Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: matt milton
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 09:47 AM

Isn't this whole question a bit of an impossible (and arguably slightly pointless) one?

I mean, yes, obviously "prissy" anything is bad. I can't think of any kind of situation where any musician would want anything they played to be prissy, unless it was for satirical purposes. But there are plenty of situations where you would want to pick delicately, or sparsely, or softly.

A delicate ballad is obviously not going to gain anything from someone pinging the strings hard (a la Bert Jansch) and putting in 10 notes per second.

Hell, any kind of fingerpicking would be a nice bonus at the London acoustic singer-songwriter gigs I go to. it's normally just strumming of the most banal and unryhthmic kind.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 09:35 AM

Is 'prissiness' confined to guitar playing - or can it apply to any type of instrumental accompaniment? (Just wondering why guitarists are being singled out here.)

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 09:09 AM

I read through these threads, and do most of my posting, at the office ("pretending to work") where I don't have audio (and where I would not want my recreational computer usage to be heard, anyway).

So I generally don't play audio and video links when I first encounter them, and don't always remember to look them up on my home computer later the same evening.

That's why it's taken me until this morning to check out Will Fly's work...

It's great! If that's "prissy," I suppose prissiness is good enough for me.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 08:08 AM

So "prissy" here means "over refined" or something like that?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: mattkeen
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 07:52 AM

Best plectrum player I have heard recently in Britain is Kris Drever

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: mattkeen
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 07:51 AM

Prissy finger picking

The Martin Carthy/Nic Jones style of fingerpicking is really driving and can be very dynamic

Personally am very irritated by scrubbing plectrum style
Flat picking - well thats a different deal all together

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 04:36 AM

WLD - I'd heard you were having an affair with her - and that she wasn't such a fantasy after all. Wasn't that you and her arm-in-arm in the "Daily Mail" photograph? You know, coming out of C# House together?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 04:29 AM

"[...] these stuggles will be reflected in edgy lyrics [...]"

Well, I hope they reflect the zeitgeist, weelittledrummer.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 04:26 AM

Prissy Fingerpicking is a sweet gal - a fantasy figure for many of us.

Prissy (short for Priscilla) is working on her new website and Myspace page. Stoneyport are handling the tour and the word is that the album review in next month's Froots is five star - takes up two columns. Theres talk of a Radio 2 Young Folk Album of the year and Mercury awards in the offing.

Really only what you'd expect from the illegitimate offspring of a prominent folksinging family.

Read the current interview in Acoustic, where it can be revealed she has had her struggles coping with Aminor and the C scale is her next major challenge. these stuggles will be reflected in edgy lyrics. Fans will be releived to know she has conquered her drug problem, and the attempted suicide was just so much press intrigue.

'Prissy Fingerpicking - the voice of modern folkmusic.' The Observer

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Will Fly
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 04:10 AM

In the end, it all boils down to taste and appropriateness. Whether you choose to play the guitar in a complex or simple manner will depend on what you're trying to achieve and how you want to put it across. If I'm performing a song - say, a music hall number with witty and amusing words - the guitar work takes a definite back seat. Just enough to fill in the harmonic progression of the tune - and no more. If I'm doing something in which a guitar break is appropriate, i.e. where it allows a reflective pause between verses, then slightly more complex guitar work can come out - to subside when the vocal starts up again. And, sometimes, it's nice to think "f*ck it - I'm going to crank it up and have a bit of a thrash!"

It's all part of trying to entertain and, if there wasn't some egocentricity within us, we wouldn't be entertainers - would we?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Jayto
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 03:44 AM

Thank you all it is good to be back. I may have some more absences coming up but hopefully not as long. I have been super swamped lately and haven't been able to even check posts. I will try not to be gone so long next time lol missing the cat lol.
cya

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 09:27 PM

You're coming dangerously close to those who have complained in other threads about the "bad" singers who are allowed to perform. Instead, I recommend being thankful for the "lesser players" because they make you look better;-)

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Ian Fyvie
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 08:38 PM

Can I paint a picture of a folk singer type who fits the bill for prissy?

