acoustic guitar

[CaptainSG]

Haha yeah the title was really hard to come up with. Anyways,


I play guitar (obviously) but for roughly a year, only have played on my electric. Stupid choice. Now, I decided to pick up my acoustic (My made in Japan Epi oh so sweet. so sweet, want to touch her heinie........) but realized my picking on the acoustic is bull $#!t. I have someone at church who picks really really really well like almost flamenco-like but in a way that she has a pick and variates it with her ring or middle I think. So she's playing the bass note, which is awesome but a wandering melody or 'lead' guitar that carries along. I am always wondering though whether she came up with a sequence or if she found a special pattern as a lesson? I need help and she variates it in a way that both bass notes and melodies are always palying and I want to learn soemthing like this...partly because it's awesome and aprtly because it's awesome. Anyways, please see if it's a certian pattern or whatever. Thanks all. :eek: :D :cool: :rolleye: ;) :o :mad: :hmmm:

[mr mungbeen]

There is no actual pattern... rather lots of different ones. After you've been playing a while, you just get a feel for it. Picking on an acoustic is a fairly difficult, but also very rewarding task... The magic of it is there are no special effects that you can hide behind and acoustics have a fairly short sustain, so you need to fill the silence with something and that something is notes or chords.

There are some really good picking threads one of the masters of his craft on this forum is hybridpicker. He is one of the most amazing acoustic players I've heard.

Have a look at some of the stuff he has in this thread. http://guitar.zentao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14190

His advice has been of great assistance to me personally.

[CaptainSG]

thanks mister!


lol
thanks for the help...........I guess I can't expect TOTAL goodness on my acoustic overnight. We're not talking about weight loss here

[mr mungbeen]

it certainly takes patience and alot of work... when i started picking, i just did straight arpegios up and down up and down... the important thing is to get your fingers working independently...

thumb, bottom ead index, middle, and ring do g,b and e respectively... there are 2 schools of thought as to what to do with the pinkie... I anchored mine on the pickguard and found it helped... some say that's bad I say it's your choice whatever you prefer.

[CaptainSG]

yeah isn't pinkie usage somewhat like Flamenco style?

[mishmannah]

Hey- did I "hear" someone "say" (in a cybernetic sense) that one can play with a pick and fingers at the same time? Using my advanced mathematical ability, I work that as the thumb and forefinger employed by the pick, then the three remaining doing their own stuff.

Am I misunderstanding something, or is this possible?

Oh, darn- hang on, I forgit I had a geetar- I'll try meself!

[CaptainSG]

actually, I'm trying to do that. I mean I did get how to rotate one arm clockwise and the other the opposite way it's turning...it's Über fun really but I think with buttlaods of practice, it's feasible.

[Slipstream]

Yeah, it's called hybrid picking. Some people (not me :) ) do it all the time. I'm mostly a flat-picker, but dabble in finger-picking at times.

[mishmannah]

Tell us how you get on, Captain SG- I think I dislike picks, because every guitar i have had, my pick usage makes the B string buzz, and I do not know why.

Once, I took a guitar back to a store thrice because I was sure there was a fault. The chap sanded down frets, lowered the action, sorted the russ rod, yet it would still rezz on the D chord. I was told it was my strumming style :banghd:

[mishmannah]

Yeah, it's called hybrid picking. Some people (not me :) ) do it all the time. I'm mostly a flat-picker, but dabble in finger-picking at times.


Sorry, I was self taught at guitar and do not know the terminology- what is flat picking...?

And also, when you say finger pick, do you use a pick as well?

[Slipstream]

Flat pickin' is just using a flat pick. I use Fender thins. They make picks that are curved and go on yer fingertips for finger-pickin', but I don't care for 'em. When I finger-pick I use my thumb for bass notes, and my first and second finger for pluckin' the higher notes.

There's a flat-pickin' style that's called the "Carter scratch". That's where the flat pick is used to play a rhythm strum, and between strums the pick is used to play a melody. It was innovated by the mother of Johnny Cash's wife (whose name was June Carter Cash, I don't remember the mother's name). I got a link here somewhere of a sample I did, ok here it is: Carter Scratch (http://www.alvarious.com/audio/CarterScratch.mp3)

[mishmannah]

Flat pickin' is just using a flat pick. I use Fender thins.


