/Rant
I cannot abide the sensation of playing 6 string guitars with my fingers. Yeuch! No problem playing finger style bass though.
Every or almost every instruction video on playing Dire Straits songs assumes using finger style as per Mark Knopfler. A reasonably close approximation can be achieved using a plectrum. Close enough for ordinary punters even if not for confirmed Dire Straits diehards.
The Sultans of Swing chord progression sounds good and a passable Money for Nothing can be played with a plectrum so why the obsession with finger and thumb picking?
/Rant over
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Comments
It's a different sound playing with fingers ... yeah I can play Sultans with a pick but is sounds much more like Mark if I do it with my fingers ... just a different sound really
Try Hybrid picking, just using one finger occasionally along with a pick ... it's the best of both worlds and really sped up my playing
By definition, the notes within a chord, triggered with a plectrum, will begin slightly out of synch with each other and in pitch order.
Hybrid and finger style picking allow chordal notes to occur in perfect synch. Alternate picking makes possible some of the Country-inspired licks that MK employs.
Similarly, a lot of what Jeff Beck squeezes out of a Stratocaster is only possible with fingers and thumb.
Thumb and finger style technique imparts a sort of "bounce" to the music that is an integral part of the genres where it is prominent. MK borrowed heavily from Chet Atkins.
Knopfler was the reason I picked up a guitar in the first place so I learned early on to play using my thumb/fingers, it's definately a very different and much more tactile way of playing than a pick and allows you to do a lot of different stuff than with a pick.
I now mostly play with a pick but learning to play with fingers has many advantages. The band I'm in play Superstition (which covers band doesn't <insert eyeroll>) but I can't play the main riff very well at all with a pick - I find it much easier and get a better 'feel' for the riff using my thumb/fingers and can induce a much more percussive feel that way.
I also learned to play a pinched harmonic without a pick too, I've never ever needed it, mind.
There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife
Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky
Bit of trading feedback here.
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9XFFkHzjYA
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
You should get referred to a specialist to get treatment for your condition.
Alternatively, play with the side of your thumb for long enough and a callus will develop.
There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife
Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky
Bit of trading feedback here.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.