Crosspicking Guitar

Subject: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:57 AM

I recently picked up Mel Bay's Fingerstyle Crosspicking Solos (for guitar) by Tommy Flint. Intriguing and delightful sounding style. Also requires starting over since it's so different from 'regular' finger picking. Anybody know of other sources on crosspicking? Any comments? Picked up this book at Folk of the Wood. Never saw so many dobros and mandolins in one place, and a 12-string banjo.

Best to all, Andrew

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 01:55 AM

I'll be anxious to see what gets posted here in response to GUEST,Andrew's question. I'm only familiar with the term crosspicking as applied to the flatpicking technique of the same name.

When I crosspick, using a flatpick, I am basically using a flatpick to mimic the three-finger roll that bluegrass banjo players use. If the term is being applied consistantly, I'm guessing that crosspicking fingerstyle might be a little like playing banjo rolls on a guitar.

Tommy Flint is the author of a great many books on fingerstyle guitar, many of them in the Chet Atkins style. Chet—like all the great thumbpickers—played a lot of fingerstyle licks that sound like crosspicking. Still, I'm guessing that most of the references you'll find to “crosspicking” will be flatpicking techniques.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Anahootz
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 03:30 AM

I'm with Mark on this one...Crosspicking on guitar as I know it is not changing pick direction in the "normal" fashion. To wit, "normal" would be down-up-down-up etc., and crosspicking would be playing ascending or descending courses as down-down-down or up-etc. A great example of this is Steve Kaufmann's version of "Wheel Hoss", in the second run through the tune. When done correctly, crosspicking produces some amazing tones.

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: tar_heel
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 07:14 AM

there is a friend of mine...named REX HODGES...lives right outside of Mt.Airy,n.c.,and he does one of the best crosspickin stlye of guitar playing that i've ever seen or heard in this neck of the woods...its a perfect match of the RALPH STANLEY traditional sound...dang,i love it!! we use him in our performances from time to time...dang,people love it too....dang,dang,dang...(thats southern georgia slang for...OUT OF SIGHT,MAN!!!)

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: DonMeixner
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 08:40 AM

My understanding of crosspicking is its a style of playing where each note gets a change of direction with the pick.

Four notes in a row = down-up-down-up.

Three note with a rest between 2&4 = down-up-rest-up.

All the rests are treated as notes and tho' not played the rhythym is unvaried. Marc Chevalier of Elmira NY explained that this style allowed for incredible power and speed as well as rhythmic ornamentation.

Marc also stressed that it should be played with a straight wrist with all the work dobe at the elbow.

He sited Dan Crary and Doc Watson as the best around at the time he showed me.

Is this fairly accurrate, I'm working on a 25 year old memory.

Don

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 09:15 AM

None of the posts so far define ceosspicking as I know it, but I am going to leave it to Rick to give the definitive explantation ....

Murray

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: kendall
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 10:13 AM

You should hear Dave Mallett cross pick I WISH I WERE A HORSE on a 12 string.

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 10:16 AM

I'll be interested to see what the real answer is but I thought cross picking was a flat picking technique too. I thought you pick a string on a down pick, pick the next higher string on a down pick (almost playing these 2 as one movement) and then play an up pick. It is something I have heard bluegrass type mandolin players do but something I'm not adept at.

Jon

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Big Mick
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 11:25 AM

Very interesting, maybe Justa Picker or Rick can help us here. I am in the flatpick camp with regard to what I know as crosspicking. In fact, the mando player in our group, Tom Verlin, does a fair amount of it. I love the sound. I will be watching this thread with interest.

Mick

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: 53
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 11:46 AM

Good luck.

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:21 PM

Well, there ain't no "definitive" cross picking style. Bill Napier and George Shuffler are the names most Bluegrass musicians call up when "crosspicking" is discussed, and if they're a bit obscure for your blood, then Doc and Norman Blake should fit the bill.

Perhaps the most celebrated of all crosspickers is Jessie MacReynolds (on Mandolin)

Thing is, they all do it differently. Jon's description of "Down, Down, up", is how I do it anyway.

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:29 PM

My understanding is just a bit different. As others (like Mark) have mentioned, there is the element of duplicating "banjo rolls" with a flatpick. I also think that in most cases what is involved is a pattern, whether the mentioned banjo roll or a folk travis picking (as when Randy Scruggs plays "Freight Train" with a flat pick).

