Finger Picking

Down Up Dick

Down Up Dick

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Do you finger pickers play from music, or tabs, or by ear? I've been picking from music lately, and I find it so much easier than tabs. I was just wondering what others do.

I planned on being a plunka-plunka-plunker, but i'm giving in and finger picking my baritone, and, later, my new Banjolele.

Pick it! :eek:ld:
 
I play off tab. But I'm learning to just figure it out. It's slow going. But I'm learning a lot.
 
I have very limited reading skills. I have taught myself to read tabs and haven't gone any further. Can't imagine playing ukulele from standard notation.
 
I started with tabs and am now beginning to learn to use sheet music. I decided to make the shift because: 1) when I am looking at the tab and trying to "hear" the tune in my head, the re-entrant tuning throws me. After years of playing trumpet and reading notes my head tells me "A note on the 4th string should be lower than the 3rd string! What is this craziness!"; and 2) learning to read both opens the doors to play the music however it is presented.
 
WCBarnes said:
I started with tabs and am now beginning to learn to use sheet music. I decided to make the shift because: 1) when I am looking at the tab and trying to "hear" the tune in my head, the re-entrant tuning throws me. After years of playing trumpet and reading notes my head tells me "A note on the 4th string should be lower than the 3rd string! What is this craziness!"; and 2) learning to read both opens the doors to play the music however it is presented.
Click to expand...

WC, I really know what you mean about trying to "hear" tabs. They just don't make sense in my head, and one can sing musical notes but not tabs. The high G (fourth) string is also kinda worthless unless one is fretting chords.

Tabs are for beer cans! :eek:ld:
 
ubulele said:
For almost all of my playing, whether strumming or fingerpicking, I work things out either by ear or from standard notation. Tab has its uses, but it's my source of last resort.
Click to expand...

Wow, this the second time we've agreed on something. I must be getting smarter or more open minded.

Progress! :eek:ld:
 
I play by ear except when I'am learning on a new song. When I started uke a couple of months age I would naturally pick the melody and still do when learning a new piece and the chords overwhelm me. I have had to unlearn my picking habits, (and double thumbing) in order to learn ukulele. When I play out and get into trouble - I have no fear of failure, and perform new material before I'm really up to it, I take a melodic break and usually am received well. Its somewhat like climbing in an airplane until it stalls and then instinct takes over so you can recover without the crash and burn.
 
Double Thumbing can be used on any stringed instrument but is easiest explained in terms of banjo. The popular conception is that the right thumb is only used on the reentrant G string of the banjo, creating a drone. When you use you thumb alternately on two different strings you are double thumbing. The technique is particularly used in clawhammer styles because clawhammer is all down picking. Using double thumb in combination with hammer-ons or pull-offs allows the down picker to execute triplets and to play around with the rhythm a clave,(calypso) rhythm for example.
 
IamNoMan said:
Double Thumbing can be used on any stringed instrument but is easiest explained in terms of banjo. The popular conception is that the right thumb is only used on the reentrant G string of the banjo, creating a drone. When you use you thumb alternately on two different strings you are double thumbing. The technique is particularly used in clawhammer styles because clawhammer is all down picking. Using double thumb in combination with hammer-ons or pull-offs allows the down picker to execute triplets and to play around with the rhythm a clave,(calypso) rhythm for example.
Click to expand...

Cool. I was always told that was a "drop thumb frailing" technique - or at least that was how some folks in West Virginia described the way I played guitar, when I went to college there an eternity ago.

But in answer to Dick's original question, I play totally by ear. I can sort-of follow standard notation - I can follow it (not read it!)on a guitar, but after 3 years still don't really know the names of the notes on the fretboard of a uke. And tabs? Forget it - I was lost 40+ years ago when I tried to follow Pete Seeger's How To Play The 5-String Banjo, and I haven't gotten any better at it.


-Kurt​
 
Do you finger pickers play from music, or tabs, or by ear?
Click to expand...
My baritone and one of my sopranos are tuned in fifths, for these I read from conventional notation almost exclusively, mostly a carry-over from my mandolin! On my re-entrantly tuned ukuleles, (sopranos and concert) I play mostly from tab, (clawhammer and lute music mostly), but for my pineapple soprano with the low G I play either from sheet music layed out for a guitar (I haven't actually learnt to read "directly" onto the ukulele, yet ...) or from tab that's set out for a low-G instrument. I've never been very good at "playing by ear", on any instrument. Occaisionally I'll be noodling around, picking a few chord shapes, and "find" a segment of a tune that I recognise ... if I can't figure the rest of it out fairly promptly I'll usually then revert to sheet music for the rest of it, rather than struggle :mad:

Of course, there are also some very instructional videos on the 'net ... I learnt a lot of guitar simply by sitting and watching ... that's how we did it "way back when" and it's a trick I can still use to advantage if I can get a reasonable view of the performers fingers ;)
 
Your pretty much on the button Ubulele. There is no restriction on the 5th string usage, I prefer chunka, chunka :p Don't mix the index and middle finger in your thinking though.Either finger will work but mixing the middle and index finger will give you a down picking roll, (you wouldn't need the double thumb to make triplets). The iTmT is more like Charlie Poole's style. (It isn't; but, Poole Style was based on his adaptation required by a smashed hand).
 
Since I don't have decent fingernails (as many of you already know!) and haven't been able to settle in with any sort of picks, I have taken to fingerpicking with my bare thumb and index finger only. I've found that just about any style of rhythmic picking can be done that way. And, I can get a good, strong pluck out of my thumb on the down stroke pick, and out of my index finger on the up stroke pick. Then, by relegating the thumb to strings 4 and 3, and the index to 2 and 1, I can get some organization going.
 
VegasGeorge said:
Since I don't have decent fingernails (as many of you already know!) and haven't been able to settle in with any sort of picks, I have taken to fingerpicking with my bare thumb and index finger only. I've found that just about any style of rhythmic picking can be done that way. And, I can get a good, strong pluck out of my thumb on the down stroke pick, and out of my index finger on the up stroke pick. Then, by relegating the thumb to strings 4 and 3, and the index to 2 and 1, I can get some organization going.
Click to expand...

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding you, that's how most of us pick. Strings 4 - 3 with the thumb, 2 with the index and 1 with the middle. How were you picking before? Anyway, that's the way I pick, and that's the way my books recommend. Let me know--I'm interested.

Phoop! :eek:ld:
 
IamNoMan said:
Your pretty much on the button Ubulele. There is no restriction on the 5th string usage, I prefer chunka, chunka :p Don't mix the index and middle finger in your thinking though.Either finger will work but mixing the middle and index finger will give you a down picking roll, (you wouldn't need the double thumb to make triplets). The iTmT is more like Charlie Poole's style. (It isn't; but, Poole Style was based on his adaptation required by a smashed hand).
Click to expand...

/// The message you sent me cannot be answered because your mailbox is full!!! :eek:ld: ////
 
I play from tabs or sheet music with tablature. Sheet music provides the rhythm and timing but I need the kind with the tablature and notes. I cannot play by ear but wish I could. Maybe I am tone-deaf.
 
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