Fingerpickin': fingerstyles and players

richardhomer

John Martyn's acoustic playing proved that finger-picking singer/songwriters didn't need to sound soft/insipid:



He was a fantastic guitar player....

sm55onl

Gitapik, the Tommy Emmanuel 'Ted talk' video didn't seem to work ?.....hopefully it does this time

olafgarten

Wait one minute... Why has no one posted this yet! 



Some of the best guitar playing I've ever seen. 

Stuckfast

Thanks for introducing me to Blind Blake -- I'd never heard of him before. So he's doing all that using just the thumb and first finger? Wow.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the style that's sometimes called English folk guitar, as practised by Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Martin Simpson, Jim Moray et al. There is some truly incredible playing in that sphere, and some very distinctive and idiomatic techniques.

Stuckfast

Sam Carter has a nice set of videos explaining how to play Nic Jones's most famous track:





And here's the original -- I don't think there is any live video of Nic before his accident, more's the pity.

Stuckfast

Sam Carter has a nice set of videos explaining how to play Nic Jones's most famous track:





And here's the original -- I don't think there is any live video of Nic before his accident, more's the pity.

Lewy

Stuckfast said:

Thanks for introducing me to Blind Blake -- I'd never heard of him before. So he's doing all that using just the thumb and first finger? Wow.

I don;t think anyone knows how Blake did it actually. There's just a photo to work from and it doesn't tell us much. I think @earwighoney included him more as an example of how sophisticated some of the early players were, as opposed to an example of a thumb-and-one-finger picker.....

Jimbro66

Stuckfast said:

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the style that's sometimes called English folk guitar, as practised by Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Martin Simpson, Jim Moray et al. There is some truly incredible playing in that sphere, and some very distinctive and idiomatic techniques.

Too right, and add Davey Graham and Bert Jansch to that list......

Lewy said:

It's quite distinct from the players who played more standard alternating thumb base style with just their thumb and index (including Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis, Doc Watson and of course Merle Travis) because with them the index is mainly just playing upstrokes. In this approach, the index is doing lots of different things. It always blows me away how complex it can sound (and it pisses me right off that we're supposed to think of these players as "basic" or somehow unsophisticated musicians...)

Special mention should also perhaps be made of Stefan Grossman for the huge amount he has done over the years to promote and teach the works of Blind Blake, John Hurt, Gary Davis and many other great ragtime and blues guitarists.

Lewy

Jimbro66 said:

Special mention should also perhaps be made of Stefan Grossman for the huge amount he has done over the years to promote and teach the works of Blind Blake, John Hurt, Gary Davis and many other great ragtime and blues guitarists.

Yep, him and Happy Traum.

In other news, how about some clawhammer guitar courtesy of the indecently talented Molly Tuttle:

Dominic

gitapik said:

missmisstreater said:

Cool thread!

I'm about to release a book on Country Fingerstyle guitar in a couple of weeks actually!

I always say that Jerry Reed is one of my all time favourite players, but in terms of jaw dropping playing I always have to name check Buster B Jones!



Outside of the country tinged stuff, I LOVE Blind Blake, that ragtime stuff is so cool!

He's one of my faves, too. 

You must have same taste as me .............Jerry Reid and Buster B were masters

gitapik

They're both excellent.

I've always liked Renbourn and Jansch. Early Paul Simon when he was with Garfunkel, too. 

sm55onl

John Martyn - jelly roll baker

fingerstyle lesson


Concert performance of the song

sm55onl

Keep those suggestions comin', folks....along with vids where accessible.
More Folk ones the better....

sm55onl

A website on Paul Simon songs and his use of Travis picking
http://www.bradpriddy.com/paul_simon/travis.htm

http://www.bradpriddy.com/paul_simon/

wayneirie

Inspired loads of people, another favourite way ahead of his time.

earwighoney

wayneirie said:

Inspired loads of people, another favourite way ahead of his time.

Yes, his label too - put out releases by Kottke, Basho etc 

Players now like Glenn Jones, Jack Rose etc owe everything to Fahey.

wayneirie

Here's some more American folk stuff.
bruce LangHorne played on the album. Celebration for a grey day, and on some of the Dylan stuff.



dave van ronk music starts around 2.00



Jackson c frank





Jorma kaukonen from Jefferson airplane