Hybrid picking on guitar
Jul 19th, 2007
Hybrid picking is a great way of adding another dimension to your sound. Players in many different styles such as blues, bluegrass, country, rock and jazz use hybrid picking when they play guitar. One of my favorite guitar players, Stevie Ray Vaughan, uses hybrid picking for his solo in the song “Lenny.”
What is hybrid picking?
As the name suggests, hybrid picking is a technique that is a cross between regular picking and finger picking (AKA fingerstyle). Hybrid picking allows for the guitar player to sound notes on separate strings without sounding the string in the middle.
For example, lets say you wanted to play something like this:
What would you do when you got to the red notes? Well a good option would be hybrid picking.
How to hybrid pick
Here is how I approach hybrid picking. I hold my pick like I would normally hold it, between my thumb and index finger, like so:
(I use a small pick, so it’s hard to see my pick, but it’s there)
But for hybrid picking I use my middle finger to pluck the lower string like so:
So in the tabs above I would pick the note on the G string and pluck the note on the high E string with my middle finger. To get the notes to sound at the same time I “pinch” them so my pick and middle finger both squeeze towards each other. Once you pinch let the strings slide off your pick and finger at the same time by moving your hand slightly away from the string. This will cause both strings to slide off at the same time. Presto! Hybrid picking!
Another great way to use hybrid picking is to alternate between using your pick and your middle finger. What is the advantage to this? Well it sure makes string skipping a lot easier, especially when you are skipping two or more strings. Try playing this A minor lick with hybrid picking. The red notes use a pick and the blue use your middle finger:
Experiment with hybrid picking and see how you can incorporate it into your playing. It is quite a cool technique
One of my favorite examples of hybrid picking is the intro pedal point lick that Eric Johnson’s plays during the intro to “Cliffs of Dover”. Great Post.
Ah, never really got into hybrid picking much. That new Icky Thump song by The White Stripes uses on instance of it. Other than that, I never really have experimented with it.
Guess I will add it to the long list of things that I need to learn on guitar mechanics
Never done this before. I think I need to learn more about this guitar playing technique so I may also share it to my students.
Thanks for the information.
I’ve been looking everywhere for some serious instruction on this technique…drills, samples, etc. It’s an awesome technique.
For some modern country examples, check out anything by Brad Paisley, especially the latest CD release, “Play”. Loads of examples on that thing and they’re just amazing to listen to.
The guitarist in Psycroptic uses this technique to a great effect.