Re: Chet's right hand nails
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:27 pm
A couple of points here.
Doug, sometimes you overthink things in your desire to be "just like Chet"
Sure, sometimes he anchored. Other times he kept his hand lightly on the knob of his personal Bigsby handle. On guitars with the regular handle, not so much.
Chet's playing can be copied pretty closely...95% at least but those who can do it will tell you it is PRACTICE more than anything else.
There are no shortcuts.
Here's one way to do it:
Look through your back issues of Mr. Guitar and pick out one of the simpler songs they have tabbed out.
Focus on the first measure till you get it absolutely correct.
Go to the second measure...same thing...play the two together till it sounds right.
Do that, one measure at a time until you finally get the whole thing. By that time you may not like the song anymore except you will hear yourself "getting it"
It does happen. But you need to focus on PRACTICE.
I remember my first song when it all fell into place for me. "I am a Pilgrim" it was, back around 1959. My independent thumb finally kicked in and I was off to the races.
Could/can I play like Chet? No. I didn't focus on playing just like him.
But I played a lot of finger style guitar heavily based on Chet's playing
When I was learning how to play there was no Youtube. Youtube knows all, sees all. It's right in front of you!
Sorry for such a long post but I used to teach guitar and had to get one method in.
Doug, sometimes you overthink things in your desire to be "just like Chet"
Sure, sometimes he anchored. Other times he kept his hand lightly on the knob of his personal Bigsby handle. On guitars with the regular handle, not so much.
Chet's playing can be copied pretty closely...95% at least but those who can do it will tell you it is PRACTICE more than anything else.
There are no shortcuts.
Here's one way to do it:
Look through your back issues of Mr. Guitar and pick out one of the simpler songs they have tabbed out.
Focus on the first measure till you get it absolutely correct.
Go to the second measure...same thing...play the two together till it sounds right.
Do that, one measure at a time until you finally get the whole thing. By that time you may not like the song anymore except you will hear yourself "getting it"
It does happen. But you need to focus on PRACTICE.
I remember my first song when it all fell into place for me. "I am a Pilgrim" it was, back around 1959. My independent thumb finally kicked in and I was off to the races.
Could/can I play like Chet? No. I didn't focus on playing just like him.
But I played a lot of finger style guitar heavily based on Chet's playing
When I was learning how to play there was no Youtube. Youtube knows all, sees all. It's right in front of you!
Sorry for such a long post but I used to teach guitar and had to get one method in.