Hybrid Picking Single Note Lines

[Leon Grizzard]

I play with a flatpick and fingers, but mainly just use my fingers for rolls, doublestops, faux Travis picking, etc.; not really much for single note lines except here and there.

I’ve been playing single note lines for the past few days, and it works pretty good. With pick and one finger, it’s easy to figure out; I’ve been picking some and then alternating pick and fingers for some passages.

My question for you regular hybrid players, how do you mix in the ring finger for single note lines? Do you always start with the pick?; depends?; mostly pick and one finger and use ring finger PRN? Regular pattern?

[Ian]

I really think it depends on what note I'm going for. To be honest, I don't really think about it. I guess it really depends.

[Mjark]

I don't hybrid pick I use my thumb but I'd consider the pick/thumb to be the down stroke.

[telex76]

Usually start with the pick, unless it makes more sense to start with the finger.
After I have a passage down, my fingers seem to find the way they like doing it best without me thinking about it.

[Leon Grizzard]

There was a thread a few years about using a thumb pick for chicken pickin’ wherein Valvey said start with (translated for hybrid rather than thumbpick) the ring finger. That does have some advantages in that it gets the comparatively clumsier ring finger into the mix at the get go; so far I can keep it mixed in better if I get it in there before the middle finger.

Originally Posted by Valvey

I found the biggest hurdle switching from a flatpick to thumbpick style is playing runs with more than 2 notes per string. So I practiced ad nauseum The Flight of The Bumble Bee, mainly using the picking pattern: middle,thumb,index, middle,thumb,index (Atkins apparently used this pattern, as does Mason, although with ring and middle finger instead.) A little wrist action keeps the pattern going. Short nails seem to work better for me. You want to prevent the thumbpick from dominating the fingers. Using a lighter thumbpick helps. I use a Herco medium.

Here is thread if anyone wants to see it:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tab-tips-...en-pickin.html

[AJ Love]

First of all, Leon, thank you so much for the tutorials on YouTube. They are wonderful and I'm learning so much from them and I hope you do more.

I play with a pick and hybrid pick with my middle and ring finger. With enough practice it just starts to come naturally and I don't really think about which finger goes where, it just sort of happens. I know that really isn't a very specific answer to your question but it is the truth from my perspective.

I suppose if I really think about it, on alot of double stops I'll play with the pick and my ring finger

[Leon Grizzard]

Thanks for the kind words, AJ. That's kind of what I thought the real answer was; the little piggies will figure out amongst themselves. Or not. (Wait a minute. Maybe that's the problem: I'm playing with my toes!)

[vincent]

Depends. Sometimes if I'm using hybrid picking on a mostly single note run but lets say there is one double stop in there somewhere. I know I want to upstoke the double stop, so I will work backwards and it will tell me if I should start the run with a downstroke of the pick or an upstroke with the finger.

[bigbandtele]

I hybrid pick a lot on jazz guitar. Single notes are almost always played with the pick. Comping chords are played pick+middle/ring/pinky.

YMMV.

[Breen]

I guess I'm in the camp of whatever works out at that point in time. I don't have a disciplined right hand at all, unfortunately, and it does what it does as long as it does it well enough!

I guess I do both straight picking and hybrid depending on the situation. I can 'sweep' with my pick and fingers or do it like a normal sweep. I think it reflects on the sound. For blues, country RnB and jazzier (I can't actually play jazz) stuff I would tend to hybrid while regular music (hah!) and rock I would be just using the pick. Its the snap and the unique articulation you get with hybrid picking I am looking for.

Then again whats stopping me to hybrid some Led Zeppelin?

Leon, I'm also one of the folks that has to say thank you for your video lessons. Having a whale of a time going tru your lesson on Crazy. Thank you!

[HC]

I use hybrid picking a lot. Except for multi note lines on the same string. Starting with the pick or middle finger is for me determined by two things. Am I going from a low string to a higher or from a high string to a lower. I start with the pick for the former and the middle finger for the latter. It feels very natural for me that way. I guess the "rule" would be something like "use the finger that is closest to the note you are going to play."

