Fingerstyle guitar
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Fingerstyle guitar is the musical methodology of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to individual digits, as opposed to flatpicking (picking individual notes with a single plectrum called a flatpick) or strumming all the strings of the instrument in chords. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking, although in recent years the two have frequently been considered as distinct or semi-distinct forms. Music arranged for fingerstyle playing can include chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques.
Because it refers both to a means of making music and the music thus produced, fingerstyle is best understood as both a technique and as a key element in musical genres.
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[edit] Fingerstyle as technique
Because notes are struck by five units (individual digits) rather than the hand working as a single unit, fingerstyle playing allows the guitarist to perform several musical elements simultaneously. One definition of the technique has been put forward by the Toronto (Canada) Fingerstyle Guitar Association:
Physically, “Fingerstyle” refers to using each of the righthand fingers independently in order to play the multiple parts of a musical arrangement that would normally be played by several band members. Bass, harmonic accompaniment, melody, and percussion can all be played simultaneously when playing Fingerstyle.[1]
[edit] Fingerstyle musical genres
In the most general sense, "fingerstyle" applies to all guitar music in which a plectrum is not employed. However, as this would encompass classical guitar, flamenco guitar and several other distinct styles of play, the term is commonly understood to designate not a technique but a range of musical genres and sub-genres, most often performed on the steel-string acoustic guitar. Of these, one general classification is into two broad groups: Fingerpicking, or rhythmically-based music, and melodic fingerstyle, in which tone coloration and orchestral effects are paramount.
[edit] Fingerpicking
"Fingerpicking" (also called "thumb picking", "alternating bass" or "pattern picking") is a term that is used to describe both a style and a type of music. It falls under the "fingerstyle" heading because it is plucked by the fingers, but it is generally used to play a specific type of folk, country-jazz and/or blues music. In this technique, the thumb maintains a steady rhythm, usually playing "alternating bass" patterns on the lower three strings, while the index, or index and middle fingers pick out melody and fill-in notes on the high strings. Originally developed by African American blues guitarists throughout the South imitating the left and right hand parts of piano rags, it was later adapted by white musicians—most notably Ike Everly, Merle Travis and Chet Atkins—who created a blues/jazz/country hybrid that became extremely popular. Although usually played on acoustic guitars, Travis himself often played on hollow-body electrics, as do many other players.[2] </blockquote>
[edit] Travis picking
This style is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars with 6 or 12 strings. While it is played on just about every type of guitar, these are most common and characteristic. Pattern picking is the use of "preset right-hand pattern[s]" while fingerpicking on a guitar (the left hand voicing traditional chords).
The most common pattern, sometimes named Travis picking after Merle Travis, who pioneered this style, is as follows (ibid):
M I T M T I T M I T M T I T T T
The thumb (T) alternates between bass notes, often on two different strings, while the index (I) and middle (M) fingers alternate between two treble notes, usually on two different strings, most often the second and first. Using this pattern on a C major chord is as follows in notation and tablature (ibid):
Most likely the style originated in the late 1880s and early 1900s with guitarists imitating [ragtime]] piano. The first recorded examples were by black country blues players such as Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie and Mississippi John Hurt. Later Country and Western artists such as Sam McGee and Ike Everly (father of The Everly Brothers), took up the style. In the 1950s Merle Travis carried on and refined the form and the term "Travis picking" came into vogue as a way to describe this alternating-bass style fingerpicking. Ten or so years later Chet Atkins emerged as the star of the genre.
[edit] American primitive guitar
American primitive guitar or American Primitivism is a subset of fingerstyle guitar. It originated with John Fahey, whose first record album Blind Joe Death (1959) inspired many guitarists such as Leo Kottke, who made his debut recording of 6 and 12 String Guitar on Fahey's Takoma label in 1969. American primitive guitar can be characterized by the use of folk music or folk-like material, driving alternating-bass fingerpicking with a good deal of repetitious ostinato patterns, and the use of alternative tunings (scordatura) such as open D, open G, drop D and open C.
