The first of a two-part lessson in letting go of the pick to discover new techniques and textures.
BY JEFF JACOBSON
GENERALLY, WHEN WErock guitarists ponder adding a new technique to our arsenal, we find ourselves gravitating toward tackling a new and challenging way to negotiate the fretboard, or woodshedding a new picking technique. By the same token, when we have a hankering for new textures, we’ll often head over to YouTube to enter a rabbit hole of pedal demos. There’s nothing wrong with exploring any of those options, but there’s a whole different palette of techniques and textures literally at your fingertips that you may have yet to explore. All you need to do is lay down your pick and visit the surprisingly ready-to-rock world of fingerstyle guitar.
But wait, you’re probably thinking: Isn’t fingerstyle for acoustic guitarists? Yes, acoustic players most often find their way to fingerstyle at some point. But many rock guitarists, such as Eddie Van Halen, Tim Henson, George Lynch, Lari Basilio and Matteus Asato, incorporate fingerstyle into their playing when desired. Others, like Mark Knopfler, Albert Collins, Lindsey Buckingham, Matteo Mancuso and Richie Kotzen, do so exclusively.
You may also be thinking, I already use hybrid picking from time to time, so I’ll sit this one out. And sure, hybrid picking — simultaneously or alternately playing notes with both pick and fingers — is a useful technique, with the benefit of leaving the pick readily available to use on its own. One method is no better than the other, but I’ve learned that the more approaches you have in your bag of tricks, the more you’ll naturally find ways to incorporate them into your playing, leading you to discover new and exciting musical ideas.
So think of this lesson not as one designed to help you become a full-time fingerstylist but rather one that opens the door to new techniques that will complement those you already have access to with your pick. Nothing can replace the pick’s sharpness of attack, not to mention the availability of pick (or “pinch”) harmonics and pick scrapes — all of which are fun quirks of the guitar few would choose to live without.
Let’s dip our toes into the fingerstyle waters with some examples based on familiar songs. There’s a lot to present here, so I’ve split this lesson into two parts, with the second installment to come in the next iss
