitar seems to mean flatpicking, while bluegrass banjo means fingerstyle. So it's not like fingerstyle techniques aren't used in bluegrass.

[random works]

The two styles do not exclude each other. I started with a pick, went through some years and some electric and some acoustic guitars, then pick with fingers, then fingerstyle. I still use a pick from time to time. I do think playing with a pick and yes, even playing electric with a pick has added some things to the way I play without a pick. Nails and the sides of fingers can sometimes get a pick like quality.

Go for both if you have time and the inclination. Sometimes a pick is the thing that gets a certain sound from a certain guitar and I believe has its place for fingerstyle players if just for the fun aspect.

I you do not think playing with a pick can be fun, then you are right for yourself

RW

[mhs]

I don't understand the .vs. in the thread title. Both styles, (not to mention any number of other styles) bring things to the party so what is the "either/or" connotation?

I pick & do fingerstyle, use harmonics, tap, and anything else I can think of in a single song and it always seems like the more I learn, the more I like to use these things.

[Bob1131]

I use a combination of flat picking and fingers...hybrid, employing the pick on bass strings (held in thumb and index) while picking the trebles with middle, ring and pinky fingers. I readily can switch from powerful flat-pick strumming to light fingering and back. I can't imagine one without the other...it's all part of playing guitar!

[Brent Hutto]

And let us not forget the possibility of using banjo-style fingerpicks on the guitar. The great Eddie Adcock is known as a banjo player but I much more enjoy hearing him on guitar. He uses a combination of banjo-type three finger rolls, what he calls "double thumb" with consecutive notes thumb picked and a pseudo-flatpicking style with the up and down strokes done by two fingers with fingerpicks.

Speed out the wazoo and a lot of rhythmic and dynamic flexibility. What's the old Shakespeare line?

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy"

It's impossible to make broad characterisations of what is and isn't possible with or without a flatpick in your hand. Music is art and art is not reducible to specific governing rules and fundamental principles. And then there's guys like Clarence White and Pierre Bensusan, some times I can't figure out what they heck they are doing.