Folk - Fingerpicking Threes.pdf - 5. Folk - Willmaster

of T rest

hrees

finaerstvle

svncomations

ountry-style Travis picking is

based on duple rhythms:

Each quarter-note can be

divided into eighth-notes to produce all

kinds of picking patterns (Ex. l), and syn-

You can graft this rhythm onto straight

underlies an idea you’ll find, among other

Travis picking if you bring in your ring fin-

places, at the end of Dot Watson’s “Deep

ger. Here you get the effect of crosspicking

River Blues.” While Ex. 6 is based on this

with a flatpick [see Happy Traum’s

same “groups of three eighth-notes” idea, it

crosspicking arrangement of “Dill Pickle

requires a completely different technique,

copation arises from dropping treble notes

Rag”in this issue], plus the added bonus of

since the hammer-ons account for two of

into surprising places within the eight

eighth-note slots available (compare

Examples 2a and 2b).

One of the best ways to put some

a steady boom-chick bass-Ex. 5 should

get you in the mood.

This same three-against-two

the three eighth-notes. The easiest way to

get a grip on this pattern is to play just the

rhythm

finger notes, then just the thumb notes,

sparkle into Travis picking is by scat-

tering some threes in amongst all

those duple twos.

Plain rolls

One familiar way to do this is by group-

ing those duple eighth-notes in threes,

as in the venerable banjo roll (Ex. 3).

Displace this rhythm by one eighth-

note and you can create a lurching

country blues ending. (Ex. 4).

By Greg Hofmann

HOW TO PLAY GUITAR / LEAD

A Fo

then add them together, measure by mea-

sure. On the CD version of this lesson

you’ll hear how you can extend this pat-

tern indefinitely.

like Ex. 8.) But what we’re talking about

here is jamming triplets into whitebread

duple meters.

So instead of vamping away, boom-chick

booma-chick, behind the fiddle solo (Ex. 91,

make it gallop: Drop a triplet into the second

half of each measure and it lopes along,

boom-chick bumpity-chick (Ex. 10). You’ll

find all kinds of places to slip these triplets

into your Travis-style playing.

You can inject some real juice into an

arrangement by stringing triplets together.

Ex. 11 drops a pair into the front and back

ends of that passage from “Wilson’s Bag” up

in Ex. 1. Isn’t that funner? And Ex. 12 is a

triplets version of a familiar ending that you

can use as a flashy tag to any ragtime guitar

piece in C.

the act. Let’s start by playing backbeats, as

in Ex. l&--your fingers pick on the sec-

ond and fourth beats, in time with your

alternating thumb. But what if you threw a

couple of dotted-quarter notes (the equiv-

alent of three eighth-notes) into your

thumb pattern? Ex. 14 introduces this

idea, first as part of a familiar arpeggio pat-

tern to make the rhythm clear, then as

thumb-strokes alone (it’s the rhythm of

“Matilda,” the old calypso standard).

Combine that thumb rhythm with the

backbeats in the fingers and you get Ex.

15. Now add the pattern of Ex. 15 to the

pattern of Ex. 13 and you get Ex. 16,

which keeps steady backbeats going as the

thumb changes rhythms. Scary.

There you have it-a whole mess of

threes you can use to complicate your

fingerstyle arrangements. Go forth and

multiply.

Hickory licks

The next “three” is a stone-simple idea, but

I’ve heard almost no one use it. (This tech-

nique was the hot ticket in my little circle of

fingerpicking folkies back in high school,

and we glommed onto it by listening to

Steve Gillette. I’m giving away the family

jewels here, friends.)

All it is is a triplet roll (&r, 7). Play the

notes as evenly as possible, so,that each bar

sounds lie “hickory stick, hot lick.”

Of course, you do find triplets all over

the place in fingerstyle blues, because

every quarter-note is already subdivided

into three eighth-notes. (In a fingerstyle

blues, the riff in Ex. 4 would be played

Thumb threes

Now it’s time to get your right thumb into

Ex. 1

Ex. 3

Ex. 2b

Ex. 4

I LEAD / HOW TO PLAY GUITAR

Ex.12

Ex.15

Cdim7

. .

Ex.13

Ex.14

LEAD / HOW TO PLAY GUITAR

Folk - Fingerpicking Threes.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: