Are you a plectrum player?
- Thread starter GGJaguar
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There's another meaning for plectrum guitar than the one here, which just means using a pick instead of fingers. Many early jazz guitarist migrated to the tenor and plectrum guitar, both with four strings tuned in tenor or plectrum banjo configuration. Tenor guitars had scale lengths of 21-23" (tenor-C-G-D-A) and 26-27" (plectrum - C-G-B-D or D-B-G-D). Probably the best known plectrum guitarist was Eddie Condon, band leader and club owner. He is also known for the description of his band "We don't flat our fifths, we drink them."
Looks like a very comprehensive method. I need it, I might finally learn something!
Walter Broes
Enlightened Member
I wonder if there are still people named "Ivor"
Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
Ivar maybe more common.
It's true on picking I'm 100% self taught which means your technique is full of mistakes which become muscle memory, then you learn how to do it right and the two conflict, it's like Jekyll and Hyde.
Was it it Wes Montgomery who played everything with a thumb?
Merle Travis of supposed Travis picking fame used a lot less finger to do his thing than "Travis picking". I seem to remember he did almost all of it with one finger, odd... I do that a lot, sometimes it's simple and faster to use my middle finger for two even three strings.
So it's a battle of who you are vs being taught a method which obviously has the advantages of "doing it right".
It's true on picking I'm 100% self taught which means your technique is full of mistakes which become muscle memory, then you learn how to do it right and the two conflict, it's like Jekyll and Hyde.
Was it it Wes Montgomery who played everything with a thumb?
Merle Travis of supposed Travis picking fame used a lot less finger to do his thing than "Travis picking". I seem to remember he did almost all of it with one finger, odd... I do that a lot, sometimes it's simple and faster to use my middle finger for two even three strings.
So it's a battle of who you are vs being taught a method which obviously has the advantages of "doing it right".
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Yes, Wes with the thumb. Supposedly his wife told him he played too loud in the house...
walrus
walrus
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I actually play using guitar picks. Who is plectrum? Sorry, joking. It actually depends on what I play. But plectrum definitely makes my sound clearer. Music is all about mood, actually. My dad uses these picks https://ironageaccessories.com/collections/guitar-picks, so I actually like them too. I have a wide collection of plectrums because I had been collecting them before I even started playing guitar. Actually, my dad has taught me how to play. Back in that time, there were no tutorials. And, you know, I’m really grateful to my dad, because he’s never shouted at me. I’ve torn many of his strings, but he’s never been angry with me. He’s the best ever, dad. Btw, who taught you to play?
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Charlie Bernstein
Senior Member
Cool! It looks like what he called plectrum guitar we call lead guitar.
And to answer your question: No. I don't flatpick.
And to answer your question: No. I don't flatpick.
johnreardon
Member
Not really. We called the little things you play guitar with, plectrums in the UK, back in the early days. I still call them that. Much prefer that than the pick word.
The booklet was aimed at getting people acoustic guitar players to start using plectrums instead of finger style playing.
Ivor opened the first specialist guitar shop in London, back in 1958. l believe it closed a couple of years ago.
Charlie Bernstein
Senior Member
Yes. We all know what a plectrum is. This is a guitar website, right?
And we all know that you don't play a plectrum. You play a guitar. And if you want to, you can play it with a pick.
So playing plectrum guitar doesn't mean playing a plectrum guitar. There's no such thing.
It means playing guitar with a pick. The book is for learning how.
The small print elaborates: scales, arpeggios, and so on. In other words, soloing — which, as I said, we now call playing lead guitar.
johnreardon
Member
No, you are US and WE used plectrums. That book was trying to show people how to play acoustic guitars using a plectrum, which you lot call a ‘pick’. Obviously they taught scales etc, which acoustic players would have done with their fingers
Lead guitar for us in the late 50s, early 60s was about playing electric. You may call it lead, but we didn’t for acoustics.
merlin6666
Senior Member
Yes I don't think the book is about using a pick but more about playing jazz on an archtop or tenor guitar. I think that both types of guitar historically were called plectrum guitar.
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Hmm.
New user.
Join reason is vague
First comment bumps an old thread
At least this one is sort of on topic.
Westerly Wood
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I went all in on plectrum several years ago. I always played both but did a lot of finger style mostly. Till I stumbled upon the 2.0 mm pick. It changed my guitar life totally.
Charlie Bernstein
Senior Member
Agreed, we are us. In American English, a flatpick and a plectrum are exactly the same thing. And yes, here most people just say pick — the one-syllable advantage.
Right. Or a plectrum.
. . . unless you count Doc Watson or Norman Blake or a thousand flatpicking, plectrum-wielding bluegrass players.
'Zackly! That's why I said it would have a different title today.
But just to make sure I get it: In the UK, is flatpicking called playing plectrum guitar? It sounds very dated to my ears, but maybe not to a Brit's.
I say it's spinach!
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Charlie Bernstein
Senior Member
johnreardon
Member
Back when I started, late 50s. most of were barely aware of US music. Certainly records were difficult to get hold of and we had limited TV and radio stations.
As someone who started playing electric lead guitar, I had never heard of 'flatpicking'. I had some friends who played acoustic guitars and they often mentioned 'picking', but that was with their fingers, not a plectrum. In other words, they played fingerstyle.
Obviously for those in the acoustic world, at some time, they would have come across the term 'flatpicking', but they would have called it that and not plectrum guitar.
I rarely if ever see any flatpickers over here. I really only came across them in the last decade or so. Great type of music, just not seen much over here
Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
Figures pick users are picky about what they call them. Haven't touched one in a few weeks and playing is much improved.