it's certainly natural to want to be a smart-ass. Whether it's helpful is another thing. Not all that is natural is good...
It does make sense to want to get as many textures, sounds and musical ideas out of your instrument as possible. It's your voice, and you want your musical vocabulary to be as wide as possible. This includes all the melody harmoy rhythm specifics but also let quatifiable things like phrasing, articulation, tone, 'feel', and context.
fave weird techniques? I have a few, a lot of them are percussive - using the heel of my right hand to give basslines a back beat is about the most obvious one. I also drag my nails across the strings with of of them muted to get a kind of scrunchy sound. I fret the strings off the end of the neck with my left hand fingernails, and pick the strings with my right hand fingernails to get a kind of woodblock/koto sound. I use a volume pedal to swell notes in... there are loads.
The big issue with all of them is a control one - getting them so that you can 'play' them, rather than fumble through some half-assed noises. getting to know any technique is a fairly lengthy process that follows a particular sequence -
imitate
assimilate
integrate
innovate
imitate - copying the idea from wherever
assimilate - getting a handle on how it works, and the variations in it, getting in control of the basic idea
integrate - making it work alongside whatever else you do, and being able to switch back and forth comfortably, so it doesn't stand out as a one trick thing
innovate - doing your own thing with it, taking it somewhere new.
follow that lot, and you won't go far wrong.
Steve
www.stevelawson.net
