Waking with a smile

[Deliberate1]

My last eyeball activity before bed last night were demonstration videos presented by Bryan Sutton. I am not quite three years into my guitar life and have been taking weekly fingerstyle lessons for 7 months or so. Recently, I have thought about diving into the world of flatpicking. So I went looking for some intruction and found Mr. Sutton's vids on G runs and flatpicking patterns. Both were very good. But I did not realize what an impression they made until the next morning.

It is rare for me to remember a dream. But when I woke up, my mind instantly flashed back to me sitting with a big 'ole dread in my lap doing all kinds of high speed flatpicking gymnastics. I was like Billy Strings burning jet fuel. I remembered that scene in The Matrix, when the Trinity character needs to learn to fly a helicopter, and she just plugs in for an instructional upload. And it is not like the me in the dream was all casual about it. I couldn't believe what was happening, and was hootin' and hollerin' and woopin' in up. Get this, even my wife took notice. Last night might turn out to be the high point of my guitar experience.

So now, if anyone ever asks if I ever expect to be a flatpicking genie, I can honestly say yes, but only in my dreams.

David

[Mr. Jelly]

Cool. I have been playing guitar for over 50 years. Some years back I decided to do a deep dive and focus on finger picking guitar. It was great! I learned allot and recently decided that I have gone as far as I can with it. Seriously, I quit a weekly show I was doing because I didn't feel it any longer. And, because of what I learned fingerpicking I discovered that it had helped my flat-picking skills from the past. I decided to spend a couple of bucks and get me an instruction book from https://www.flatpick.com/ as they have a good reputation and lots of free tabs. It's filling in some holes in my knowledge and I recommend them to anyone that may be interested. Check it out.

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Cool....I decided to spend a couple of bucks and get me an instruction book from https://www.flatpick.com/ as they have a good reputation and lots of free tabs. It's filling in some holes in my knowledge and I recommend them to anyone that may be interested. Check it out.

Thanks, Mr. J. Way ahead of you. Several months ago, probably before I got lured away by the fingerstyle sirens, I bought the Flatpicking Essentials Vol 1 book. I haved been reading the interesting history of the style and plan to get into it this week. Wish you well on your journey.
David

[zmf]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

And, because of what I learned fingerpicking I discovered that it had helped my flat-picking skills from the past.

I'm envious. Wish I felt like doing both.

I'm mainly a Travis picker, and once felt a need to learn how to use a plectrum because I had a couple of dreads that were begging to be flatpicked.

Got a bunch of flatpicking DVD's and progressed reasonably well. But when I'd relax in the evening, I found myself Travis picking the flatpicking tunes I'd learned that day.

I took that as a sign that some of us weren't meant to hold a flatpick.

[MBee]

Thanks for the link. After a forty-year hiatus, I've begun to dip back into flatpicking a little bit. It looks like Mr. Sutton could be a useful re-intro to this approach.

[Skarsaune]

Originally Posted by MBee

It looks like Mr. Sutton could be a useful re-intro to this approach.

Mr. Sutton is a unique combination of monster player and master teacher. Really good at both.

[Kyle215]

Bryan Sutton is a fantastic teacher. Can’t recommend his ArtistWorks course enough.

The analogy I like to use for the early lessons is that he talks about flatpicking as if it was baseball and he was a hitting coach. I thought my fundamentals were pretty good, but he had me going back and re-working some things… I can’t believe how much my tone and speed improved because of that.