Technique

Quantum Strummer

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When I play some barre chords I like to play the "7th" version; i.e., the barre "E" is a two-finger E7, the barre "Am" is a 2-finger A7, freeing my ring finger up for adding other notes. So when I play a Bm I barre the 2nd fret and play the Bm7 chord and so on. Seems like this "7th" approach works for 98% of all the songs I play; when I do Blues in the "7th" pattern, I can use my ring finger to hammer on and off supplemental notes.

Speaking of Blues, probably my most "go-to" progression is in the key of "A" and I only use two finger positions to play the rhythm. Barre E7 on the 5th fret gives you "A", open C7 on the 3rd fret gives you the D7, slide that up to the 5th fret and you have your E7. Complete Blues in "A" with only two fingering positions.

This is the kinda thing I do a lot too. I especially like having my pinkie free to add variations to chords and chord-based progressions. I veer more jazz-ish than blues, though. Major & minor 7ths, and then into the weird stuff. :)

Playing barre chords using only the top four strings is something I picked up from The Edge, who does this a lot on the first three U2 albums. Frees up that pinkie.

-Dave-
 
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adorshki

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Thus, let's hear your opinions and suggestions!
Rich
Exercises to improve motor control:

Try playing your favorite tunes in different keys.
Try playing your favorite tunes using ONLY bar chords and nothing below the 3rd fret.
If nothing else it'll stimulate some new coordination paths.
For warmups in my busking days I'd practice major and minor scales in each key and attempt to keep a smooth legato tone up and down the scales.
Get a bunch of sheet music fortunes you always wanted to learn with the chord diagrams (I HATE "tablature). and keep going back to the ones that you could never seem to get right.
Frequently "one day it just all comes together".
Try flipping the bird on your fretting hand with other than the usual finger.
Do it in succession with alternating fingers or even pairs of fingers, ie, can you flip your ring finger independently? How about the bird finger and pinky simultaneously?
THAT'll teach ya some motor control!
Heck it'll work to improve finger-picking technique, too, but when I try to do 'em both at the same time I get vertigo.
PLAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE> it teaches you to listen and make timing and dynamic adjustments.
If you're not an alcoholic a little bit of beer is your friend.
Too much is not.
Get a pinky enhancer.
chinese-finger-trap.jpg

Make sure you only use it as intended.
:glee:
Oh yeah, Richie Havens once described himself as a frustrated drummer.
Valerie Wilmer described the guitar as a drum with 6 tunable skins.
These observations led me to develop a technique of using a more "in and out" strike with a pic as opposed to an "up and down" , I was visualizing the pic as drumstick having greater precision if I tried to strike between the strings instead of across 'em.
"Across" is great for speed strumming but the "in'n'out" allows for a kind of hybrid of fingerpicking and strumming that I think Hendrix used a lot, in songs like "Wind Cries Mary", for example.
 
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crank

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This is the kinda thing I do a lot too. I especially like having my pinkie free to add variations to chords and chord-based progressions. I veer more jazz-ish than blues, though. Major & minor 7ths, and then into the weird stuff. :)

Playing barre chords using only the top four strings is something I picked up from The Edge, who does this a lot on the first three U2 albums. Frees up that pinkie.

-Dave-

I learned that technique watching the Grateful Dead. I use it more when playing electric or with a band or bass. I figure why not let them hold down the bottom and I can mine a higher frequency. Another thing I picked up from Jerry Garcia is hybrid picking 2 notes of the D shape or the A shape. EG: First and third strings 5th fret = F, second and fourth strings 5th fret = C. Slide it down to fret 2= A7. And you can do little chromatic licks sliding up and down from those chords.

I learned a lot about the guitar as a percussion instrument from listening to Neal Young play both rhythm and lead. Also learned a lot about driving a song from a great Irish guitarist named John Doyle who I first saw in the band Solas. After I saw and heard him play I spent an entire year just working on my rhythm skills.

