What is this technique?

[Audiophage]

I do this thing where I flick my fingers up and down across one or two strings to produce a rather fast but thin sounding note. It bears a resemblance to flamenco picking on classical guitar, but I go in both directions. Is there an official name for this technique?

I've been doing it on bass guitar well before I got into upright, and I think I've seen/heard cats like Charles Mingus and Reid Anderson doing it.

[shadygrove]

Sounds like what banjo players call "frailing" when just a finger is used and not moving the whole hand as a double bass player might do strike a chord. I know nothing about flamenco guitar, but sometimes on guitar sweep the strings with my middle finger that way when I want to get a strum in and my pick is busy with something else.

Sounds like a good "youtube" research project... sometimes I'm surprised how different the technique used by a player can be than what I imagine when listening.

[Nadav]

Tremolo?

[fingers]

ahhh, the ancient Maltese Farfalle maneuver. It was a technique that was first developed in 1245 AD by a musician/sheep farmer named Gianni Ritacco. Later it was brought to the mainland by the great explorer Cristobal Colon.

[Dogbertday]

Originally Posted by fingers

ahhh, the ancient Maltese Farfalle maneuver. It was a technique that was first developed in 1245 AD by a musician/sheep farmer named Gianni Ritacco. Later it was brought to the mainland by the great explorer Cristobal Colon.

See I heard it was an Australian technique used on the string equivalent of a Didgereedoo