How many use pick and fingers style?

[classicplayer]

I would like to know how many readers here use the pick and fingers approach to playing their Stratocaster. How did you decide it was the best method for you and how did you go about learning this style?

After several years of playing Bluegrass banjo, I realized that the method was great for guitar playing too. I no longer play banjo, but the style is second nature to me today when playing any guitar. I associate the style with piano and find I learn alot by just listening to pianists. I tend to think in terms of my pick being the pianoist's left hand and my middle and ring fingers being the right hand. Do any of you think along these lines and how did you arrive at your conclusions?

Classicplayer

[LightninBoy]

I play with both - ever since I read an article years ago from someone talking about the tone when they played with their fingers - I think it may have been Albert Collins. I started out trying to learn a lot of Zeppelin also and the books I was reading referred to Jimmy's hybrid picking technique, so that was motivation to learn that style of picking as well. It was just something that came natural after awhile, and I find myself doing it all the time now and like the sound it gives me - seems to be more expressive than with the pick alone.

[photoweborama]

I'm not really sure what you mean, but when I play, I use a pick and a lot of the time, my middle and ring finger. I do it when I play lead mostly so I'm playing two and three note chords mixed into the solo....

[Old Tele man]

I use a pick and my three free fingers, especially when playing chordal jazz and bossa nova songs...just pick for most rock songs though.

[phil47uk]

I use. Pick... Pick and two fingers and no pick, three fingers.
All according to what I want to play...I'm like you in reverse.... Started playing guitar first. Then bluegrass banjo.

For Classical....Three fingers
for country.. Chet Atkins and Albert Lee......Pick and fingers.
For rock / blues...... Pick mainly and sometimes fingers.
Phil.

[CocoTone]

I use both, and sometimes also alter the picking position. Sometimes I`ll strum up the neck, closer to my left hand with just thumb and fingers, sounds more harp-like, soft. Flesh to string brings up lots of tonal variety, and of course with the tonal versatility of a good Strat,, yer laughin` dudes!

CT.

[Marcondo]

I never use a pick just fingers.

When I first started playing in 1965 I kept loosing the pick in the soundhole of an acoustic guitar. SO I just grew out my thumbnail and use it and index finger. But 95% of the time its all thumb for me.

[grito]

I don't play both at the same time, but I do like to add a little finger style in the middle of a song. I tuck the pick between the knuckles of my middle finger, then bring it out when I go back to playing. I've gotten pretty good at sneaking it in and out.

[kingsleyd]

I first saw this style in action when I used to go see Boston guitar legend Randy Roos in the late 70s/early 80s. Allan Holdsworth used it too, and had a similarly creative & advanced approach to chords and voicings. It was all about getting a more piano-like sound when chording, which to my ears was much more appealing than the traditional strum-strum-strum-strum sound. (with all due apologies to Freddie Green!) It wasn't specifically a Strat thing, although later I thought Eric Johnson used the approach to great effect on a Strat.

As for how I learned it, it was a long period of trial-and-error, and I never figured out any kind of a system or anything. Just kept at it and eventually it started to feel sort of natural, in fact now, I use it a lot in playing lines b/c my cross-picking chops are so bad.

[Cogs]

I had some time on my hands today so I thought I'd mess around w/my camera & post something on this topic. I used to strum a lot like most players: sometimes w/a fist, & sometimes w/my fingers extended spider-like. Strumming w/a closed fist was easy but hard to control, while the "spider style" caused a great deal of fatigue, especially when you are trying to pick up speed. Now I'm developing a hybrid pick & fingers approach. I can't handle the Gatton style. I have to do one or the other, not both.
The first photo shows how I hold the pick for both picking & strumming. The second photo shows the movement from between the thumb & 1st finger to the thumb & 2nd finger as I'm moving it out of the way for fingerpicking.


The second two photos show the movement of pick between the 1st & 2nd fingers, freeing up the thumb. If you work it up close to the 1st knuckle (like in the last photo) you can get a good deal of use out of all your fingers & thumb although you're never going to get full independence like you would if you weren't trying to keep a pick wedged between your fingers. Still works pretty good for me.

[classicplayer]

71818 Excellent pictures and helpful for those who might want to experiment with this style. The first picture is just how my usual pick and fingers style looks. I use a smallish Fender medium "Jazz" pick which helps develop more speed. And I use a the short trimmed nails on the middle and ring finger and sometimes the little finger to accomplish this. One wonderful player with this style was the late Roy Buchanan. It was listening to his first album that led me to this technique. If you have the album with the cut "Hey Good Lookin' "
and its' intro, you will hear it distinctly. I think his phrasing was to put the intro in the realm of what a pedal steel guitarist would try (slightly behind the beat). I picked up on that style and tied to imitate that intro (took me a bit to get there) and I then realized that this was the way I really wanted to play. Of course Albert Lee and Gaton as well as many others can take it over the top, so to speak.

Thanks for posting those snaps!

Classicplayer

[daddyo]

I started off playing classical and play my acoustic fingerstyle but I have trouble with tone and speed with my fingers on my electric. I use a Fender heavy triangle pick and like the smooth tone it gives for picking single notes. A can angle it and get speed (well, speed for me). I find that when I play electric licks with my fingers, the sound is thin and when I use all thumb, the accuracy isn't there on the treble strings. Pobably because my classical playing has left me brainwashed that thumb is for bass strings. I do like the sound of strumming my electric with my thumb - very smooth. I'm still experimenting because I like doing two and three note plucks like a classical.

[Annie D.]

Sometimes, I do this.
Depends on the tune.
Sometimes I play bare handed.
Mostly a flat-pick with some fingers here and there.
I use finger-picks on the acoustic, once in a while, but they're just too "clanky" on an electric.