I'm thinking of (several people I've seen actually) an example who sets the finger 'loop tape' going - rate:steady; tone:bland; adds a few melody notes to fit with the singing; sets his head to Tennis - back row Wimbledon Centre Court; and proceeds to issue delightful tones which the organizers then wax lyrical: "marvelous!" (and well said JAYTO).

OK for a floor spot but when you get a whole guest spot filed with the syrup, no wonder newcomers, particularly energetic youngsters think: if this is folk... then I'm off!

No I'm not deriding anyone who puts a bit of dynamism into their performance - however good, basic or non-existant their finger picking - and WILL FLY, an excellent combination of fine technique and dynamic interpretation by the way.

The ones I'm suggesting are the turn off are the ones who you switch on for "NICE track one"; NICE track 2" and so on til we've all dropped off - or gone to the bar.

To M.Ted briefly - see you read my second (short) paragraph. Check the first one for the various styles of finger picking I do actually enjoy playing - I wouldn't bore anyone with the basic prissy style, beside which - there's too much competition anyway!

Ian Fyvie

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 08:00 PM

So what does "prissy" mean there, Pristine Prissy?   Not prim or prudish, I'm sure.

Some similar word maybe - pretty? precise?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST,Pristine Prissy
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 07:43 PM

I really do try to make my picking as prissy as I possibly can in order to secure bookings at any cliquey folk clubs I visit. I find that this has an amazing impression on the organisers who recognise a kindred spirit. I achieve this illusion of superiority by coating all my nails in several layers of Super Glue, which I then hone to perfection. The fistfulls of notes sure do knock 'em dead!   I must also make sure that my expression is as smug as my playing.

And it also has been known to have helped by giving the impression that I am a teacher!

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 01:06 PM

Jumbled up the words in thta last post. Here goes again:

"Prissy" means "prim or prudish" according to my dictionary, confirming how I understand the word.

I'm trying to work out how a guitar technique can be prim or prudish. ("Make sure not to show your legs", perhaps...)

Would I be right in speculating that what is meant is when someone playing a guitar to accompany a song seems to be more concerned with   instrumental technique, rather than with helping get the song across?   In which case, of course, that can happen with any way of playing the guitar, including what I take to be meant by "dynamic rhythmic style".

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 01:03 PM

Hey, Jayto. I was thinking of you when I thought to mention "thumbpicking."

Once in a while, a very simple, unadorned, and repetitive "pattern" or arpeggio can be quite effective:

I recently rented a DVD called "Judy Collins Wildflower Festival," which shows highlights of an outdoor concert in San Diego in 2002 featuring Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, and Eric Anderson along with the headliner Judy Collins. (Great DVD by the way ~ I highly recommend that you put in on your Netflix queue!)

Arlo (who is great one for storytelling) goes off on a long rant about playing a huge festival in Denmark shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall several years earlier. Thousands of Eastern Europeans were in the audience, presumably exhilarated at their newfound freedom to travel (and to attend festivals).

Pete Seeger gets the crowd singing along with just about every peace-and-freedom anthem in his repertoire, then calls Arlo to the stage. Arlo wants to continue in the same vein, but he can't think of a single number that Pete hasn't already just sung that would be appropriate to the occasion, and also readily sing-along-able. Then he has a stroke of inspiration and introduces a song made famous by "the King of folk music, Elvis!" and proceeds to do "Can't Help Falling in Love."

The Euros all love it, they know the song and everyone sings along. Pete approaches the mike ~ Arlo wonders if he's going to scolded for introducing heretical non-folk material ~ but all is well; Pete knows the song, too, and starts playing along on his banjo.

