Hybrid picking (a.k.a. “pick and fingers”) involves a combination of pick and fingerstyle playing. While the technique is most commonly associated with country and bluegrass, it can be used
Hybrid picking (a.k.a. “pick and fingers”) involves a combination of pick and fingerstyle playing. While the technique is most commonly associated with country and bluegrass, it can be used to make licks and riffs of any style sound more colorful.
But hybrid picking can open the door to playing things that you may have considered out of your reach.
First things first, though. In this lesson, you’ll learn hybrid picking as it figures into the most fundamental of electric guitar styles: blues. From Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jimmy Page, most blues and blues-rock players have at least a few killer hybrid-picked moves in their arsenal, whether it’s smooth 7th-chord riffs or barn-burning superhero licks.
Now, let’s work on getting this essential technique under your fingers!
FIGURE 1 is based on bars l–4 of a blues progression in A. For the dyads (two-note chords) in bars 1 and 2, use your pick to sound each 4th-string note and your middle finger (m) to pick each 3rd-string note. Be sure to form and hold a hook-like shape with your middle finger, so that a portion of the nail, in addition to the fingertip, makes contact with the 3rd string. In bar 3, add your pick hand’s ring finger (a), to pick the three-note A7 and E7 chords. And in bar 4, add your pinkie (c) for the four-note A13 chord.
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2 is reminiscent of the Allman Brothers’ take on T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday.” As indicated, pick all of the sliding chords with your middle, ring and pinkie fingers. The single-note lines, meanwhile, should be played with the pick and middle finger. Play this figure slowly at first, striving for smoothness, as well as equal volume between the single notes and the chord stabs.