Right hand technique for jazz

[ASATKat]

I'm with the people that say there are no rules. It's all situational and the more styles you learn, the more situations you can adapt to, or ideas to pursue. But you could use just one of the styles you mentioned and have a good time.

Isn't the word 'styles' inferring different techniques, doesn't that mean a form of rules? Rules in music are very much needed. Learning how a song goes is learning the rules of the song, it's a good thing. Because if you ever happen to be on stage with me you better know your part, the band will know if you're off and you may not get invited the next time around.

 

[Electric Warrior]

Isn't the word 'styles' inferring different techniques, doesn't that mean a form of rules? Rules in music are very much needed. Learning how a song goes is learning the rules of the song, it's a good thing. Because if you ever happen to be on stage with me you better know your part, the band will know if you're off and you may not get invited the next time around.

I'm coming at it in this way: In OP's example, you can play the same notes in the correct time in different ways. You can pinch, you can strum with the thumb, you can strum with a pick. I basically agree with you though.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Joe Pass started out using a pick, then taught himself finger style. He would still switch back to a pick for faster runs, though sometimes he had to fish around for the pick:

 

[Mowgli]

Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Brent Mason and Lenny Breau all used a thumb pick.

To the best of my knowledge Lenny was the only one of these great players to play/pick with his right index, middle, ring and pinky fingers. Lenny insisted that the electric guitar allowed guitarists to use the pinky to pick strings; traditionally it was felt that the pinky lacked the strength to pick the string as loudly as the other fingers.

I believe Lenny struck the strings like classical players; small amount of finger tip flesh and the adjacent nail.

A great contemporary fingerstyle jazz and pop player, Walter Rodrigues, Jr doesn’t use a pick for his fingerstyle playing. <https://www.walterrodriguesjr.com/>

If I was starting from scratch, I would emulate Lenny.