The addition I would make is that I thought that the "cross" in crosspicking refers to crossing over adjacent strings in order to achieve the pattern.

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 12:36 PM

I'm a flat picker - and cross picking is a technique that uses a flat pick. All of the folks that Rick mentioned are the creme de la creme of this style. I got most of my ideas on this from Doc Watson, Dan Crary, Happy Traum, Jerry Silverman, and Norman Blake (who IMHO is the best). It is, according to these guys, a down up pick movement - but what strings are struck depends on the tune. And there are two major sequences of it and derivitives come from these basic styles. I call it idling - when not pursuing an active lead/melody line crosspicking makes a great filler and sets up the song for the next straight run of notes.

Bluegrass Guitar by Happy Traum
The Songs of Doc watson (Oak Publications)
Flat-pick Country Guitar by Happy Traum
The Flatpicker's Guitar Guide by Jerry Silverman

All describe exactly the same styles as the basics. After that it gets real unique!! And fun *BG*

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 01:16 PM

It looks as though we have consensus that crosspicking is a flatpicking technique, whether on guitar, mandolin, or some other instrument, and probably derives its name from the idea that successive (eighth) notes are often played on strings that are not adjacent.

Still, GUEST,Andrew is referring to a particular title authored by Tommy Flint. So the question is: did Flint, a rather prolific author of instruction books, just make up the term fingerstyle crosspicking or is this a well-know technique with a large number of practitioners?

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 01:23 PM

Mark,
Or in a wierd reversal of terms could he be referring to fingerstyle flatpicking a la Wayne Henderson?

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Arbuthnot
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 04:44 PM

From what has been said above it looks to me that fingerstyle crosspicking would have to include an element of frailing, which is what most banjo players do anyway. For those unfamiliar with the word, frailing is picking with the front face (backhand side) of the nail, rather than the back face (forehand side) of the nail. Mix the two techniques and see who gets cross about it (Geoff the Duck, probably).

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 04:59 PM

John, you might be onto something. Using thumb and index to simulate flatpicking means the two digits must cross occasionally. Maybe that's what Flint and GUEST,Andrew are talking about.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 05:08 PM

Oh, wait... I have it. I found a description of what Flint calls fingerstyle crosspicking on the Mel Bay site.

Fingerstyle crosspicking is an enchanting style of playing the guitar that produces a beautiful, flowing, harp-like effect similar to the 5-string banjo chromatic or melodic style. The idea is to play as many open strings as possible while playing all fingered notes as high on the fingerboard as possible. Unless played in a legato fashion, successive eighth notes are not played on the same string. This technique allows the tones of a melody to overlap and ring longer than if played in the normal fashion.

I found some info on Flint on Thom Bresh's site. It turns out Flint is second cousin to Merle Travis.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Justa Picker
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 05:18 PM

Mark,
Funny I always thought of it as "noodling around" when I do what you've described. **G** I also use a lot of forward and reverse banjo roll patterns ala Doc, but definitely in the Henderson style. Thumb-downstroke/index-upstroke; like flatpicking but using the ole two fingered method. Chet used it a lot vs. flatpicking. Have a listen to "Chet & Doc" (1979) or the later released version of the same album called "Reflections". Marvelous album by the way, and I believe Dick and Camsco stock it.

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Rolfyboy6
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 05:21 PM

One day soon I'm gonna have to learn (flatpick) crosspicking. As I get it, it's like the rolls of bluegrass banjo. so...

2 bar forward roll
rhythm: 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2
pick: dn- dn- up- dn- dn- up- dn- up-
Did I get this right? This means that there are tons of rolls to learn like three finger banjo, yes?

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 05:57 PM

Rolf, That's exactly right. Say you're holding a simple first position D chord. You'd pick down on the third string, down on the second string and up on the first string. Then you'd repeat those three notes and follow up with a down stroke on the third string and an up stroke on the first string; all in the rhythm you described.

As you point out there are as many variations as there are banjo rolls and one must always be ready to vary the pattern to accomodate notes, slides, etc.

Just as in banjo playing, over time, one gains a muscle memory for the technique and the concentration on patterns begins to fade.

J.P., Noodling around, yeah... that's the ticket. <g>

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 08:14 PM

Let's see - noodling would be the forward roll and idling would be the backwards one - See? I told you there were two basic ones *BG*.