End of story, and then Arlo stats to play and sing. The crowd in San Diego is, of course, well prepared to approve and enjoy, and to sing along themselves just like those Czechs and Poles and Hungarians, etc., of Arlo's story.

Arlo plays a straight 6/8 arpeggio on EVERY measure. No walking bass from one chord to the next, no brushing more than one string at a time, no variation at all except for the chord changes. It's probably quite helpful, of course, that there's a chord change on every measure of this particular song, and that it's such a pretty melody. There's enough opportunity for Arlo (and for the crowd) to express emotion by singing; the bare-bones instrumental part is really very effective.

I've been working this up myself. I find it difficult NOT to throw in an occasional extra bass note, or to strum an occasional extra eighth-note on the treble strings, or to pluck two or three strings at a time here and there. The absolutely plain approach requires a bit of discipline, and when I'm able to observe that discipline, I'm rewarded with an effective bit of accompaniment.

Now, this only works, I suppose, for a player who is able to play in a more complex manner, and who exhibits that ability on other selections. Listening to a whole set played by a novice unable to play anything except the most simple pattern-picking would not be so great an experience.

It's possible, too, I think, that the listener somehow perceives a bit of tension in the playing of someone who may be able to thrown in various variations and flourishes, but who quite deliberately plays one particular number with the utmost degree of simplicity.

*****************

Critics of fingerpicking would do well to check out Tom Rush's performance on that same video. Tom is a member of the plastic-thumbpick-plus-two-metal-fingerpicks school, and uses them to great effect on three very different numbers: two cute/humorous new compositions, and finally his slide-guitar tour-de-force "Panama Limited," which I've heard countless times over the past 40+ years, but had never seen performed. Nice!

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 12:33 PM

Hi Jayto - nice to hear your voice again. If I remember rightly, you've done a fair bit of thumbpicking in your time! I agree with your post. I always try and fit the melody correctly into a fingerpicked tune - which, to a certain extent, stops it being too mechanical. In the middle section - where I often screw around with the chords (!) - I tend to use banjo/bluegrass rolls with thumb and two fingers. This breaks up the alternating bass and stops the overall tune being too monotonous (I think).

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Jayto
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 12:25 PM

I have to admit (not trying to be mean) but I hear alot of guitarists that only pick a certain pattern over and over on every song. I like it when people adapt a new pattern to express emotion. I agree practice the fingerpicking until it feels natural. Then think for yourself when you do it. Don't just fall back on a learned pattern. I know I am guilty everyone is at some point. You may be out and someone requests something that you are not really sure of or you really dont like but know.Then you kinda fall back on a cliche pattern to get through while mentally shutting down. That is my point I get you stop thinking and feeling and just play. You have to be very comfortable with fingerpicking to be able to adapt but in the end it makes for a better feel. Just my opinion. Oh yeah HI everyone it has been a while but I am back.
Jayto

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 11:40 AM

"Prissy" means "prim or prudish" according to my dictionary, confirming how I understand the word.

I'm trying to work out how a guitar technique can be prim or prudish. ("Make sure not to show your legs" ,perhaps...)

Would I be right in speculating that what is meant is when someone playing a guitar accompaniment seems to be more concerned with being too concerned with what instrumental techniquerather than with helping get the song across?   In which case, of course, that can happen with any way of playing the guitar, including what I take to be meant by "dynamic rhythmic style".

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 11:15 AM

Then, there's something called "thumbpicking" by its Kentucky practioners. As far as I can tell, it's just another approach to fingerpicking (literally, of course, thumb-and-finger picking). The only definining characteristic of "thumbpicking" that I can see is that most of those who practice it tend to be very skilled players.

If I'm not mistaken, Merle Travis himself was and is a self-proclaimed "thumbpicker." He does not (understandably) call himself a "Travis picker." That term seems to have been originated by folkies trying to more-or-less imitate the playing of Mr. Travis, a musical personality associated more closely with the Nashville commercial-country music industry than with the folk world, and a true virtuoso who has absorbed a wide range of musical influences, including jazz.

Is "Travis picking" nothing more or less than a pale imitation of Merle Travis's "thumbpicking"?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Acorn4
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 09:24 AM

I think a lot of the confusion here is down to terminology:-

I thought "Travis" picking was when you used the heel of the right hand to damp the bass strings of a cross pick style -a good example is Doc Watson playing "Deep River Blues"

Deep River Blues

You can see the heel damp in the second half of the clip.

I thought "Clawhammer" was a banjo style rather like frailing but with more used of melody notes and drop thumbing, but even the tutor books seem the vary a bit on this.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST,appreciative
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 06:33 AM

Will Fly - that link to your YT instruction vid, then the link to your website and your "vimeos" cost me a good hour of my life. And what's more, I've bookmarked it all so its going to cost me lots more in future. Fantastic - you certainly are "paying your dues" and then some.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: theleveller
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 04:44 AM

Not sure what's meant by 'prissy'. Just for the hell of it and to try to ease my stiffening fingers, I sometimes go through a frantic session of 'Freight Train' with melody and counter-melody, bass runs, double thumbing - the whole works. But I can't keep it up for long these days (ooooh, matron!!). I don't play this style usually as more melodic styles of fingerpicking tend to suit my songs. If that's 'prissy', tough.

The thing is to develop your own styles that suit your music and that you enjoy playing. Why would any one style of playing be a turn-off to youngsters? Would Martin Simpson, John Martyn or Bert Jansch's way of playing be a turn-off? More an inspiration, I'd say - but then, I'm no youngster.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 04:31 AM

I'm going to change my name to Will Prissy - then I can invent a new form of fingerpicking called Prissy Fngerpicking - and write a whole load of books on the Prissy Fingerpicking Technique. Should make a million.

(I'll get me thumbpick...)

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Tangledwood
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 04:30 AM

"These finger patterns are what I think are part of what I would call "fingerpicking": Rough Guide To Fingerpicking "

Very nice work on the instruction Will. I'll be spending plenty of time attempting to master the styles. Thank you!

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 04:16 AM

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: dick greenhaus - PM
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 05:07 PM

"Can someone give an example of what is meant by "prissy fingerpicking"? Who does it?"

See _Mel Bay's Prissy Fingerpicking Made Easy_
or
_The Joy of Prissy Fingerpicking_
or
_You Can Fingerpick Prissily!_.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 03:39 AM

With no offense intended to Will, here's how Travis picking is really done, from the man who learned it at his father's knee

Thanks M.Ted - very sweet! One of the things that characterises most Travis pickers (and I don't actually consider myself a true one, just one vaguely in the style) is the use of a thumb pick. Something I've never got on with, strangely enough. I play fairly quietly, with fingernails, and I've always found that the thumb overpowers the other fingers.

With hybrid picking, (fingerpick & fingers) I can get a better balance between pick and nails.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 11:52 PM

I am disinclined to judge the playing of someone who I have never heard, Ian, but I would suggest that if you find your own "clawhammer" playing boring, well, that's about your playing, isn't it?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Ian Fyvie
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 09:56 PM

Re: Guest. "I don't like finger picking because I can't do it? Wrong!"

I use 38 and 68 arpeggio styles, a soul music compatable style which I developed - when I discovered folk clubs - so I could play own compositions written whilst playing in a soul band; I use three of four other 44 time variants, similar style to a banjo pick.

Tried clawhmer - just fell asleep!

Ian Fyvie

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 05:07 PM

Can someone give an example of what is meant by "prissy fingerpicking"? Who does it?

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: M.Ted
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 04:18 PM

With no offense intended to Will, here's how Travis picking is really done, from the man who learned it at his father's kneeThom Bresh--I'll See You in My Dreams

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:41 PM

Many years ago, I had two distinct approaches in my own playing: plain flat-out strumming, on the one hand (which could be as free/loose/intense as required, or not) and a very deliberate, tame, slow-and-careful brand of fingerpicking.

