What's Chicken Pickin'

[jimk]

...and how is it different than hybrid picking a la Roger McGuinn? Inquiring minds.....


JimK

[jdogric12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_pickin%27

[teb]

If you do a youtube search you'll find a bunch of how-to chicken pickin' videos, demos and mini-lessons that are pretty cool.

[jimk]

Will do, Todd. [Shouldda thought of that ]

JimK

[jimk]

Post Scriptum:




Interesting to realize that I've been messing around with this for years without realizing it had a name.

JimK

[mgauction]

Also the term used from the solo played by James Burton on "Hello Mary Lou" by Ricky Nelson. Many can't re-create that solo.

[wayang]

The foremost master of this technique is Steve Morse of The Dixie Dregs...there are plenty of great examples throughout his discography, but the one I recall is his soloing on a live recording (at the Montreux Jazz Festival, I believe) called "The Bash". It's their nitro-fueled version of "The Wabash Cannonball", and Steve's picking is mind-blowing. I think the album it can be found on is "Night Of The Living Dregs", but I'll confirm that later when I get home and can peruse the vinyl library.

[mgauction]

Dane, as always, you are a great source for interesting material!

[wayang]

To quote a good friend of mine (and this is best rendered in a bucolic Alabama accent): "I have a vast residue of knowledge"...

And here's another hilarious thing: as I was logging in just now, my 'old' password from last year (which I couldn't remember to save my life and had to ask Peter for a new one in order to 'reactivate' myself) suddenly popped into my consciousness as though it had never been gone.

Oooh, those pesky synapses....

[wayang]

Well, some of my synapses seem still to be firing correctly...it was "NOTLD", recorded live in Montreux in 1978. But don't just take my word for it: here ya go...(you may want to be sitting down to watch this)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VohubM8Hls4

...and the really incredible part is, Morse is left-handed...which means that pick is in his 'weak' hand. Eeeyow.

[jimk]

...and the really incredible part is, Morse is left-handed...which means that pick is in his 'weak' hand. Eeeyow.

Not really. I'd say about 3 out of 5 left handed pickers hold the pick in their non-dominant hand. Several years ago 3 out of the 4 musicians in the string band I play in were left handed, and we all picked with our non-dominant hands and fretted with our left hands. I am one of 'em.

JimK

[wayang]

Well, Jim, it's still pretty incredible to me...I could no more pick with my left hand than sign my name legibly that way. Do you think the large percentage of lefties who play 'backwards' do it because of the inavailability of left-handed guitars when they were starting out? I guess it's either do that or flip it upside-down ala Jimi. Whether you emulate Jimi or Steve M., it's cool how a 'lefty' playing a 'righty' can produce techniques that are baffling to those of us who play "the right way".

I have a friend who is a left-handed pianist...when he plays 'stride' or salsa styles, the 'low end' stuff is huge in a way that a righty couldn't manage.

[jimk]

I asked the Eexc. Dir. of the Americana Music Academy, Thom Alexander, who is also left handed about that one day. He has to have special guitars built, and strung left handed. (It'll be a long, long time before he gets a Rickenbacker!) He said playing that way "felt natural." Who am I to argue?

Songwriter and singer Bill Staines is left handed, and plays a right handed guitar upside down, and backwards. His left hand thumb plays the treble strings, and his left hand index and middle fingers play the bass strings. Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was famous for the same thing. That's why very few people can really play "Freight Train" and get that sound.

Anybody who can play stride piano has my instant admiration! Those left hand 10ths are killers! I've got fairly good sized hands, and I can't reach 'em to save my life.