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:07 AM

Thanks all, for the responses. Sorry I tend to be so slow in acknowledging. It's often days before I get back to the computer, and sometimes I feel my threads are so stale it's not worth refreshing just to thank folks. I likely give the impression of being ungrateful, but I'm not.

Mark Clark is right on what book I have in hand, and it is definitely a finger-picking technique that Flint is talking about. Evidently it's not common enough to be widely known, but it does sound intriguing on the CD that accompanies the book. Just wondered what else I might learn about it.

All the best, Andrew

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: SharonA
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 12:03 PM

To GUEST, Andrew: Where is this "Folk of the Wood" place of which you speak???

Sharon

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:19 PM

See now.....there oughta be a law.

The nomenclature lawyers gotta get on this because....what Mark quoted as "crosspicking" by Mr. Flint, when referring to fingerpicking...
....would be called "floating" when flatpicking.

So now my head is spinning.
If I'm playing fingerstyle I can crosspick a piece that I might have used a floating technique with a flatpick...but if I flatpick in a crosspicking style I'm actually imitating the sound that I get when playing fingerstyle...except when I'm floating then I sound like I'm playing a harp.....

..so, who's on first?

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: M.Ted
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:25 PM

Not real familiar with this style, but, I believe, that if you play an A chord using a four string F barre across the fifth fret (0-0-7-6-5-5) and get a good bass line rolling and try to pick out "I Saw the Light" starting on the E on the B string fifth fret(easier than it sounds, just use your ear) you'll get a feel for what the sound is--

The "eight notes on the same fret",for melody as well as ornaments, are played as hammer-ons and pull-offs--the cross- part, I think comes from the fact that you occasionally go to a lower string to get a higher note, or to a higher string to get a lower note, though I find that you can do a Riley Puckett-like up and down with the index finger(Merle Travis used this as well) which is certainly cross-picking of a sort--

Nice thing about this is that you have the advantages of open tuning playing without the disadvantages of re-tuning--

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Justa Picker
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:29 PM

(Bit of thread creep) but the term "Travis picking" has been pretty distorted and twisted as well over the years. I see it used all the time and so out of context, that it amuses me. So many people assume is it a group of set fingerpicking patterns revolving around an alternating bass played with the thumb. Well sort of....but no cigar. *G* (Probably deserves a separate thread.)

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Justa Picker
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 02:00 PM

(Decided to give "Travis Picking" its own thread.)

Subject: RE: Help: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 08:03 PM

Cross-picking is a technique of jumping, or "crossing", strings. Strictly speaking, it follows a certain pattern, using either a "forward" or "backwards" roll with a certain number of notes per phrase. Generally speaking, cross-picking can be any phrase in which strings are skipped or in which a roll or some sort or another is played. The "floating" technique, for instance, is a variation on cross-picking in which open strings are deliberately played against fretted notes for a piano-istic sound. Cross-picking is based on Carter-style playing in which a bass melody note is surrounded by strums; in cross-picking the strum is replaced with a picked note or notes. George Shuffler, who played with the Stanley Brothers for many years is the main guru of strict cross-picking, while most modern guitarists, especially those from the Tony Rice school of playing incorporate a looser cross-picking style. Norman Blake is another master of cross-picking, using a style somewhere between Rice and Shuffler. In any case, cross-picking usually derives the "main" note from the melody and the cross-picked notes from the chord.

[see Steve Pottier and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine]

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Sam L
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:07 AM

Where I grew up, in Bowling Green Ky, everyone seemed to know or think they knew what cross-picking was, and it was always simply the technique of alternating up-down with a flatpick so far as to include moving up or down across strings, or any king of arpeggio. And the wrist was the thing. The arm was considered an error--but I got over that and try to shade the wrist cleanly into arm motion when I need more single-string speed.

Fingerstyle-crosspicking isn't a very good term for the use of open strings for overlapping sustain, it seems to me. It confuses the question. Fingerstyle crosspicking sounds more like Mark Knopfler's thumb-and-finger method, but I'm not sure at what point he begins to use the other fingers.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GLoux
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 10:31 AM

I'm in agreement with the concensus about what Crosspicking is and feel that the use of the term by Flint is unfortunately confusing.

