How Long Does it Take to Learn Chicken Picking?

How long realistically for an old guy to learn chicken picking. I mean the coordinated right hand action along with the other fingers doing things. I feel I'd have to get that to feel natural before I even ventured off into actual licks.
The tutorials on Youtube make it look simple, but for me it is the patting the head and rubbing the stomach routine. It took me forever to get the up and down strokes properly with a flat pick even. :oops:

How long is a piece of string :?:

How long is a piece of string :?:

"eer cheeky mate! Seriously though, there has to be a rough average. Is it weeks, months years for some? I don't think I'd have trouble taking too long with the mute-pluck routine on the same string, it's the awareness and coordination of the remaining fingers. If I chicken pick with a flat pick, then that leaves only the ring finger and pinky which are even worse.
I have not been a finger picker except the thumb and index finger rolling thingy. Since the index finger and maybe the middle is being used up for the mute-pluck portion, I find the remainings fingers completely spastic.

Are you flatpicking? By that I mean are picking down, then up, then down and so on? That's what you have to get down first. You gotta sorta be a bluegrass flatpicker ala Doc Watson.

Nine months, seven days, sixteen hours and 53.9 seconds...EXACTLY!!

Sorry...I don't know man, just commit to the technique and it'll arrive when it's ready!:idea:

Are you flatpicking? By that I mean are picking down, then up, then down and so on? That's what you have to get down first. You gotta sorta be a bluegrass flatpicker ala Doc Watson.

I finally got the flat picking smooth, but when I watch the tutorials on Youtube, there seems to be three chicken picking methods. a) Thumb and index finger, b) flat pick and middle finger, or c) thumb pick and index finger. It is the use of the remaining fingers that I find impossible at this moment. It's like they are paralysed.

I worked at it off and on for a couple of years, couldn't seem to get it.
One day it just came together without me even seeming to try. Just sort of clicked.

I'm sure if I had worked on it steadily, instead of leaving off everytime I got frustrated, it would have been a lot quicker.

That is a tough question and it really depends on you. When I started to learn to play country, I was already a working musician and played lots of jazz and r&b gigs. I had all of the knowledge, and already had plenty of facility on the instrument I just needed to learn the subtelties of the style.

When I have had students that want to learn that style, the two biggest challenges they face are 1: Hybrid Picking, and 2: Playing over chord changes. Many players out of the blues/rock mold don't understand playing over chord changes. You need to get comfortable changing tonal centers easily. If you have a progression that goes C-F-C-C like the first four bars of a blues and you play C major pentatonic over the whole thing it will kind of sound like ass. I would be thinking C6 C7- F6 G7- C6 You have to anticipate the chord changes and build tension and release.

Hammer the chord changes in the song to the point where you can just listen to your solo and hear the chord changes. At that point, pick close to the neck and its jazz, pick close to the bridge and it is country. :rolleyes:

I really don't know what players are talking about when they say chicken pick'n! I like to play country but I also love trying to copy my guitar hero, Chet Atkins. I was in GC playing a tele and Chet song and this young fellow came up and said he would like to learn chick'n pick'n like that. Country has a lot of chick' pick'n in it and the only one that I can think of that Chet did was Yakity Ax, which I also play.

Learning the Chet style could be started by playing Johnny Cash songs and learning how Perkins played behing him. After learning that then start with a song that uses that style. My first song was Freight Train in the key of C by Chet.

Chet alternates the base strings (6th and 5th) and plucks the 4th string, all slightly muted. The lead is played on the other 3 stings. Tommy Emmanuel does a lot of Chet style songs and pick'n....

Well, I have rambled enough, been playing for 40 years now and playing Chet style for about 20 years----- so there you go, keep pick'n two hours a day!
Rick

It's all about muscle memory. Each person is different.

It's all about muscle memory. Each person is different.

Apparently .... along with my brain memory ..... my muscle memory has left the building. I can still strum with the best of them though.

Play down strokes with the pick and up strokes with a finger. I generally use my middle finger for the upstrokes and add others as needed for double and triple stops. I don't remember how I learned (it's been so long), maybe by example from my dad and other family members. I was on a web site the other day (http://countryguitarchops.com/)and he said he would just sit around and practice down with the pick and up with finger on the same string until he got is sounding smooth.

I'd just start working on it and keep it up till I got and not worry about how long it took, it's another tool in your toolbox of guitar techniques.

Take up the banjo.:lol:

That is a tough question and it really depends on you. When I started to learn to play country, I was already a working musician and played lots of jazz and r&b gigs. I had all of the knowledge, and already had plenty of facility on the instrument I just needed to learn the subtelties of the style.

When I have had students that want to learn that style, the two biggest challenges they face are 1: Hybrid Picking, and 2: Playing over chord changes. Many players out of the blues/rock mold don't understand playing over chord changes. You need to get comfortable changing tonal centers easily. If you have a progression that goes C-F-C-C like the first four bars of a blues and you play C major pentatonic over the whole thing it will kind of sound like ass. I would be thinking C6 C7- F6 G7- C6 You have to anticipate the chord changes and build tension and release.

Hammer the chord changes in the song to the point where you can just listen to your solo and hear the chord changes. At that point, pick close to the neck and its jazz, pick close to the bridge and it is country. :rolleyes:

I think this response and the others are all very helpfful, but maybe in a sad way. It makes me realize that even though I have had guitars around for many years, I am not really a very deep player, but just a noodler around the house. To learn a new style with not much to build it on, might be futile. My wife said yestreday, that maybe I should concentrate on what I do know and develop it properly first or just accept my limitations.

