Who here, besides me, is in the "PRIMARILY FINGERNAILS - CLUB"?

[GAS Man]

It's my first but not necessarily my last resort.

 

Alternate picking, tremolo picking, I'll reach for a plectrum, BUT for most stuff that is chordal arpeggiated or chordal box alternate string based riffing I'll usually use the picks mother nature gave me (90+% of the time) and then get all fraught when one breaks off.

 

I know I'm in good company with Knopfer's in the fingernails camp, and even more so than I am, but I don't hear of many here talking about being electric guitar finger pickers.

 

I know it also affects the type of music I find to learn and play and do indeed learn much more arpeggio work than fast alternate picking material.

 

Who's also in this club?

[Tweedledee]

I'm in!

 

I play both acoustic and electric without a plectrum. I don't know why, but I've always found that it feels more natural to play without a pick. I find I can control the dynamics of my playing much better that way as well.

[cbh5150]

 

All by accident, too. I have a few dozen picks, but haven't used one in years

 

I think getting used to playing without a pick has been the best thing to happen to my playing overall.

[GreatDane]

generally finger-style on acoustic (though i worked up quite a comfort with the pick on acoustic working that django tune with Jkater recently), and hybrid or straight pick playing on electric.

 

by hybrid picking, i mean there are plenty of times when i'll use my middle or ring finger on my picking hand to pluck strings in addition to picking. no idea when i started doing that, but it's become a very natural part of my playing style.

[photon9]

I hybrid pick at times but I'm still 99% a plectrum player. Just discovered JazzIII supergrips or whatever. Best pick I've ever used. One try and I was completely over my passion for Cool Jazz picks.

[PunkKitty]

I'm classically trained. I use my fingers more often than I use a pick.

[GAS Man]

I'm classically trained. I use my fingers more often than I use a pick.

 

I took classical lessons myself, but I was a classical guitar student drop out. (Had too much going on in my personal life at that time) But I was into it long enough to get all fingers (TIMA) going.

 

I know I'm somewhat hampered in some areas since I haven't developed great alternate picking skills with a plectrum BUT I love that my thumb is an independent trooper banging out the bass line rhythm notes while the 3 fingers jockey for the lead notes. I'd probably be really behind the 8-ball now if I tried to relearn all that with a plectrum.

[shinsengumi]

I went through a big flamenco phase last year (and didn't learn nearly as much as I wanted), and since then it's been fingernails almost exclusively on the acoustics, mostly pick on electric, though I'm pretty comfortable with fingernails on the electric too. Ironically having fingernails means I have to play bass with a pick...

[bsman]

I'm a lefty playing righty, and for some reason it's always felt natural for me to use the my index finger and thumb either electric or acoustic. I use a pick, too -- but probably just fingers around 50% of the time. I can't do true fingerstyle, because several years of playing soccer goalie have left the last three fingers on my right hand rather stiff and useless for guitar.

[GAS Man]

 

I'm a lefty playing righty, and for some reason it's always felt natural for me to use the my index finger and thumb either electric or acoustic. I use a pick, too -- but probably just fingers around 50% of the time. I can't do true fingerstyle, because several years of playing soccer goalie have left the last three fingers on my right hand rather stiff and useless for guitar.

 

 

Some of the great old Delta blues players are known for that style. Can't remember the names right now. I started using that method before I took the classical lessons. But somehow I was gravitating towards picking before those lessons ever occurred and was using the TI style. Maybe once again it was because of the songs I was trying to learn back then, like Scarborough Fair, i.e. songs that need that alternate finger picking

[mnewb1]

mostly hybrid picking here

[jamdogg]

playing with your fingers is like playing with 5 picks. thats what a bass player once told me.

[theManfromAlabam]

You guys play your guitars:confused:...hmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For me electric guitars = pic, acoustics = finger nails or pic, but these days mostly pic.

[GAS Man]

You guys play your guitars:confused:...hmm. For me electric guitars = pic, acoustics = finger nails or pic, but these days mostly pic.

 

I tell you man, between posting on HCEG and shopping for more new guitars, it is damn tough to squeeze in time for actual play - but these are the sacrifices a bona fide poser must put in.

 

 

 

But tonight is a prime example of the downside of being a fingernail picker - story:

 

Today is a NGD ; YAY!

 

But Fed Ex comes extremely late today, so I start back in on assembling a utility shed I bought LAST YEAR!

 

Today is day 3 I'm working on assembling this huge pile of assorted plastic components for a Suncast $400 outdoor shed.

 

Finally, after 7PM while I'm still working on the shed, the Fed Ex driver comes down the street trying to deliver my guitar to my neighbors house.

 

I wave him over, go back to assembling the shed and discover I've completely broken my index fingernail off down to the quick.

 

and it's a 12-string.

 

Oh well, a week to ten days from now it will be as good as new.

 

Well the shed is finally together. I was lucky that parts of it didn't blow away during the gales of November, December, January and February. I spent about as much time weighing down the pieces last winter so they wouldn't blow away as I did assembling it this last week (gross exaggeration)

 

Time to now go unpack the guitar.

 

NGD thread to follow

[PrawnHeed]

 

I'm classically trained. I use my fingers more often than I use a pick.

 

 

Same here.

[Zappa74]

I'm about 85/15 in favor of fingers over picks.

 

It just seems easier without a pick.

[fretmonster]

I play plenty of stuff pima style, but it wouldn't be fair to say I use my fingernails cause I cut em to the quick just like on my fretting hand. Rock and Blues styles I use a pick and incorporate a little hybrid picking but chicken pickin, well that's another story.

[Jkater]

I'm primarily a fingerpicker, for me that's home, but I'm learning to play with a pick. I often single line solo on the electric using my thumb nail if a pick is not within reach.

 

I have the misfortune of having nails that grow from deep in the quick (not near the tip) and if a nail breaks from that place, it's a long wait to get long enough again. I'm all peeved and depressed when I break a nail on my picking hand because it takes two to three weeks to get back to playing again but then that's the occasion to practice with a pick. I haven't tried the hybrid picking.

[A-20]

I was trained on classical guitar first way back in the 90's. I LIKE using fingers. But on electric guitar I can't seem to get the volume and/or clarity at volume out of fingers that I can from a good pick. My nails are 1/8" long or more on the right hand at all times. For playing individual notes a pick still has a wider expressive range and smoothness than fingers for me. Thought about press-on nails but.... seems kind of weird.

[GreatDane]

 

I'm primarily a fingerpicker, for me that's home, but I'm learning to play with a pick. I often single line solo on the electric using my thumb nail if a pick is not within reach. I have the misfortune of having nails that grow from deep in the quick (not near the tip) and if a nail breaks from that place, it's a long wait to get long enough again. I'm all peeved and depressed when I break a nail on my picking hand because it takes two to three weeks to get back to playing again but then that's the occasion to practice with a pick. I haven't tried the hybrid picking.

 

 

if you helps you for immediate and familiar reference, J, i used hybrid picking during some passages on our Django-inspired collab a little while back. in the first solo section, the lead over the first Dm there's a pair of notes that requires picking from 3rd string to 1st string- i pick the 3rd string note and then pluck the 1st string note with my middle finger to keep the speed and phrasing.

[Jkater]

 

if you helps you for immediate and familiar reference, J, i used hybrid picking during some passages on our Django-inspired collab a little while back. in the first solo section, the lead over the first Dm there's a pair of notes that requires picking from 3rd string to 1st string- i pick the 3rd string note and then pluck the 1st string note with my middle finger to keep the speed and phrasing.

 

 

I went to the clip and checked it out. Yes, that's something i could try. At this point, hybrid picking feels very un-natural and I'd need to practice it quite a bit to use it spontanously. It hasn't been a big hinderance so far but some styles really use that technique to sound right.

[GAS Man]

 

I was trained on classical guitar first way back in the 90's. I LIKE using fingers. But on electric guitar I can't seem to get the volume and/or clarity at volume out of fingers that I can from a good pick. My nails are 1/8" long or more on the right hand at all times. For playing individual notes a pick still has a wider expressive range and smoothness than fingers for me. Thought about press-on nails but.... seems kind of weird.

 

 

I still love finger picking despite that volume/clarity issue.

 

But it has often made me wonder, how does he do it. I mean, his tone might as well be a heavy gauge pick.

 

I think the trick is just to give the strings a real good pop on the release. But even with the drawback, there's also the advantage of being able to blend in the softer more muted attack when you want as well. So it's not always that sharper "plinky" tone you might get off of a pick.

 

[video=youtube;NSRGCtZ9_Uc]

 

Funny though, he doesn't use his annular finger.

[bsman]

Mark is a phenomenon -- nobody else can do the things he does (and believe me, I've tried!!!)

[Jkater]

Speaking of hybrid picking[video=youtube;pV2ZErbd5RY]