I'd like to add that in my book, the all time master of crosspicking guitar is Clarence White. If you haven't heard it, seek out his Listen to the Mockingbird recording with the Kentucky Colonels from the 60s album entitled "Appalachian Swing"...it was reissued on CD. Rounder CD SS 31.

Also, James Alan Shelton is doing his a great job maintaining the George Shuffler style of crosspicking as he plays with Ralph Stanley. He and George recorded a CD together with all crosspicking called, "The Legacy Continues".

-Greg

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 02:20 PM

In a nutshell, crosspicking is the attempt by flatpickers to produce sequences of notes usually asociated with fingerstyle playing. The Mel Bay Tommy Flint book reverses that process and draws on a lot of flatpicking - so called - " floating " technique, which, again, is just an echo of certain classical guitar techniques. Tony Rice and David Grier are fabulously fluid crosspickers.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: oombanjo
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 03:20 PM

Had to go down and get the axe for this one, as counting a problem, and the memories worse.(1 2 3. 1 2 3. 1 2.)you got, 1 being the root each time on the down pick. But how about, ( 1 3 2.1 3 2 . 1 2.) same applies 1 the root on the down.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 05:00 PM

hey Fred,

Who's the king of Arpegio?

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Sam L
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 08:52 PM

I don't know if you're really asking who I would call the king of arpeggios, or just kidding me, John.
I don't really have any favorite master players--once people get really good I like them to be interesting and psychological, and a lot of virtuoso picking bores me. As a kid back in Bowling Green I especially liked Steve Howe of Yes for his dramatic sense, the un-necesary roughness that suited him well for rock--not like a smooth jazz guy slumming in it, and the range of his interests.
   Now I tend to like songs or songwriters, and any good player who serves the enterprise thoughtfully.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 09:47 PM

Aw Fred, I was just havin' fun with your typo. Arpegio sounds kinda like a country, no?

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Sam L
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 09:31 AM

I could be wrong, but I think it's arpeggio, and has a prime minister.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: John Hardly
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 10:54 AM

my mistake. Of course you are right.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Fortunato no cookie
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 11:24 AM

Do they ever sing acapulco in Arpeggio?

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 11:34 AM

Clarence White - The White Brothers. Have not heard those names for a while. That was a crying shame him getting killed. He would most likely have been the best ever seen but for his untimely death.

He came to the fiddle festival at Weiser, Idaho one year and stood in a corner taking on all comers. And there are some fair fiddlers that come to Weistock. Man he could play. I did not get to hear him but several of my musician friends that went said they listened to him for hours. There was absolutely nothing he could not play.

And yes - probably the premier cross picker -

Good memories -

Steve

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 19 May 04 - 03:28 PM

I've now had the opportunity to look into this mystery first hand. We just got back from the National Thumbpicking Guitar Contest at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas, where Tommy Flint—the author in question—was one of the featured performers. Tommy seems to use this technique as a variation inside Travis/Atkins style numbers. He never used it for an entire piece either in concert or in the workshops.

Tommy uses thumb and three fingers to play this variation and keeps his little finger solidly braced on the guitar top. His picking hand is balled up quite like a Scruggs-style banjo player and the musical passages have the same melodic and rythmic feel as a chromatic bluegrass banjo played very fast. All the left hand work in these passages is higher up on the neck and often confined to the first four strings. I didn't see him “thumbing” his chords when using this technique.

I think Flint's crosspicking is an adaptation of the thumb and first finger rolls that thumbpickers such as Mose Rager, Merle Travis and Joel Maphis used a lot. He gets more variation because he uses a thumb and three fingers so his rolls aren't constrained by string order. The technique makes a nice variation for one chorus of a longer piece.

Tommy grew up in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and often went to Mose Rager's place to draw water from the fountain as it were. I sure wish I'd been smart enough to do that. <g>

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 04 - 04:58 PM

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST
Date: 25 May 04 - 12:37 AM

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 04 - 08:22 PM

Another fingerstyle crosspicker would be Eddie Adcock, though his style uses fewer banjo style rolls and more pinches to synchopate the melody. Most of the fingerstyle guitar players also play banjo such as Don Reno. Crosspicking works very logically fingerstyle since the player can use both bass and treble strings more quickly than flatpick style. Flatpick works better on three consecutive strings. Interesting that nobody really plays the Dan Crary fiddle drone idea fingerstyle.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Mark Clark
Date: 13 Aug 04 - 08:57 PM

Glad to see this thread pop up again.

