Hybrid Picking Rhythm
Since most of your time is spent playing rhythm in a band situation, it’s good to have a few different techniques at hand (sorry for the pun…) when it comes to country/blues rock stuff.
In this example I am just going to show you a basic country-rock type of rhythm, using the pick and fingers technique. I play pretty hard when I pluck the strings with my fingers, so I really have to keep my right hand loose, just barely holding onto the pick. If you tense up your right hand, your wrist will cramp up and your endurance will suffer. Keep it loose!
When you practice this, use a metronome to keep good time and get your picked notes and plucked notes equally loud. The difference in tone that your fingers will make gives the technique a cool funky sound, very aggressive and percussive. Ok, that may have been one too many adjectives! Let’s dig in, shall we?
Here’s a tab of each pattern – it just loops the same pattern for each chord. Notice the picking — flatpick the bass notes, fingerpick the set of strings below. Nice and simple.
Once you get comfortable with the basic pattern, add ornaments or accents to make it your own. Just keep in mind the more solid, the better. Too much variation or ornamentation and suddenly you are not groovin anymore. Focus on locking onto the beat.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:15 am
John, great site, I found it through the TDPRI. I’ve been playing mainly chords and scales for the last 5 years now and am looking to move to the next level. I like your lesson on hybrid picking, I’m looking to add this and banjo rolls to my repertoire.
Looking at the hybrid picking lesson, I’m guessing you are starting off in the open E position and then sliding down to the next set of notes with the 1st and and 3rd fingers, then back to the open E? And in the B chord that 2 and 6 combination will take some practice. Is there a chance you could post a video showing the fretting hand for this lesson? Thanks, bRian
January 30th, 2008 at 10:46 am
rBrian – Yes, I’m using the open position, first and third fingers, and pinky for the 5th fret note. When I switch to B, it’s first finger on the 5th string B note, third finger on the 4th string F#, and again using the pinky to grab the 6th fret.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thanks for the speedy response John.
Brian
February 8th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Great lesson and site, thanks for the time and energy you put into it. I’ll get that B piece sooner or later!