So let's talk a little bit about right-hand technique
when you're not using the pick.
Now I'm a jazz guitar player, and in between there
I spend some time studying some classical guitar technique,
but I never studied with a teacher.
It was always self-taught, which means that my technique is probably
not perfect and probably not great.
But I do use this technique, as many jazz players do, particularly
solo guitar players, because it gives them
a different sound quality, a warmer sound if you will,
than what you do when you're getting a pick.
Here's a C major 7 chord with a pick.
[PLAYING GUITAR]
Here's that same C major 7 plucked with the fingers.
[PLAYING GUITAR]
It's a little softer in volume, but it's also a little warmer in sound.
And you might notice I also get a little bit of an arpeggiation in there too.
It helps add to the rhythmic quality of what's going on.
And what I found was if you go back and watch Joe Pass, the great solo guitar
player, I remember seeing him way, way back
when he was very young, seeing videos him
when he was playing mostly with a pick.
And then later on I got to see him live, and he was playing with a pick
when he was playing single lines and playing with his fingers
when he was playing chordal material.
So what he would do would take the pick, put it in his mouth,
and he would be playing chords--
[PLAYING GUITAR]
--grab the pick from his mouth--
[PLAYING GUITAR]
--and play fast single-note lines.
So he was going back and forth.
At some point in his career he focused entirely on his fingers,
and later on in his career when he was playing solo-guitar material
he played almost entirely with his fingers.
So let's talk a little bit about my picking and fingerpicking technique
and how I cross between the two.
The picks that I have, the two that I use here, one of them
is a Plexiglas pick that has some holes in it that helps
me grip the pick a little bit better.
And particularly in the wintertime in New England
when the rooms get very dry because the heat is constantly on,
your hands get a little bit dry and slippery, and so it's easier for picks
to fall out of your hands when you're not wanting them to.
So I like this Plexiglas one because it gives me a little bit of grip.
I also have this red jazz pick that has some raised writing on it,
and that does the same thing for me.
But I've found that in the real extreme weather when
my hands get very slippery, the Plexiglas holds a little bit better.
I keep switching back and forth between them.
That's just my prerogative.
I can remember traveling to Costa Rica with Berklee to do some clinics.
A student was asking me, what do I do with my pick
when I go from playing with the pick and using picking strokes and then
going to using my fingers when I'm playing fingerstyle?
And it had never occurred to me before that I actually do this,
but I looked down and I realized that I had been putting the pick
in between my first and second fingers.
And so when I'm playing fingerstyle--
[PLAYING GUITAR]
--my hands are there and the pick is being held in there.
When I need that for picking, I just grab it like this.
So it keeps going back and forth between my hands,
almost like a magician's sleight of hand.
And it puts your first two fingers exactly where
they need to be to play two consecutive strings together.
[PLAYING GUITAR]
Now you can't separate them, of course, because then your pick
is going to fall out of your fingers.
But if you're playing fingerstyle--
[PLAYING GUITAR]
--and then you grab the pick--
[PLAYING GUITAR]
--it's there when you need it.