GUEST's post above about Eddie Adcock put me in mind of another great player who "flatpicked" and crosspicked entirely with thumb and finger picks… Norman Blake. I met him at Bill Monroe's Brown County Jamboree Park, Bean Blossom, IN, sometime in the late 1960s. At the time he said he was employed by Johnny Cash on TV's The Johnny Cash Show. He wasn't booked for the festival but his fingerstyle "flatpicking" was so good and so astonishing, he was invited on stage at one point just to "treat" the audience.

Of course this was prior to his becoming a well known performer in his own right.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: pdq
Date: 13 Aug 04 - 09:04 PM

Please send out good vibes for Eddie Adcock. He just recently had open-heart surgery.

Both Eddie Adcock and Don Reno qualify as "guitar player trapped in the body of a banjo player".

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: open mike
Date: 14 Aug 04 - 03:38 AM

http://www.folkofthewood.com/

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 04 - 07:20 PM

I think I recall Eddie Adcock saying in one of his videos that he started out on plectrum banjo. I guess that influenced his guitar style. It really is good.
I think even Lester Flatt used thumbpick and fingerpicks. Not really a crosspicking style at all, but certainly influential in his own way. Wait a minute, even Carter Stanley started with the banjo if I recall correctly.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Curt
Date: 09 May 06 - 07:31 PM

"Cross picking" is a guitar technique whereby the guitarist mimicks string rolls that a bango player does -- only with a flat pick.

Some of the great players use down-down-up or down-up-down for the picking pattern. What is IMPORTANT is that when running the pattern, the guitarist must "cross over" one of the strings WITHOUT PLAYING IT.

This is where cross picking gets it's name.

Curt

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:01 AM

For a detailed and illuminating exposition of the crosspicking technique, see the Youtube video of George Shuffler explaining and demonstrating how to crosspick

Before you watch that video however, it might be as well to watch a true master giving the most virtuosic crosspicking performance I have ever seen, right up there with Clarence White at his best.

Tony Rice playing and singing "Church Street Blues"

Faulty clicky fixed. Elf

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Stringsinger
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 04:15 PM

I think there are two distinct cross-picking styles. One is an accompaniment style where you play a bass note, then followed by an up-picked chord on an alternate eighth note.
It can be inserted into a standard picking accompaniment for trad or bluegrass. If you employ this with "down-on-a-bass-note and up-on-the-chord", you have a down-up pattern with the pick.

The next "crosspicking" has to do with solo style or fancy runs or fills. Here, the "down-down-up" technique is used to simulate a banjo style roll. A good jazz guitarist can also use an up-up-down technique to run triplets or crosspick the strings. Django used this
on ascendant diminished chords up the neck on three top strings. Sometimes, you glide
the pick over the strings on a "down-down" without using a separate stroke on each "down".

As Rick pointed out, there are many ways to do it.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 04:23 PM

I use a system derived from the way I play Irish tenor banjo,same string down up,adjacent strings going up in pitch down down,adjacent strings going down in pitch,play between the strings.

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 11:06 PM

I picked up this thread by accident when i keyed in "whaling" in the search box. I do like these random finds!

Read all the way down the thread hoping somebody would post a link to show what the cross-picking technique actually looks like. From the detailed notes that come out, I'd assumed it must be a finger-picking style.

Thanks, Murray, for the two links above. I've been figuring out Norman Blake's Church Street Blues for finger-picking on twelve-string, nice to hear an alternative rendition.

And Dick - playing between the strings? I'll have to look out for that at Glasson Dock!

Ross

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 10:45 AM

I would tune my guitar like a tenor banjo, for flat picking irish tunes.daddae,OR DGDDAE 6 TO 1,and just use tenor banjo picking techniques.Which works fine for irish tunes and still involves crosspicking,for jigs I generally use ,Down on ist and fourth beats,either ddu ddu or dud dud,occasionally [lark in the morning]I start udd udd[That is an example of crosspicking,but not the G Shuffler Type].Dick Miles

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 09:24 AM

The following Youtube clip featuring Brad Davis's "double double down up" technique should give crosspickers something to think about.

Brad Davis demo

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 11:18 AM

Tunesmith,thanks thats very useful.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: Crosspicking Guitar
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 01:36 PM

Here's an interesting lesson/feature on crosspicking.

crossing picking lesson