[jefrs]

Shirley if it's single note line then it ain't hybrid picking.

I don't use no pick, I got an thumbnail.

But yes, I get the concept of switching between pick and finger.

One can use any finger or thumb one likes to pick out a single line, usually the one designated for that string, but that is not generally hybrid as I understand it. Surely hybrid picking is used where ones wants to play two or more melody lines of music at once. This is actually one of the main features of the guitar and what makes it so versatile - example: simultaneously playing the treble melody and bass accompaniment.

[HC]

Originally Posted by jefrs

Shirley if it's single note line then it ain't hybrid picking.

I don't use no pick, I got an thumbnail.

But yes, I get the concept of switching between pick and finger.

One can use any finger or thumb one likes to pick out a single line, usually the one designated for that string, but that is not generally hybrid as I understand it. Surely hybrid picking is used where ones wants to play two or more melody lines of music at once. This is actually one of the main features of the guitar and what makes it so versatile - example: simultaneously playing the treble melody and bass accompaniment.

Hybrid picking is to play with pick and fingers, alternately or simultanously, as opposed to fingerpicking without a pick or pick only (flatpicking.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_picking

[jefrs]

Originally Posted by HC

Hybrid picking is to play with pick and fingers, alternately or simultanously, as opposed to fingerpicking without a pick or pick only (flatpicking.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_picking

And the purpose of that is to play two or more melody lines at once ...

Don't believe everything you read in the Wiki. It is more than a little short on musical theory. It says it is used for technical death metal (is that not an oxymoron) and the fingers are parallel to the strings. Now I've watched Albert Lee do this, and his fingers are perpendicular to the strings, indeed his pinky is also in use but hidden under his hand.

[HC]

I´m sorry Sir, but I do believe you are mistaken... Hybrid picking is to play with pick and fingers, what you choose to play is irrelevant.

[motwang]

Originally Posted by HC

I´m sorry Sir, but I do believe you are mistaken... Hybrid picking is to play with pick and fingers, what you choose to play is irrelevant.

I always thought it was a combination of flat picking and finger picking thus, a hybrid. Yes, I know you can use a thumbpick to.

[historicus146]

I didnt read all the comments...but I will weigh in..

For thumb hybrid pickers ... and should also apply for some flat picking....

I thought I read somewhere...and I stand to be corrected....that Brent Mason brought the ring and middle fingers into play more on the treble strings. Therefore, for single string work...I think from what he said and what I see...he uses an alternating thumb / finger on the treble strings... more the ring finger and thumb for the E and B strings..then more the thumb and middle finger for the G and D strings....
This makes sense regarding how the fingers line up with the strings.

For single string work on the 5th and 6th strings, I think a lot of players grab the thumb pick and use it as a flat pick...or alternate with the thumb and index finger.

[daves561]

I'm a flat-pick-and-fingers hybrid player too, and I pretty much eliminated the ring finger from single-note lines some time ago. Thumb pick players like Brent have suggested patterns like p-a-p-m, but I found that the index finger holding the flat pick restricts my motion a bit, and puts my wrist at an angle that makes the ring finger less effective when it needs to pick the same string that the flat pick is on. It's just too cramped.

My experience only, of course, YMMV, etc. etc. Remember that as a flat pick player you have something thumb pick players don't: an upstroke. (At least a powerful one.)

[Leon Grizzard]

Although he is thumbpick and fingers, the paradigm for what I am asking about is, of course, Brent Mason. Single note lines:

[historicus146]

Leon...

I slowed this clip down...and I stand what I said in my former post. Lots of thumb/ ring finger on the 1st and second stings....he didnt do much on the 5th and 6th strings so I dont know what he does with the index...but I suspect he uses it with the thumb on the 5th and 6th strings. He sure doesnt use the index on the treble strings as that thing is way up in the air on those runs. But, that was long ago...I suspect he does / can do anything anyway....

I never used by ring finger and thumb combo until recently....and find it is remarkably efficient and economy of movement.