Chord Melody, Fingerstyle, Fingerpicking

BBegall

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Are these the same thing? The terminology seems confusing.
 
Are these the same thing? The terminology seems confusing.

Fingerstyle and fingerpicking are interchangeable terms denoting a technique where one note is played at a time. A chord melody is a melody played with chords instead of notes. For example, instead of playing "Three Blind Mice" with the notes A, B, and C#, you'd use A major, B major, and C# major. However, sometimes the chord doesn't sound right because of the voicing or whatever. In that case, people insert a single note to fill in the gap. And sometimes people go from full chords to individual notes for the effect.
 
I agree we're all a little confused how others use these words. To amplify a little what ripock wrote:

Fingerstyle and fingerpicking can be used interchangeably, although sometimes they have special meanings. In some folk and country guitar circles, fingerpicking can refer to different forms of pattern picking (like Travis Picking and the picking of John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotton) which may or may not always be keeping the melody going while playing the pattern. However, it seems to me that when talking about playing the ukulele, most people use either fingerstyle or fingerpicking when they want to explain they don't just strum.

Regarding chord-melody, if your playing some chord or part of a chord while you play the melody, it's chord-melody. This includes playing the chord with or without the melody. James Hill takes this further by talking about chords on and off the beat and other techniques to give listeners the impression (perhaps) of more than one ukulele playing and calls it "solo ukulele."

I'm happy there are no ukulele police or judges deciding what's right or wrong with any and every thing about the ukulele, but sometimes I do wish our words were a little more standardized. ... (or I was content to go with the flow) ... and "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!")
:eek:ld:
 
Are these the same thing? The terminology seems confusing.

Fingerstyle and fingerpicking are terms from the guitar playing world that imply that you attack strings with your fingers instead of a plectrum, where the technique is called flatpicking. Fingerpicking can also be contrasted with strumming where fingerpicking means that you use the thumb and fingers to play individual strings whereas strumming means that you play all or most strings with one motion of a finger or pick. Chord melody typically means that you not only play a melody but combine it with either picked or strummed chords. This is particularly nice on ukulele where you can combine downstrums of chords to melody played on A string with upstrums to melody notes on high G string.
 
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I agree we're all a little confused how others use these words. To amplify a little what ripock wrote:

Fingerstyle and fingerpicking can be used interchangeably, although sometimes they have special meanings. In some folk and country guitar circles, fingerpicking can refer to different forms of pattern picking (like Travis Picking and the picking of John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotton) which may or may not always be keeping the melody going while playing the pattern. However, it seems to me that when talking about playing the ukulele, most people use either fingerstyle or fingerpicking when they want to explain they don't just strum.

Regarding chord-melody, if your playing some chord or part of a chord while you play the melody, it's chord-melody. This includes playing the chord with or without the melody. James Hill takes this further by talking about chords on and off the beat and other techniques to give listeners the impression (perhaps) of more than one ukulele playing and calls it "solo ukulele."

I'm happy there are no ukulele police or judges deciding what's right or wrong with any and every thing about the ukulele, but sometimes I do wish our words were a little more standardized. ... (or I was content to go with the flow) ... and "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!")
:eek:ld:

One minor clarification: When people are first learning finger-style, they will stick to "pattern picking". This is using the same pattern through a whole song to back up vocals, like:
_______M_______ -- __M________M___
___I_______I____ or ________I_______
_____T_______T_ -- ______T_______T_
_T_______T_____ -- ___T______T_____

More advanced players like Merle Travis and Mississippi John kept the alternating thumb going, but vary the finger patterns to find the melody and embellishment notes. Libba Cotten also kept the alternating bass line going, but played the bass notes with her finger and the melody and fill ins with her thumb.
 
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One minor clarification: When people are first learning finger-style, they will stick to "pattern picking". This is using the same pattern through a whole song to back up vocals, like:
_______M_______ -- __M________M___
___I_______I____ or ________I_______
_____T_______T_ -- ______T_______T_
_T_______T_____ -- ___T______T_____

More advanced players like Merle Travis and Mississippi John kept the alternating thumb going, but vary the finger patterns to find the melody and embellishment notes. Libba Cotten also kept the alternating bass line going, but played the bass notes with her finger and the melody and fill ins with her thumb.

There is much more to fingerpicking than those pattern examples, for example coming from classical, Spanish, and Latin music and other genres. Adopting guitar patterns is not always straightforward as much of the guitar music is based on the thumb playing bass strings. Ukuleles don't have bass strings and even with low G is a treble instrument, so this limitation must be kept in mind when adopting guitar methods. On the other hand there are fewer rules and many people pick any string with their thumb or other finger.
 
I've never quite understood why it's called "Chord Melody." It's basically finding melody notes within the chord, and it works best when by happy circumstance, the melody note is on top. You can, of course, get all your melody notes on top by using the right chord inversions, think chord shapes for that. But, jumping around all over the fretboard to use the right chord shapes is very unmusical. The better method is to pluck the melody note from within the chord, and use a partial strum or additional finger pickings to fill out the harmony. I used to play a bit of autoharp, and that was real "chord melody" playing. I'd depress the right chord bar, then attack the strings so that the melody note was emphasised. The inversion was simply a function of where on the strings I started my strum. On Uke I think the best use of the inversions is to keep an interesting bass line going, rather than trying to follow a melody line.
 
Everyone else said it.

From chord melody, it is evident that the melody line must be audible from what is picked on the Ukulele, as well as the chords.
The others terms can also refer to arpeggios or picking patterns being played.

Lots of details can probably be discussed from there. When I call something chord melody, I often strum chords on beats 1 and 3, and pick individually notes in between. Not sure if it counts in everyones rules, but if the chords are there and the melody too...
 
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