[edit] Ragtime guitar
As mentioned above, fingerpicking was probably originally inspired by ragtime piano. In the 1960s a new generation of guitarists returned to these roots and began to transcribe piano tunes for solo guitar. One of the best known and most talented of these players was Dave Van Ronk who arranged St. Louis Tickle for solo guitar. In 1971 guitarists David Laibman and Eric Schoenberg arranged and recorded Scott Joplin rags and other complex piano arrangements for the LP The New Ragtime Guitar on Folkways Records. This was followed by a Stefan Grossman method book with the same title. A year later Grossman and ED Denson founded Kicking Mule Records a company that recorded scores of LPs of solo ragtime guitar by artists including Grossman, Ton van Bergeyk, Leo Wijnkamp, Duck Baker, Peter Finger, Lasse Johansson and Dale Miller. One of today's top ragtime stylists is Craig Ventresco, who is best known for playing on the soundtracks of various Terry Zwigoff movies.
[edit] "New Age" fingerstyle
In 1976, William Ackerman started Windham Hill Records, which carried on the Takoma tradition of original compositions on solo steel string guitar. However, instead of the folk and blues oriented music of Takoma, including Fahey's American primitive guitar, the early Windham Hill artists (and others influenced by them) abandoned the steady alternating or monotonic bass in favor of sweet flowing arpeggios and flamenco-inspired percussive techniques. The label's best selling artist George Winston and others used a similar approach on piano. This music was generally pacific, accessible and expressionistic. Eventually, this music acquired the label of "New Age", apropos its widespread use as background music at bookstores, spas and other New Age businesses. The designation has stuck, though it wasn't a term coined by the company itself.
[edit] Celtic guitar
[edit] Slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar is a fingerpicked style that originated in Hawai`i. The English term is a translation of the Hawaiian kī hō‘alu, which means "loosen the [tuning] key." Slack key is nearly always played in open or altered tunings--the commonest tuning is G-major (DGDGBD), called "taropatch," though there is a family of major-seventh tunings called "wahine" (Hawaiian for "woman"), as well as tunings designed to get particular effects.
Basic slack key style, like mainland folk-based fingerpicking, establishes an alternating bass pattern with the thumb and plays the melody line with the fingers on the higher strings. The repertory is rooted in traditional, post-Contact Hawaiian song and dance, but since 1946 (when the first commercial slack key recordings were made) the style has expanded, and some contemporary compositions have a distinctly New Age sound.
Slack key's older generation included Gabby Pahinui, Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, Atta Isaacs, and Raymond Kāne. Prominent contemporary players include Keola Beamer, his brother Kapono Beamer, Ledward Kaapana, Dennis Kamakahi, John Keawe, Ozzie Kotani, George Kuo, Peter Moon, Bob Brozman and Cyril Pahinui.
[edit] Jazz fingerstyle
The unaccompanied guitar in jazz is often represented in chord-melody format, where the guitarist plays a series a chords with the melody line on top. True fingerstyle jazz guitar, without the use of a plectrum, dates all the way back to players like Eddie Lang (1902-1933) and Carl Kress (1907-1965), but has become much more popular in recent years. George van Eps (1913-1998) was revered for his polyphonic solo guitar playing, and the brilliant Joe Pass (1929-1994) truly popularized fingerstyle solo jazz guitar improvisation in his latter years.
Today, fingerstyle jazz guitar has several proponents, from the extraordinary Martin Taylor to the pianistic Jeff Linsky, who freely improvises polyphonically while employing a classical guitar technique. Contemporary jazz guitarist Earl Klugh has also recorded several fingerstyle jazz projects on the solo guitar.
[edit] Percussive fingerstyle
[edit] See also
[edit] Notable fingerstyle players
- Will Ackerman
- Muriel Anderson
- Chet Atkins
- Duck Baker
- Robbie Basho
- Lindsey Buckingham
- Trace Bundy
- Alex de Grassi
- Tommy Emmanuel
- John Fahey
- Taylor Gaydon
- Edward Gerhard
- Stefan Grossman
- Michael Hedges
- Mississippi John Hurt
- Jorma Kaukonen
- Phil Keaggy
- Kaki King
- Mark Knopfler
- Leo Kottke
- Peter Lang
- Jeff Linsky
- Dale Miller
- Don Ross
- Merle Travis
- Doc Watson
