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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 9:37:25 GMT
Hi Paul, I suggest that you play fingerpicking using only thumb and index of you right hand (your left hand if you're lefty). And if possible, try to use fingerpicks on both. This is the way Reverend Gary Davis used to play and I started to do so when I mainly played on twelve string guitars, to avoid too much confusion in my picking. Now I use it almost always, on 6 and 12 string guitars and it gives a much better "Blues feeling" ! Hope this helps... Antoine.
Bonjour Antoine, Welcome to our forum. Shine On Michael
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Post by davetracey on Nov 13, 2023 9:56:02 GMT
Antoine -that's what I try to do as well. Learning finger picking later in life it seems a bit more realisable just using the thumb and index finger. I get the impression a few of the blues slide guitarists I like did this.
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 10:37:22 GMT
Antoine -that's what I try to do as well. Learning finger picking later in life it seems a bit more realisable just using the thumb and index finger. I get the impression a few of the blues slide guitarists I like did this. Dave and Antoine, it was quite common for African American players to do this. Not all, but many of them did play this way. This is a West African style of fingerpicking that goes back to long before the blues. My late friend, Palm Wine guitarist from Sierra Leone, S.E. Rogie played in this way, as did the great Ali Farka Toure and still today Boubacar Traoré...to name just a few John Low demonstrates this technique very well. S.E. Rogie - Please Go Easy With Me Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré - Duna Ma Yelema Shine On Michael
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 11:29:04 GMT
....continuing on from my previous post, what I didn't mention is that this technique comes from West African Kora playing, which goes back hundreds of years...
My first exposure to kora playing was in the early 1980s when Dembo Konte and Kausu Kuyateh first played over here.
This is a classic kora tune - Jarabi
Shine On Michael
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Post by tomgiemza on Nov 13, 2023 11:46:56 GMT
I've read the same thing in interview with Taj Mahal. This John Low video is very good, he demonstrates important details very well.
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 11:51:24 GMT
I've read the same thing in interview with Taj Mahal. This John Low video is very good, he demonstrates important details very well. Taj has also been aware of kora playing for many decades. I have talked with him about this very subject. One of my truckload of desert islands discs might have to be this one from 1999 - Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate – Kulanjan Shine On Michael
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Post by littlebobby on Nov 13, 2023 12:48:44 GMT
I've read the same thing in interview with Taj Mahal. This John Low video is very good, he demonstrates important details very well. Taj has also been aware of kora playing for many decades. I have talked with him about this very subject. One of my truckload of desert islands discs might have to be this one from 1999 - Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate – Kulanjan Shine On Michael Absolute belter of a record that. Still clearly recall gasping at the contrast on queen bee - the woman’s voice is like a bell and then Taj’s voice kicks in as the absolute opposite. One of those defining moments when your music taste just changed for the better.
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 13:40:10 GMT
Taj has also been aware of kora playing for many decades. I have talked with him about this very subject. One of my truckload of desert islands discs might have to be this one from 1999 - Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate – Kulanjan Shine On Michael Absolute belter of a record that. Still clearly recall gasping at the contrast on queen bee - the woman’s voice is like a bell and then Taj’s voice kicks in as the absolute opposite. One of those defining moments when your music taste just changed for the better. It certainly is, and that amazing female vocalist is Ramata Diakité, also from Mali. If you like that, you should listen to the Oumou Sangaré album, Timbuktu. It's a superb album, very bluesy and with slide guitar. Oops...gone off on a tangent. Shine On Michael
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Post by bonzo on Nov 13, 2023 13:55:25 GMT
Sounds like they sang that eye to eye. Hope so it's terrific and I must say not my usual cup of Bo!
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Post by littlebobby on Nov 13, 2023 16:28:09 GMT
Absolute belter of a record that. Still clearly recall gasping at the contrast on queen bee - the woman’s voice is like a bell and then Taj’s voice kicks in as the absolute opposite. One of those defining moments when your music taste just changed for the better. It certainly is, and that amazing female vocalist is Ramata Diakité, also from Mali. If you like that, you should listen to the Oumou Sangaré album, Timbuktu. It's a superb album, very bluesy and with slide guitar. Oops...gone off on a tangent. Shine On Michael Thanks for the tip. I saw on the liner notes that he explored his heritage and it took him back to Mail - it’s a lovely thing that album and not just aesthetically. I read a book on blues history - name escapes me for now which drew connections between specific parts of west Africa and different blues styles which was interesting - can’t remember details but vaguely it was something about call and answer structures and hill country drones being similar to specific cultural heritages and history. Sorry for extending the tangent 😏
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Post by davetracey on Nov 13, 2023 18:22:34 GMT
Thanks for those clips and background info on West African slide, Michael. This is a category of music I am disgracefully ignorant of, so it will be good listening again and exploring further.
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Post by Michael Messer on Nov 13, 2023 19:03:08 GMT
Thanks for those clips and background info on West African slide, Michael. This is a category of music I am disgracefully ignorant of, so it will be good listening again and exploring further. My pleasure, David. Maybe we should start a thread on the subject of West African music. It's a big subject. I would be happy to contribute. Give me a week to get my Pocklington event done, and then I would be happy to see that on here and join in. Shine On Michael
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Post by mitchfit on Nov 13, 2023 19:41:49 GMT
"I suggest that you play fingerpicking using only thumb and index of you right hand (your left hand if you're lefty)."
recall introducing a friend to finger picking about 10 years back. told him that if he were truly driven, he could likely play what he was being shown with just his flat pick alone.
but he'd have to work MUCH harder to be proficient.
pointed out Django Reinhardt as an example of overcoming ANY adversity.
carrying that same thought forward, a thumb and finger would require more work to do the same as a thumb and two fingers.
even further, three fingers and then four. never had the determination to go with more than two fingers myself, but would have to admire the reasoning of those who picked an easier route.
mitchfit
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Post by littlebobby on Nov 14, 2023 12:01:21 GMT
Mance Lipscome and Charlie Parr only use thumb and single finger and they are / were pretty tasty.
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Post by slide496 on Nov 14, 2023 13:09:51 GMT
I think it depends on the style and material of fingerpicking whether it's one finger or more, I started years ago with thumb and forefinger but added on middle finger in some songs when going back from the 2nd to the first and in the case that I might want to play two strings at once. Sometimes its a brush with the forefinger on more than one string. Also Fred Mcdowell sometimes played a song using his thumb, which strikes the string in the opposite direction and gives a different sound. I studied "Going Over the Hill" using only the thumb on both bass and treble that way.
Harriet
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