I am bloody embarassed- of course flat picks are those little things you pluck your guitar with.

Could I be excused...here in England, we call them....plectrums.... :017: , but then the Brits have stupid names for inanimate objects anyway.

I too, prefer a thinnish "pick/plectrum", something with a weeny bit of give, so that the strings give a bell-like sound rather than a tight gated sound that hard picks create. You can be a lot more tender and emotional with those floppyish picks!

I have used old credit cards before when my supply of picks decide to slowly escape into the pick void..... I have owned literally hundreds of picks, and I bet one day they will all turn up again!

By the way, I like your demonstration of the "Carter Scratch."

[t_shirtsnjeans]

Hey- did I "hear" someone "say" (in a cybernetic sense) that one can play with a pick and fingers at the same time? Using my advanced mathematical ability, I work that as the thumb and forefinger employed by the pick, then the three remaining doing their own stuff.

Am I misunderstanding something, or is this possible?

Oh, darn- hang on, I forgit I had a geetar- I'll try meself!
Act you alley that's how I play. If you notice a lot of country pickers do that twoo!

But I pick faster with a pick and middle finger, sometimes adding ring, and pinky as an anchor.

[Slipstream]

plectrum? is that anything like a lustrum? (a lustrum is five years). Ya learn somethin' every day.

thanks btw mish.

[t_shirtsnjeans]

plectrum? is that anything like a lustrum? (a lustrum is five years). Ya learn somethin' every day.

thanks btw mish.
A plectrum is actually 10 years, that is if you have a decent judge, if you get a real smudger then you'll likely get 12 years to double-life or more!

Watch yerselph! :eek: :p

[Slipstream]

A plectrum is actually 10 years, that is if you have a decent judge, if you get a real smudger then you'll likely get 12 years to double-life or more!

Watch yerselph! :eek: :pThat sounds worse than double secret probation! :eek:

[mishmannah]

Yes...I understand now...English Ironic Humour...call a pick a plectrum, knowing that it is nigh on impossible to keep one for ten years, let alone ten minutes!


lustrumn. (pl. -ra) period of five years; purification of Roman nation every five years; census.


plec·trum
n., pl. -trums or -tra
A small thin piece of metal, plastic, bone, or similar material, used to pluck the strings of certain instruments, such as the guitar or lute.

[Latin plēctrum, from Greek plēktron, from plēssein, plēg-, to strike.]


Don't mix yer Greekses with yer Romans like- I am off to find my pleg.

[t_shirtsnjeans]

Yes...I understand now...English Ironic Humour...call a pick a plectrum, knowing that it is nigh on impossible to keep one for ten years, let alone ten minutes!


lustrumn. (pl. -ra) period of five years; purification of Roman nation every five years; census.


plec·trum
n., pl. -trums or -tra
A small thin piece of metal, plastic, bone, or similar material, used to pluck the strings of certain instruments, such as the guitar or lute.

[Latin plēctrum, from Greek plēktron, from plēssein, plēg-, to strike.]


Don't mix yer Greekses with yer Romans like- I am off to find my pleg.
Well la-te-dah, I know my Grease, and the word plectrum can be broken down into:
Ple: short for 'play', or random senseless actions to other things
ct: or 'act', 'pact', 'impact', smacking fingers to steel objects
rum: or 'rump', 'drum', 'rectrum', or alchoholic drink to loosen tension from sharp sounds


So when we put it all together "Plectrum" means "Play senselessly smacking fingers against your guitar strings and make an a$$ of yourself while drunk"!

There, ya happy now?

NO????



Ok, there were three nuns, Sister Gotnun, Sister Hadnun, and Sister Aintnevergonnagetnun, who all happily lived together in a monestary mosque delivering pizza door to door to screen door to storm door to indoor and outdooor making money to support those that rob pizza delivery dudes and dudettes'......................................... :o :eek: :D

[mishmannah]

Ahhhaaa haahaa haa haaaaa ahhaahhhah aahhhaaaaaaahhhahahaahaahh

aaahahaaa:D :yakyak: :lolpnd:
(ROFLMAO)

T-Shirts and Jeans, you are the king of humour- I have never laughed so much reading a post.

[t_shirtsnjeans]

Flattered I'm sure, but it's all in a day's lack of work.