2 years if you have a good teacher and practice 90-120 minutes a day and stay focused.

no noodling, no messing around... pure focus. If you do that, in 2 years, you will be a chicken picking machine. NO DOUBT.

Hmmm... I started as a fingerpicker on acoustic guitar before moving to electric when I was 20. Because I had been using metal fingerpicks and a thumbpick, I didn't know how to play well with just a flatpick. I simply left 2 fingerpicks on my middle and ring finters and held the flatpick with my thumb and index finger. As a result, I could chicken pick in about an afternoon.

These days I don't use the fingerpicks on electric, but the technique remains the same. It's just really alternating the flatpick with one or more fingers, using the same string damping that one usually employs when fingerpicking.

I have no idea how one might do it without a fingerpicking background, honestly.

I have finger-picked a guitar since age 17....I've been trying to chicken pick now for almost 3 years with no success. Don't know why I can't seem to grasp it. Guess I'm too old to learn? :wink:

If you are already a finger picker, try that. I started playing bass and still don't use a pick after moving to the guitar. I guess the major advantage I had was I had been around it all my life. Even if you learn a lick or two, you'll hear it and phrase it different than someone else. Don't beat yourself up. Have fun with it and it'll get easier.
Keith

How long is a piece of string :?:

The guys I knew in high-school who didn't play well then still don't.

I agree there is no answer - some will take a few months, some a few years, some never.

Took me about a year to gain some proper traction, trying slowly from adjacent strings while just holding down a chord, to having a semblance of Nashvillism.

I got friends who don't play much and they throwing their indexs and middle fingers willy nilly. So it's all relative sometimes, muscle memory as mentioned and all that.

Today I can do it decent, been maybe 5 years since I consciously started practicing it. One advice, try to use all your fingers, including your pinky, you might not use it 95% of the time, but why not. And just go real slow till you get it.

2 years if you have a good teacher and practice 90-120 minutes a day and stay focused.

no noodling, no messing around... pure focus. If you do that, in 2 years, you will be a chicken picking machine. NO DOUBT.

I think you hit the nail on the head (or maybe the string). I don't apply myself to the guitar with the dedication of that much practicing. It has always been something I go to when I have nothing else of interest happening. I'm afraid that too much of the time they are more ornaments than instruments. Especially by making them, they are more like an objets d'art than utility.

A lifetime.

It's not measured in calendar time... Find a good tutorial on how exactly to play a short chicken pickin pc on YouTube. Play the example EXACTLY as shown no matter how long it takes to do it once. Then do it again. Then again...Do not worry about playing it fast, just EXACT. Studies show that by the time you've done this approx. 500 times (It may take a week, a month, or a year) you will have it comitted to muscle memory. Keep a rough count of how many times you do it. You'll find that by ~ the 500th time, it all falls into place like magic.

I started 18 months ago and am only just at the point where I can start to seriously learn licks. The last 18 months has been constant technical drills to get my right hand to actually cooperate. Of course, my practice time goes up and down. For certain periods I've been able to practice two hours a day, every day, for weeks on end. Other times I won't get to really 'practice' for days....even a whole week....because life gets in the way.

Basically, hybrid picking is bloody difficult but REALLY fun. Expect to take at least 6 - 12 months working purely on technique.

I'm still learning to play the guitar. I started <10yo.

Chicken pickin'? - I am not fully proficient at this but it may be easier to learn if you drop the pick. You don't need the pick to chicken pick, I have watched Albert Lee do a snatch of Country Boy unplugged and sans pick from 3-ft away (and I'm still baffled).

Getting the fingers of the right hand to learn to finger pick on up and down strokes is easier if you are not trying to hold a pick at the same time. Plus you need to get rid of the idea of using the pick for everything in the first place.

Learning to play bass and then banjo might help with the fingers.

The arm action needs to be considered. Jazz strumming uses the shoulder and elbow. A flat pick on an electric uses a floppy wrist, usually. Finger and hybrid picking needs to keep that hand relatively still so you can find the strings, but try not to anchor the hand, it is not a banjo. Simply noodling the same lick will build up the muscle memory, and drive the household insane.

And then put it all together and try to hold a pick again.


Why do you think doctors practice medicine?

20 years & still trying !!

I think to be good you'd have to persevere & do nothing else.

I think this response and the others are all very helpfful, but maybe in a sad way. It makes me realize that even though I have had guitars around for many years, I am not really a very deep player, but just a noodler around the house. To learn a new style with not much to build it on, might be futile. My wife said yestreday, that maybe I should concentrate on what I do know and develop it properly first or just accept my limitations.

You hit the nail on the head as in a noodles round the house. The best thing you can do for your playing is to get out there and join/start a group and get playing around people and listening or watching to what they do and play. That way you'll even develop your own tone and style in the process! I worked on my own style nicked from Cake style country songs to Hank Williams and ended up somewhere in between Western Swing and Luther Perkins whilst playing with a local country band. I had to learn fast!

I think I'm a jack of all trades and master of none kind of guy. The guitar is just one of many compromised hobbies and interests instead of being number one with a passion for practice. So taking all these good comments tells me I'll be at it for a long time.