The Glade 4.0

So, apparently my playstyle has shifted toward more finger picking and chord arpeggiating. I always marvelled at Lindsay Buckingham's ability and Tommy Emmanuel's complete mastery of "Travis Picking" as I have discovered it to be named.

I've toyed with it a little and never quite got the hang of it, but enjoyed trying nonetheless. So yesterday I was listening to the radio and "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas comes on. Loving the melodic progression and wanting to be able to reproduce it, I looked for a tutorial. Found a good one and in the space of one evening, I have mastered the picking pattern. The intro and verse are pretty much done and now I need to work on the rest of the song.

What caught me by surprise is how easily my right hand picked up on the pick pattern. I had always assumed the Travis Picking to be a difficult skill to master, but somehow it just programmed itself into my fingers.

I love using it. It just gives the chords so much more voice (my own interpretation) and it is so fun to play. I just really wish I had someone to learn from. This stuff seems to come to easy to me, yet I rarely take the time to find stuff to challenge myself to learn.

P.S. boy, do my fret hand fingers hurt from all that playing. Still haven't developed the callouses I have heard that guitar player supposedly develop after years of playing.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

I hear you. Classical finger picking was super natural (as opposed to supernatural) for me to pick up. It was like a duck taking to water. I was shocked as well. Maybe it's related to all the video games we play?

For some songs I find it's even easier to classically pick than standard. I was able to learn, play, and sing "December" by Collective Soul in less than half an hour. With a standard pick? I still don't think I have it down yet (though in my defense I haven't tried in 10 years).

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I've been playing guitar for almost 40 years. I'm pretty handy with a pick (relativey), but for me to do anything but very basic fingerstyle, requires a LOT of practice. I just suck at it.. badly.