Should I quote the latest comment on one of my YouTube videos, which provides a nice counterpoint to last week’s post? I think maybe I shall but first, I’ll type something about playing the guitar with fingers instead of a pick – and the benefits and drawbacks of using a thumbpick as I do, to try to marry the two.

Like (i think) most electric guitarists, I began playing using a flatpick. Since everybody I saw or read about – including my teacher – did so at least most of the time, I guess I just thought that was the way of things.

The Beginning

Thinking about this post, I cast my mind back to the first bits of ‘finger-picking’ of any sort that I did. The first was probably basic arpeggiated chordal stuff: like in Led Zeppelin’s ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’. The next was probably following Brian May: seeing what at first glance looke like tapping, as he had his right hand over the fretboard, at the end of Bohemian Rhapsody – and also during Who Wants to Live Forever. Actually he’s just picking very softly – more stroking – with his finger. That was my first introduction to the tonal possibilities of using fingers instead of a pick – as opposed to just making certain things easier to play. Somewhere around there I also read that Richie Blackmore used fingers for the Smoke on the Water main riff – which similarly afforded a clear tonal difference rather than being done for ease of execution.

The next thing that I learnt about with respect to fingerpicking was hybrid picking – courtesy of the Rev. Willy G. It also seemed the easiest way to play pedal point licks – which I sucked at anyway – but I foolishly saw that as a reason to stick with the flatpick. Go figure.

I basically stuck with that for years: mainly flatpicking, using fingers for Babe I’m Gonna Leave You hybrid picking occasionally, and using fingers if playing Smoke on the Water.

Scotty and Jeff: thumbpick and fingers

I can’t recall how, but a while back I discovered the wonder that is Scotty Anderson:

After I picked my jaw up off the floor I found that he used a thumbpick that he filed/cut down to more the dimensions of a flatpick. Watching him switch between picking as though he had a flatpick, and using his fingers, was amazing, and it seemed to me that would immediately broaden one’s options – as well as dealing with my biggest pick-related problem: they always slip out of my fingers

So, I got a thumbpick, held it back to back with one of my chunky triangle Martin picks, and cut it down so roughly the same amount stuck out from inbetween my thumb and index finger when I grabbed it like a flatpick. That was a lot of pick I had to cut off. I sanded it smooth, and had a crack at playing with it. At first nothing much changed; it was just like I had a flatpick that didn’t slip out of my hand. A couple of things then started to happen. First, hybrid picking became more like just fingerpicking, except the index finger was suddenly free to do what would normally be required of the middle finger (with index finger having to hold onto the pick along with the thumb). That makes things easier – which I always like. Secondly, I found a really nice way of playing short quick arpeggios: basically a banjo roll, picked with p i m p (p=thumb (I forget the latin), i = index, m = middle). Basically the thumb(pick), index finger, and middle finger play notes on three successive strings, and then the thumb(pick) plays a fourth note – which is generally on either the same string as the middle finger, or the next higher string. This video shows in a few places what I mean:

It also has a brief pedal-point lick that I would find hard with a pick, still hard with flatpick and fingers hybrid picking, but is really quite easy with thumbpick and fingers.

This shows the technique in a bit of a closeup – and shows that it can actually be applied to more than 3 strings/4notes:

The thumbpick does have its drawbacks. First, I have many times got the bit of the thumbpick that goes around the back of the thumb hooked under the strings (remember I cut the thing down, so it’s all much closer than it’s designed for) which leads to bollixing things up. Secondly, as there is a bit of celluloid/plastic around the thumb, I really can’t do pick harmonics  - so if I want those I have to use a normal flatpick. Other than that though, it’s all good.

I’ve also been getting a bit of a Jeff Beck buzz on, and playing with just my fingers a bit – which is a lot more than I used to.

I started with this:

There are a couple of things worth noting. A fair bit of it I play with just the thumb, leaving the other fingers free to do other things. Much/all of the rest is just thumb and index finger, leaving the other fingers free – generally to hold the whammy bar.

This – although mimed – shows thumb index and middle being used a fair bit of the time, which means the bar gets held in the palm (although more recently I’ve begun experimenting with holding the bar in-between ring and little fingers, which does necessitate moving the picking hand closer to the fretboard):

It also shows different hand postures, and ways the fingers attack the strings: at times the strings are almost pulled away from the fretboard, giving a very percussive tone that is hard to achieve with a pick. In fact, fingers give a lot of variation in tone that picks just can’t really provide.

Where’s Your Hand At?

About here, to date:

This video probably shows pretty well how I’m using the combination of thumbpick and fingers. You can see that at times I’m just flatpicking, at others just using my fingers – relatively often, I notice, almost stroking the string with my index finger a la Brian May. – And sometimes I use thumb(pick) and two fingers as though fingerpicking like  a classical guitarist with a couple of fingers chopped off

And finally here’s the quote I mentioned, from a very nice person (he must be a nice person; just look at what he wrote about me ) on Youtube:

im not usualy into blues for the most part because they sound so mundane, but you have an incredible nack for making it sound so fresh and interesting. I like it a lot. keep it up.

Jeff Beck is possibly the most innovative electric guitarist … well … ever. At least out of all the guitarists I’ve heard (which is many) he’s the one who stands out for me as being totally unique, and developing ways of using the instrument that no-one else seems to.

I wasn’t planning to so a big career retrospective or anything; rather I just wanted to make and share a playlist of a bunch of videos on youtube of his wonderful performance at the UDO Music Festival in Japan in 2006, but shizen1958 has already put such a playlist together:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=893AFFD44A72CA8B

I love Beck’s performance in these videos. The tone is amazing, his attitude is mega-cool, and the band are great. The videos that really grab me are: Over the Rainbow check out the last note ; Angel(Footsteps) -- zomg at when he does the melody playing slide over the pickups ; and Nadia -- this was the first I ever heard of this song, and everything about it is amazing.

This video is actually what got me back into an ongoing Jeff Beck trip:

The control he has over all aspects of his guitar is just incredible = not that that would mean much if it weren’t all so beautiful:

To finish, a live version of another hauntingly beautiful ballad, where Beck manages to make his guitar almost painfully expressive:

In this video he does an immaculate job of impersonating the 20 winners of the various categories of the 2005 Guitar Techniques readers’ poll.

Watch, and marvel.

We’re not worthy!! [/Wayne and Garth]

I got to do a few short leads over some quiet/clean sections. I got my Jeff Beck freak on: dialled up a Fender Bassman impulse response in Garageband (using LAConvolver), added a virtual Tubescreamer using Waves GTR Solo, and dropped the pick.

I didn’t have the camera running when I actually recorded the leads, so for this video I’ve just been Milli Vanilli … “Girl you know it’s true! Oh, oh, oh, I love you-oo” The guitar wasn’t even plugged in

I’m adding some guitar to the latest A.H.I. song. Rob just sent me an email asking for some clean guitar over the clean sections. I grabbed my Ash custom “Catherine”, dialled up an impulse response of a Fender Bassman, added a tube screamer with Waves GTR, turned down the guitar volume till it was kind of clean, and dug in with my fingers instead of grabbing a pick.

It’s just a few short little sections, but I’m pretty happy with the way they came out

Raf does Beck: lead guitar bits for A.H.I.: Swagger