Finger picking questions

[Notyethendrix]

Damn I used to think my finger picking was OK.... until I'm trying to pick some jazz standards.....

My questions are:
1) I can't finger pick a chord while one string sounds a little later than the other (sounds like people strums a chord but it is finger picking) I either do it too slow, or I do it too hard)

example here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OTEn4LvjLpA

2) How can I pick a note and it sounds like it rings out gradually? (sounds like you are stepping on a volume pedal, or play with the volume knob)

Mark's example: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kQVvF0AeRLI

Any suggestions? Thank you

oooh I don't grow my nails, I use my tips

[clayville]

I'm no real wiz at this either, but there seem to be two different things going on:
On the All The Things video, that's basically full chord bossa nova moves with some voice-leading melody thrown in (as I understand it). The player is doing a sort of high-to-low "rake" move on the chords using individual fingers. When I was a wee lad I used to 'drum' my fingers on a table in various patterns so that some of the moves (like this one) became more natural and/or mindless -- over thinking it can really mess you up, but developing muscle memory for the patterns seemed to help me.

On Knopfler: as far as I'm concerned, he's in a category all his own.... and I can't do the kind of "hybrid picking" he's doing to save my life. But he seems to be doing a similar sort of 'reverse rake' using only triads. Much of the time he has two fingers anchored on the face so he knows where he is, and gets by with just two + thumb.

fwiw, a lot of bossa can be done using just triads rather than the full chords....

[57HANK]

Try this to get started on hybrid picking. The pick between the index and thumb plays the open A note while the middle finger plays the second fret A on the G string. Think ZZ Top, La Grange or Canned Heat Boogie. When that starts to come together alternate the open A with the G on the low E string. Work your way up to adding the third finger in. Mix it up at will. Experiment with other cords and patterns.