TOOL460002 said:
urb munki (or anyone else who knows)- okay- i can the tip of my thumb nail to hit 2-1 down 1 up, or hit 3-1 down 1 up 1 down, or 4-etc- but for the most part what i can do with the technique is more akin to just fast picking- or if you just hit each note 2 times- it sounds kinda like a delay kinda thing.
anyway- what you're doing is obviously some playing technique combo of double thumbing, pointer and middle finger popping and left hand hammer-ons to do something that sounds more like sweep picking or something. any pointers or ways to begin approaching the style? any songs or vidoes that are maybe an easier, simpler example of the overall technique?
also- someone somewhere said victor does a lot of quadruplets that are thumb down thumb up pointer pop middle pop. is that combo at all essential to what you're doing? i can double or triple rake up on a pop easy- but it's tough to smoothly link that to a double thumb. should i just practice more or is this not how to do it?
thank you very much for your time and help.
Basically yes, get your thumb strokes, down then up, happening in combination with one and two finger pops, then you should have pretty much the complete right hand thing down. I was only using thumb and one pop for years, I first got the thing happening by doing the down - up thumb stroke and a single pop, and creating triplets, which is a nice effect - especially if you fret an octave on the neck - a closed octave - not an open string and the seventh fret - then move that around like a jazz guitarist, that can sound really cool - the other thing I started doing was doing this but going T - T - P - lower octave to higher ocave - then bring the thumb over to pluck three notes on the G. That creates a stream of notes all together.
In terms of bringing in the second pluck - Victor himself explained it to me - this is key to getting some of those solo groove things happening (i.e. Me & My Bass Guitar), but because I learnt this style on my own, without following any really strict method, I do a lot hammer-on combos integrated in with the thumb, pick and open, hammer, pluck style - so I can end up sounding pretty insane - but really it's all in the picking - what the left hand is doing is often very simple by comparison - it boils down to coordinating the two - which takes a while - sorry! I also have light strings and a very low action - I have tried it higher but I hate it - this style is a lot easier with a nice slick action and bright, nickel / steel strings.
I have thought about doing some instructional stuff - I am also free for lessons here in London (I have onely two students so far) but the whole video thing is a bit of a pain - I might do a few short examples at some point but I have a lot of other stuff to do first, I'll keep you all posted.
Thanks for the compliments, it's taken me years to get this stuff happening at this level, patience is a virtue is all I can say, so is a lot of practice - just go for it!
M
