Hybrid and fingerpickers. What, why, how?

I'm just starting out in the hybrid picking technique and I'm curious what works and why it works for you.

Namely, do you use some form of finger picks (if so, what kind), finger nails, or fleshy tips of the fingers. Also, why do you feel your preference is superior to the others?

The more detailed info the better. Thanks all you TDPRI'ers!

Danny Gatton

Hybrid Picking

0zhulCDYBCQ

Travis Picking

L2SQzjFOx7E

I use finger picks on my middle and ring fingers...I'm pretty new at this, and I just hated the sound I was getting with my raw fingers and when I grew the nails out a bit. With finger picks, I like it the sound, and the precision I can get very much more. But again, I'm a noob at this, so maybe listen more closely to those with more experience.

I use a flat pick between my thumb and index finger and the fleshy part of the middle and ring finger, I don't use my pinky for picking. Every year I give a thumb pick another try, but playing with a thumb pick feels like I'm trying to pick the strings at the end of a 10 foot pole, I'm just disconnected from the strings.

I'll keep trying though, it would be nice to add the index finger. Although Jerry Reed used a thumb pick and still didn't use the index finger.

I came from a fingerpicking background on acoustic when I started electric guitar oh-so-many years ago. I was accustomed to playing with a thumbpick and 3 metal fingerpicks for the Jorma Kaukonen/Leo Kottke/John Fahey bag.

When I moved to electric, I used a flatpick just kept the 2 metal fingerpicks on the middle and ring fingers. Works great and gives a helluva pedal steel sound. Turns out that James Burton does a similar thing.

Some years later I learned to play with bare fingers on the middle and ring, and so now just use a flatpick most of the time on electric. However, I'd say that about half the notes I play at any given time are done with fingers - it just sounds good and I can't imagine playing it any other way. The "Nashville claw" works mighty fine.

It's good to be versatile and attentive. When I play straight bluegrass on acoustic guitar, I use a flatpick and NO fingers to get that traditional Doc Watson/Norman Blake/Tony Rice sound. When I do solo acoustic gigs, it's back to a thumbpick and 3 metal fingerpicks again.

Another claw player here. I more often than not I palm my pick and use my thumb, middle and ring fingers these days. I started out using the hybrid approach as a way to get more control out of double stops and thow in travis picking and some banjo roll kind of things but it insinuated it's way into all of my playing these days. I get a more piano like fel to my playing where i can grap intervals within a chord or put a line on top of a chord and different dynamic textures can be teased out of a chord that can't be done with a pick alone. The pick comes out for extended single line runs. I started playing slide a couple of years ago and that worked my index finger into the mix since all three are needed for dampning. Nails on the middle and ring just popping above the fingers so the option for skin or nail is there.

i hold the pick between my thumb and index finger, leaving the middle, ring and pinky to hit strings individually. No nails, all flesh.

i don't use the pinky for picking patterns (which i do little of anyway), but i use it all the time for chords. I like being able to strike the strings simultaneously for a more "pianistic" sound.

i will also use the middle finger along with the pick when playing single note lines,especially when toggling back and forth between adjacent strings. I use a very thick blunt edged pick that has a similar attack to my thumb, so tonal difference is not a problem, but i do need to conciously strike the string harder with my middle finger to adjust for the volume difference.

Some great info guys, I really appreciate it!

Oh, and bradpdx, how's the weather in Portland? :lol:

i was classically trained but eventually cut the nails i had shaped to play classical and thus that changed my fingerpicking style...i cut my nails as far as i can so its just my fleshy fingertips but ive gotten used to it..i played with a pick about 15 years or so and gradually went toward hybrid picking because there were other notes i wanted to play and the pick could only be at one place at a time..eventually i forced myself (threw all my picks out of the house!) and strictly began fingerpicking...at first it was a slow process but after a few months i started to develop something that sounded what i had been wanting all those years while i used the picks...funny how the tone in my head eventually caught up to what i "thought" i needed to be playing...its a never ending process ..

My grandfather ran an antique shop when I was a kid, and he got in an old acoustic. Since I didn't have a pick, I taught myself how to play it with only my thumb and index finger (raw). Then I added my middle finger, and I currently use all but my pinky. To compensate for the slightly dulled sound of not using a pick (or nails) I tend to play with an aggressive "pluck"- much like bass players use to get funk sounds, but it's fast like Leo Kottke. I don't think my method is 'superior', but I've never heard anyone play like me. My unorthodox approach to guitar makes me a bit self conscious at times, but the older I get, the more my confidence improves...it helps that some local players I respect are always impressed by how I play. I sometimes try to play with a pick, and I end up dropping it and screwing something up with it...feels very alien to me. I love the intimacy and control I get when playing with bare fingers (and palm).

Some great info guys, I really appreciate it!

Oh, and bradpdx, how's the weather in Portland? :lol:

How could you know how we suffer? Oh, dear. It's cool and rainy, just like the last several thousand Octobers.

What side of town are you on?