With thump or other fingers?

[Blues Pertti]

Hi,
Rory Block uses a lot of up and down brushes with index and middle fingers when she is playing Robert Johnson. She is using Martin acoustic guitar and no fingerpicks. Bob Brozman seem to use thump (down stroke) and index finger (up stroke) in similar cases and he is using fingerpicks. In Bob's videos he is using national tricone. Sound of those two are very different but in both cases excellent.

I have single cone and I think I have learned to use fingerpicks. But where to go - which way to learn with those brushes that are very typical in Robert Johnson music. Maybe later I learn both ways,but know it seem to be little confusing.

Pertti P

[Michael Messer]

Hi Pertti,

Happy New Year.

I do not play up strokes with my thumb - I play all the up strokes with my fingers. I play a lot of rhythm guitar wearing thumbpick & fingerpicks and it's great. I have always done it, so I don't find it a problem. I think you just have to keep playing with your picks and your own style will develop. Nobody taught me how to play with picks, I just kept doing it. I don't believe that Robert Johnson played with picks. I think it is a long thumbnail & fingernails, but I have no proof, so it's anybody's guess!

Shine On,
Michael

[Blues Pertti]

Okay and thanks ;D

I would try!

And Happy New Year!

Pertti

[Deleted]

Funnily enough, I've been listening to the "Complete Robert Johnson" CD in my car today, and it's got (as far I'm led to believe) the only two pictures of Robert Johnson, both with his guitar. Michael, it certainly looks as though he has a thumbpick but otherwise he's using bare fingers or nails.

Perrti, is that the Rory Block teaching DVD you have? You might also be interested in the Eric Clapton DVD/CD "Sessions of Robert J". You worry about styles, but he plays with another slide player, Doyle Bramhall II who plays left handed with upside down right handed guitars, complete with treble strings at the top!

Doyle and EC use up and down strokes with both their fingers and thumb, regularly using an open handed strumming type method, for wont of a better way of describing it. I'm not sure some of the songs (e.g. Terraplane Blues) would be possible without it.

Michael, on your Maestro DVD I haven't seen you do it but I distinctly remember watching Bob Brozman doing something similar to the "open handed strum" I've tried to describe with picks on thumb and fingers. How easy would it be to do?

[Michael Messer]

I never believe what I see in photos! On my CDs King Guitar & Lucky Charms I am photographed with guitars that I do not play on my recordings, they just look great. RJ may have used a pick, but with or without a pick that doesn't help us to decode his playing. There is no doubt of his mastery of the genre. I have listened to and studied his music over a period of 35 years and I still get stopped in my tracks when I hear it. He could pick the sh*t out that guitar!

The open strum - if we are talking about the same thing - is not easy to master. It takes a lot of practice until it eventually works for you. I have done it for as long as I can remember, both regular and lap-style. I was never taught this technique and I don't really remember learning it. It was something that developed as I went along. I also do the same strumming techniques (well similar!) when I play lap-style guitar. I love playing rhythm on the square-neck Dobro, it's a great sound.

Shine On,
Michael

[Blues Pertti]

Hi,

I think that most of the time my basic problem is that I'm looking for rules and not playing ;D.
I think i have to more and more encourage myself to play more freely without so many rules.

Thanks....there seem to be lot of to learn and play!
Pertti

[Peter]

Regarding rules - forget it!
When I was starting out I was told that one never uses all fingers to finger pick with.

Then I was lucky enough to see Don Ross live at a small wilderness camp in northern Ontario and had a chance to talk with him. He is so far out there he gets baritone guitars with 7 strings made for him! I had to count his fingers because I was sure he had to have had more than ten to makes those sounds. Same with Alex DeGrassi.

profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=44983337

and Alex DeGrassi:
degrassi.com/

I realized that whatever sounds you can develop in your own personal style is what is important. It's the journey and the satisfaction of progressing which keeps me happy. I have learned valuable lessons from Mike's and recently Bob's instructional dvd's but generally just play the same things over and over and as I do I get better and better at both the sound and the techniques. (my wife and kids may disagree)

Two years into it I distinctly remember when my middle two picking fingers became independent and moved separately-all by themselves! Now my thumb is starting to find its own path as I plod along.
I use my fingernails which is nice but when they break it can be slightly traumatic. However,It can help teach your other fingers to pick up the slack.

My two cents!

Peter