Hi ya'll! It's your 'in the background' leader, haha! I know it's been ages since I've submitted any videos.... or even done much commenting, but I'm still here! If you've followed any of my old videos, or read my comments along the years, you probably know that most of my mandolin playing is melody lines of old time and Irish Traditional, and fiddle tunes. And, that pick direction is something that I've concentrated on... when I first started playing, I didn't pay close attention to pick direction, but soon learned that I should, and it's something I concentrate on getting 'right'. My question is regarding playing a melody line in these tunes, but on my guitar, rather than my mandolin. I realize there are a million ways to play the guitar, and it varies as to the genre... but my question is on playing the same basic thing I already know how to play on the mandolin, but on the guitar. My instinct is to do it the same, and continuing the same pick direction as I would on the mandolin. Is this acceptable? I also hold my pick the same, and concentrate on my movement coming from the wrist, just as I do with the mandolin. Is this also acceptable? I've been working with a friend who is mostly a rhythm guitar player, and we are both working on the melody lines of our tunes... and I don't want to steer her wrong!
Interesting that you should post this at this moment, Barbara! I have just been re-reading an article in the June 2007 edition of Acoustic Guitar, a rather fine publication originating in your country which I bought for many years and still buy occasionally. It is called "Learn to Flatpick like Tony Rice" and is an analysis of how the great guitarist Tony Rice produces his flatpicking tunes. Rather than, or as well as, regular alternate picking Tony employs a technique where he decides whether to use and upstroke or downstroke according to the direction he is moving in, i.e. if going from say string 2 to string 3 (coming towards the low strings) he will play an upstroke on 2 as this leads across to 3, and if going 3 to 2 (going towards the treble strings) he uses a downstroke. It makes a lot of sense and is economical of movement. The tunes so many of us play on mandolin - the fiddle and traditional Irish/Scottish tunes - are often found in the music Tony plays and Bluegrass uses a lot of those tunes, so the picking is very closely related. On guitar the string spacing can require some adjustment in your picking as you are covering a wider sweep across the strings, especially in tunes where you might be skipping strings or playing pedal notes. Having come to mandolin family from guitar I found that at first I felt cramped in my picking, but it comes with practice and muscle memory. I could probably scan the main parts of the article if you'd find it useful and e-mail hem to you. As it is a commercial publication I'd be reluctant to put it in the public domain, but a private copy for study purposes would be fair, I'd think. Let me know by PM.
I would say that the technique Tony uses is what I would consider a bit advanced. If someone is learning, they should probably stick with the up and down strokes, same as on the mandolin. Barbara, it is much the same technique as on the mandolin, generally, although people tend to need a bit more arm movement because the distance across all the strings is greater, so the movement comes from the whole arm and not just the wrist - at least, that's my approach.
The technique John Kelly is describing has been called "economy picking". It is a combination of regular alternate picking and sweep picking for moving across strings. Now when translating a melody from mandolin to guitar you might find that finding the right key for the tune on the guitar might involve the use of the capo. For instance, playing Soldier's Joy in D on the mandolin is where it's usually done (that's where the fiddles do it), however, on a guitar it can easily be played out of the C position. So if you capo the guitar at the second fret, you'll end up playing in the key of D. Most bluegrass guitar players use a capo and concentrate on playing tunes out of the G position and maybe the D and C positions. Then with the capo the results can be played in whatever key everyone else is doing it in. I usually take a quick look at other guitar players on YouTube to see where they are playing a particular tune before I commit to learning a tune in a particular key. When you are not taking a lead break on the melody you're expected to play backup rhythm for the band. There are many, many fine tutorials to get you started on this topic. But it's one of the most important aspects of playing a guitar...
Alternate your down/ups just like on the mandolin. Down stroke on the down beat, up stroke on the back beat - you'll get used to the spacing with time and practice. If playing a jig I usually do a straight DUD DUD pattern, although there are those that will still stick with the DU DU DU pattern. I think it is easier to sound "jiggy" with the DUD DUD.