My first guitar was a nylon-string classical model, and so at first I played without any kind of picks. The strumming involved fingernails and the fingerpicking was barefingered.

After about 5-6 years, I switched to a steel-string acoustic and began trying to use both a flatpick and fingerpicks (well, finger- and thumb- picks, of course).

Another year or two later, I began my brief but very intense streetsinging career, putting in hours and hours at a stretch. My strumming approach, now using a flatpick, was still my freer and more intuitive manner of playing, but my hand would cramp up.

On the other hand, my fingerpicking, now with picks, became quite a bit more fluid and intense. I was now able either to pluck a single string, or two, or brush across several strings, with any given stroke of any finger (or thumb). I soon quit trying to flatpick at all, and simply wore my set of three picks on my right hand all day. I still fingerpick exclusively; nowadays I go barefingered a little more often than before, but I still use picks not only for increased volume, but also for a wider range of dynamics.

I can perform in a fairly wide variety of styles. On some songs which are normally thought of as "flatpicking" numbers, I use the thumbpick almost exclusively. You may or may not be able to tell which kind of pick I'm using. With my set of picks, I can thump hard and fast when I want, and I can play delicate little arpeggios, too. The only flatpicking style that I really cannot duplicate is high-speed bluegrass lead guitar. But then agsain, that's not something I'm really interested in playing, anyway.

Prissy playing is a turnoff, regardless of technique. Playing with any technique can be listenable if the player is well-practied and tasteful.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:18 PM

I've seen you fingerpickin' Al! :-)

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 02:54 PM

as you all know I'm not biased.

However it seems to me that fingerpickers are the spawn of Satan. One day God will smite them unto the tenth generation and they will be cast out of the folk world for ever.

When I hear Seth Lakeman and his shakey egg 4-string guitar and fiddle accompaniments, I know we have been redeemed.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Don Firth
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 01:49 PM

"I hope you find useful things there."

I'm sure I will. I've played classic for years, so working out accompaniments from dead simple to pretty complex is fairly easy for me. But long ago I heard the "alternating bass" or "clawhammer" style and tried to figure it out without much luck until someone showed me a couple of patterns. I was able to work out Freight Train, Railroad Bill, and a number of others. But I've never been able to just haul off and do it as well and as cleanly as I would like.

I'm sure your videos are going to help me smooth over a lot of rough spots. Thanks a million!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST,Will Fly, out gigging
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 01:26 PM

Don Firth

P. S. I'm going to have to investigate the rest of the stuff you've put on YouTube!

Don - I hope you find useful things there. The main purpose of my YT channel is to either demonstrate fingerstyle technique in fairly straightforward arrangements, or to provide instructional vids. And there's some fun stuff, of course! If you go to my website (there's a link on my YT channel to the URL), you'll also find free sheets containing SN, tab & chords for many of the arrangements, plus free audiofiles of some of the pieces. My YT philosophy is, basically, after benefiting from the generosity of other guitarists in my early days, now I'm in my 60s - it's payback time, i.e. time for me to try and help others!

Mind you, it's not all easy - take a peek at "Ragtime Charleston" and "Fingerbuster" (60 seconds of hell)... :-) Will

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 06:01 AM

finger picking clawhammer sounds pretty good in open tunings too,using modal chords,for traditional songs.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:54 AM

Actually, I think the main difference between Renaissance and Baroque style polyphonic lute and guitar music and folk, blues and country fingerpicking is that the former doesn't commonly use fixed patterns, repeated over and over, and the rhythm often has more pauses. When fingerpickers vary what they play and especially when they play a melody, it comes much closer to the older styles. At a certain point, the distinction ceases to be meaningful.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 03:45 AM

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Don Firth - PM
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 02:51 PM

"Some people seem to be referring to playing with the fingers as contrasted with "thumb-strumming" or playing with a pick. This would, of course, cover everything from "Burl Ives Basic" to Andrés Segovia playing the Bach Chaconne.

