please help teach new trick

[Childbride]

so i'm playing 'i can't help it' [if i'm still in love with you]

and i'm working on my fillers and tricks.

dilemma:

flat-pick the lead, start the song, flat pick the first two fillers, then i have my first rudimentary finger-picking...

A flat in first fret [bottom four strings], slide to A second fret [bottom four strings] while picking 2 and 4, then 3 and 4... [i hope i explained that right]

how does one go back and forth from pick to fingers smoothly? right now, i'm just practicing w/o flat pick, b/c i don't know how to transition.

pleeeeease help! thanks in advance!

[piebaldpython***]

CB, that sounds like a really odd and advanced technique for you to be taught. The part about going from pick to just fingers. Did your teacher tell you where to put the pick when you go to this phase?? : Seriously, my best guess would be to keep the pick and when you have to fingerpick, let your pick be the thumb and then involve your middle and ring fingers into the fray. Lots of guitarists do THIS by the way. Keep us posted on how you do.
Re the guitar: since you are doing mostly "country" type tunes, a TELE would be great.

[Childbride]

[grin] shiner won't admit it, but he's remotely related to ms. parton.

and today, after playing for 3.5 hours off and on on my lesson, i've managed to do it with the nails i still have on my right hand. [i only cut half of them off]

i'm quite sure there's a trick, and i'll ask my teach about it next wed, but i have a thing about calling people on weekends, it's an invasion of privacy, or something.

[Dreadman]

Some people tuck the pick up between the first two joints of the index finger but I've never been able to fingerpick well while holding a pick there. I'll be curious to see what other suggestions come up.

[sunvalleylaw]

I cannot personally help you but maybe this will help.

http://www.dolphinstreet.com/guitar_.../lesson-35.php

[Childbride]

thanks, y'all...

and pie, i'm not ruling anything out. i promise to try some teles.

[piebaldpython***]

CB, so long as IT gives ya the sound and tone that you want, it doesn't matter what IT's called or what it looks like. Hound Dog Taylor put out some amazing slide guitar tunes using a $50 Japanese guitar.

[wingsdad]

I use smaller jazz-type picks (different gauges, mostly pretty stiff) anyway, to get some 'meat' on the edge now & then, and to be able to handle this.

Try this CB...Ihope I describe it well enough without pictures:

I roll my ring & pinky fingers up & tuck them against my palm to hold the pick against my palm with them curled like that, leaving my thumb, fore & middle finger free for double stops and claw stuff.

(Note to Strum: that cd I sent you? The intro/hook licks to 'Without Wings' is a good example of this techniques.)

Other times, holding the smaller pick 'normally' with thumb & forefinger to get more 'snap' on the low note of a double-stop, I've got the other 3 fingers free to finger pick.

[Childbride]

Try this CB...Ihope I describe it well enough without pictures:

I roll my ring & pinky fingers up & tuck them against my palm to hold the pick against my palm with them curled like that, leaving my thumb, fore & middle finger free for double stops and claw stuff.

[grin] Wings, that sounds like a david copperfield kind of thing... walking the pick across your palm...

[snatch the pick from my palm, grasshopper]

but it actually may work, as i need to use my index and thumb to 'pincer' the finger-picking part, if that makes sense.

i also listened to my tape of my teacher over and over again this weekend, and he's walking a bass line. i'm going to see if i can get that down to surprise him on wed, but i'm not promising anything.

all things with time, and i'm a sponge. i want to learn.

thank you!

[wingsdad]

It kinda is like that, CB, actually. Like how magicians practice 'walking' coins in between thier fingers.

You do have to practice the 'process'. I'll try to descirbe the 'steps':

1. Hold the pick 'normally.

2. 'Push' the pick with your thumb so you 'slide' it away from your forefinger and then against the middle finger.

3. Keep push/sliding it til it gets to your ring & pinky fingers, then close those 2 around the pick and press a little.

4. Your ring finger's tip pretty much does the 'holding'. The pick ends up kinda cradled agianst your palm.