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richardhomer · October 2017

I have to be honest - once technique becomes the aim of someone’s playing - rather than innate musicality, I struggle. The majority of ‘slappy’ acoustic players definitely fall into that category for me.

John Martyn - with his bizarre CFCCGD tuning (and others) was slappy - but utterly musical. Possibly my all time favourite acoustic player - things like ‘Couldn’t Love You More’ (from One World) are exquisite. I recently saw Richard Thompson do a two-hour acoustic show - plenty of technique on display - but never for the sake of it. He’s always musical.

Jimbro66 · October 2017

thomasross20 said:

Ah yes I've seen him use them lots! But also not! And I remember many interviews where he says he often just likes to use his thumb. I need to try some more thumb picks out..

Thumb picks do take some getting used to but when I've been told they're too clumsy or whatever it's almost guaranteed that the thumbpicks have been used straight from the pack. In my experience they all need work on them to shape them and often to reduce their thickness. The Herco ones I use for electric guitar are not far removed from a plectrum but still need shaping because, unlike a plectrum, they have a fixed position. Getting them right is critical.

BigLicks67 · October 2017

I think we have to be careful when referring to 'modern' players or 'modern' techniques as a lot of these ideas and have been around since at least the 1980's. Stuff like body slapping in the Flamenco world is as old as the hills. This video is dated 2017 but it could have been recorded 30+ years ago :

I sometimes wonder why they can't just either play the rhythm or at least imply it in the piece they are playing, like so

thomasross20 · October 2017

Love flamenco...
Vicente amigo is brill..

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