Others seem to be referring to Travis picking and it's clones and variations ("alternating bass").

Could folks pin down what they're really talking about? I think that might help."

This is pretty much what I mean when I talk about finger-picking. It's picking with the fingers, with or without fingerpicks and a thumb pick rather than strumming or using a flat pick.

I've never bothered too much about this style, that style, what Merle Travis did, what Joseph Spence did, etc. I just don't care. Other people do, and it's great if someone wants to really study the different styles and techniques.   I like to listen to all of these different guitarists, but I prefer to practice other things. The idea is the same whether it's _Freight Train_ or _Flow My Tears_.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 12:57 AM

In answer to the thread question. imo, no. However, prissy nosepicking sure is.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 07:18 PM

Oh bugger! Why do I keep losing my cookie?

DC

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 07:16 PM

In my post at the beginning of this thread, I said that I didn't understand what was meant by the phrase:

…… The "Prissy" fingerpicking - nice polite persons' clawhammer etc……..

Having viewed the YouTube link, "Rough Guide to Fingerpicking", provided by Will Fly, I find that clawhammer is pretty much the style that I play, although I have never heard it referred to by that term.

Prompted Will's comment on Ian Fyvie's original reference to this style in the "Why folk clubs are dying" thread, I went there and read:

……True, I'm really unimpressed with the clawhammer stuff -……

Let me hazard a guess -   Ian, you can't do it, can you?


DC

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:08 PM

It's not the prissy fingerpicking that troubles me, it's the little knitted caps and the button-down sweaters. And the argyle knee socks! Argh.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: breezy
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:03 PM

You were right Capn

She missed me eyes

got me on the nose

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:11 PM

I don't quite understand why there is a tendency amongst some to be disdainful or dismissive of certain playing techniques.

This comment, "The best folk singers I know of my ageing generation play a good intricate rhythmic style." overlooks the fact that different traditions use different playing styles--and it imposes an across the board one size fits all approach that is not unlike the standardization of pop music.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:00 PM

Whatever suits the song, and doesn't get in the way. And it should never sound like the guitarist (or whatever the inmstruiment may be) is finding it difficult, even if it is.

And I'd say "the best folk singers I know of my ageing generation" are just as likely as not to be singing unaccompanied.

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 03:59 PM

One summer many years ago (I was just getting into folk music and learning to play the guitar at the time), I worked for a picture framer. Many well-known artists took their paintings to this guy to frame for gallery showings and that sort of thing because his frames were always tasteful, appropriate, and unobtrusive.

He told me that the way to do a good frame for a particular painting was to study the painting, then pick a shape for the molding that repeated a shape within the painting, then assess the colors and paint the frame a neutral color that was blend of the colors in the painting. "Pick up themes from the painting itself," was the way he put it.

He went on to say, "A good frame should set the painting off in space, but it must never draw attention to itself. If people look at a painting and say, 'What a great frame!' then it's not a great frame at all. It has failed in it's purpose."

I thought about that a lot, and decided that it's also a good philosophy for working out guitar accompaniments for songs.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 03:53 PM

My style was a modified Travis style that tended to being more like Jack Elliott flatpicking thumb-strum but with treble melody, or melody-type runs on the bass strings in between the sung lines. When singing I would fill more with bass-strum rhythmic Carter Family strums that wouldn't get in the way of the message of the song.

Sooooo, I guess my picking was more prissy when I was singing than when I was doing the more intricate fingerpicking between verses and lines.

It helped me push the story in the song to the fore---which was my main intent!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Is Prissy Fingerpicking a Turnoff?
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 03:48 PM

MR Fly,thanks for that matey was very handy vid.
Hi there BWM hope you enjoyed christmas and new years pickling season.