I suck at fingerpicking and am mostly a flat and hrbrid picker with some strumming thrown in. I tend to play mostly with others and am good at listening and playing with and off of what others are doing. Listening is a technique that too many "musicians" ignore.
 

adorshki

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I learned that technique watching the Grateful Dead. I use it more when playing electric or with a band or bass. I figure why not let them hold down the bottom and I can mine a higher frequency. Another thing I picked up from Jerry Garcia is hybrid picking 2 notes of the D shape or the A shape. EG: First and third strings 5th fret = F, second and fourth strings 5th fret = C. Slide it down to fret 2= A7. And you can do little chromatic licks sliding up and down from those chords.
Right, also known as "open chords" because you can play those 2-finger positions up and down the neck and also insert additional open strings or an extra fretted note where desired.
A similar practice is parallel harmony where you can play something like an F form on the ADGB (corrected from DGBE originally, oops!) strings up and down the neck, without changing the shape.
Or just use 2-finger stops (Guildedagain called 'em dyads) to give some "meat" to a solo run instead of all single notes.
 
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dreadnut

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Of course, many times you don't have to play the whole chord and you don't have to play all the strings. I have a couple songs where the Gm works great just on the top 3 strings on the 3rd fret.
 

walrus

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Of course, many times you don't have to play the whole chord and you don't have to play all the strings. I have a couple songs where the Gm works great just on the top 3 strings on the 3rd fret.

Power chords!

walrus
 

Westerly Wood

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i am too lazy to ever work on my technique. i could not care less. whatever i have, it is "coded" in. and while i will feel some shoulder pain from my dread and how i play it, nay, lay on it, it will be as is :). but kudos to those who continue to work on their technique...
 

GardMan

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Technique? All I have is bad...

I mostly play to accompany my (mediocre) singing.... mostly cowboy and folk songs in the privacy of my basement cave, and once a year I play the open mic at a nearby Cowboy poetry and music festival.

I started going to a Thursday night jam about twice a month for the last couple years, and between that and getting older, I have had to modify my "technique" (or lack thereof) a bit. I used to fingerpick (just nails, no picks) a lot... but have found that the first thing to go when I play in public (nerves) is the coordination in my right hand. Fingerpicking is also really not loud enough to come thru in a jam situation. So I have been strumming more and more these days... I stick to playing rhythm, not really into solos and leads. To make it a little more interesting, I throw in a few rudimentary bass runs, and maybe an extra note here and there, and play around with alternate strumming styles and rhythms (still looking for interesting strums in 3/4). But, It's still basically strumming, but it seems to work out OK for me.

As a side benefit... fingerpicking seemed to have been causing some chronic tendon inflammation in my right elbow, and that seems to have eased up a bit with my change to strumming.
 

adorshki

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Sometimes I'll flip it over and play lefty for the novel sensation of it feeling like somebody else is playing.
 

dreadnut

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Another terchnique I use most of the time is to plant my pinky down next to the bridge, it really helps me find the right strings to pick by always having the same reference point. I also then use my palm just below the thumb to mute the strings as needed for different sounds.
 

adorshki

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Another terchnique I use most of the time is to plant my pinky down next to the bridge, it really helps me find the right strings to pick by always having the same reference point. I also then use my palm just below the thumb to mute the strings as needed for different sounds.
I'd plant my pinky right under the fretboard extension when bareback fingerpicking, partly for that reference point, and because the strings were at a perfect height above the board right there, and it's a real sweet spot to capture the woodiest tone possible.
One of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome when learning to play the F65ce was the loss of that anchor point.
I had learn some new methods.
 

adorshki

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So Al, you end up picking above the fretboard?
Yep.
Remember, it's bareback so it's not like the pic's crashing into it, and it's mainly when I want to get the closest tone to a bass (warm and woody) that I can.
Also not technically fingerpicking chords as much as scales, with an occasional chord grab perhaps.
Remember also I'm fixated on playing in classical position which makes it much easier to do.
In fact you can also see it in the first tune in my "Farewell Tour" vid:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?199255-Al-s-Farewell-Tour/page2
:friendly_wink:
 

dreadnut

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That's interesting. I like fingerpicking around the bottom half to the middle of the soundhole.

Sometimes I will flatpick/strum just above the bridge for effect, gives a piano-like sound, nice for ending songs with.
 

adorshki

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That's interesting. I like fingerpicking around the bottom half to the middle of the soundhole.

Sometimes I will flatpick/strum just above the bridge for effect, gives a piano-like sound, nice for ending songs with.

Right, location of the "strike" is a dynamic technique and absolutely affects tone.
I favor that "right over the soundhole" position extensively for regular full chord strumming (as in the #2 tune "Santa Cruz Women") in that vid, but use the close to the bridge location sparingly for certain things (scales in particular) that also benefit from the relative "tightness" of the strings there, they flex less under a heavy attack, that close to the bridge.
 
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