How many of you guys do some sort of hybrid picking?

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
doesn't have to be full on country-style but I've been seeing a lot of shredders use it lately too!
 
I have started to but not for that country kind of thing.... I like doing the "piano chords" where two or three notes are plucked simultaneously, not have the pick sweep across.
 
Just recently started development. Its hard but I can see the advantages already. The ring finger seems to be the most resistant for me. Little bastard.

Sent from The Nether
 
I've always been a hybrid picker. I'm way better at playing that way than trying to straight up alternate pick. Especially for string skipping.
 
Frequently. I do a lot of Billy Gibbons stuff, which has a lot of hybrid. Most of the time I'll use it to pop out the treble on a chord a little more.
 
Yup. All the time. It's not something I think about any more. Most often I play without a pick, but then realize I want to play something that will benefit from its use and then it's anyone's guess how I'm gonna play anything.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
"Some sort", yes. But not with any kind of good technique.
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If you're getting the sounds you want, it's good technique. The notion of specific "technique" is garbage. Wes killed any preconceptions about how to play guitar in jazz (and beyond). It's all about what works and most importantly, what works for YOU. Of course you know this, but I can't help myself whenever the topic of technique arises.
 
Dogsinotpalc said:
If you're getting the sounds you want, it's good technique. The notion of specific "technique" is garbage. Wes killed any preconceptions about how to play guitar in jazz (and beyond). It's all about what works and most importantly, what works for YOU. Of course you know this, but I can't help myself whenever the topic of technique arises.
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As a guitar teacher, I couldn't disagree more.
 
I use for country, and sometimes popping strings in other styles. I haven't really caught on to how people use it in shred, though I've seen it done.

It came slowly for me since I have some background in classical guitar. I used to tuck the pick and use pim for fast banjo rolls and all that. I have since changed it over to pick ma. I can blaze on the pick ma pattern, but I have a really tough time doing it backwards, am pick, so I have been practicing that here and there.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
As a guitar teacher, I couldn't disagree more.
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That's cool. It's okay to disagree, it's almost what Al Gore invented teh interwebz for. I'm just saying that no technique is universally mandated or applicable or will work for every player in every situation. There's been endless amount of great music made by musicians that didn't excel at specific techniques while still being great musicians/instrumentalists. As a former guitar student that had about four different teachers I can tell you that they all had different ways of playing that they felt were the best right way and I adopted and adapted none of them. I was still able to play, I just did it with different technique.

It's all good though. Segovia thought electric guitar was an abomination (he was quoted as saying so in one of the first issues of Guitar Player magazine...he actually said it after picking the first issue with Hendrix on the cover, so he may have been talking about Jimi too). According to Leavitt's modern method for guitar Wes and Berkley grad Kevin Hubanks play incorrectly because they don't use picks. Jeff Healey...I'm not even sure where to begin. Tal Farlow, Harvey Mandel, Steve Hackett, EVH...using fingers from their picking hands to fret notes?!? That's insane.

Anyway, I'm on autopilot. I know there are some basic foundations that will work for most players and them progress, but nothing is written in stone. I find this especially true in regards to the picking hand. All I'm really saying is that whatever any player does to get music that I enjoy out of any instrument is fine with me.
 
Rarely, because I use a pick only when it works better than my fingers for what I'm doing, like certain solo styles.
It wouldn't hurt learning it since my middle and ring fingers already know what to do. Besides, they might get bored.
 
I think it's a tricky technique to master, but I found this video a good guide when I was starting to learn hybrid picking:

 
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I've tried it in the past, completely suck at it.
But I do intend on going back and giving it another shot.
 
Not as a rule but sometimes I try and use it rather than fingerpick a part if I have to get back to using the plectrum quickly.
 
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