Mathieu Chatelain rhythm

Charles Meadows

Any of you guys have clips of Mathieu playing in a master class or something? I'd love to hear his playing with no other instruments. He has such a great sound. Vroomp!

Buco

Did you see this? Not by himself but you can hear him pretty clearly.

wim

Hopefully Andrew can get him along to DIJ one of these years

Charles Meadows

Hey Wim you've managed to get a pretty good pomp sound yourself (from what I remember from Louisville a few years back). Rhythm is harder for me than solo in some ways because the former is more organic and harder to just copy from youtube, since I have no friends who play this style. By the way you know what kind of pick Mathieu uses?

NylonDave

Charles Meadows wrote: »

Rhythm is harder for me than solo in some ways because the former is more organic and harder to just copy from youtube, since I have no friends who play this style. By the way you know what kind of pick Mathieu uses?

I can offer a suggestion for rhythm that I haven't seen offered anywhere else.

Try playing with the left hand alone and try and get exactly the length of chords that you want. So hammer on beat one and sustain a little, real short stab on two and pretty much the same for three and four. Almost like you are a piano player. If you are really motivated and interested then you will start to feel your left hand really free up and get stronger and more accurate and MORE RHYTHMICAL. You will also you will lose the inconsistency of staccato that characterises bad Pompe (and bad western swing too).

Playing with the left hand alone on whole chords won't ever sound great but it will help you notice one thing. In this style the right hand does a lot more than you might think in lead and the left hand is MUCH more responsible for the quality of the rhythm. This will become clear when you reintroduce the picking hand and notice how terrible the results sound as your old habits of not considering the left hand articulation in chordal playing reasserts itself. Fortunately though if you are patient your EAR will jump in and let the left hand work well as it should have started to in left hand alone practice and hopefully get rid of unwanted accents and clumsiness in the right.

I don't know what kind of pick Mathieu uses.

D.

alton

NylonDave wrote: »

Fortunately though if you are patient your EAR will jump in and let the left hand work well as it should have started to in left hand alone practice and hopefully get rid of unwanted accents and clumsiness in the right.

Agreed. Like many on this forum for sure, I spent a lot of time and money on picks trying to chase the tone of the players that I enjoy most. The most important development that I made was when I stopped worrying about hardware, started really actually listening to my playing, and tried to get my rhythm sounding like my favorite examples of la pompe with the tools that I had on hand. To my ears, I improved more in a short period than I had in the last couple of years. Am I executing rhythm on the level that I want to be? Absolutely not. But I haven't spent a dollar on a pick since DiJ 2016, and I am happier with my playing.

Jim Kaznosky

@NylonDave Brilliant advice which echoes advice that I've heard from a few instructors at Django in June and private instruction I've had.
You can apply this pickless practice to lead playing as well. I've done this when I've had bouts of tendinitis with my picking hand and it kept me relatively in shape. It has the added benefits of strengthening your left hand anf giving you better tone.

Bones

Conversely, you can also use the opposite technique to break down your rhythm playing. All damping with the left hand while strumming with the right to work on that aspect independent of the left hand. I do that a fair bit these days since I'm having arthritis in my left hand and it needs a rest now and then but still keep my right working (or just use minimal pressure with the left hand). Then add in some tone with the left on 1 and 3 while damping 2 and 4 or visa versa to isolate your tone on particular beats. Start with minimal tone (max damping) and then add more tone until you get the sound you like. If in doubt, less is more. Also pick recordings that you like the sound of the rhythm player and play along with it trying to fit in with the sound (helps a lot and is fun too).

Agreed, I think technique is way more important than what pick you use.
I think to a certain extent picks are more about what you are used to, after a short bit I can easily switch back and forth between a Gator and a thick GJ pick, especially for rhythm, but of course not saying that they don't impact tone to some degree.

Charles Meadows

Thanks all. Yes I know it's not his pick that gives the tone! haha. I'm just interested to know what gear great players use; it's just more knowledge.

wim

Hah, I honestly thought you were asking about Mathieu's pick just to try and provoke NylonDave. Anyway, I think it's a dunlop he's using, like all the other Paris guys.
Thanks for the kind words.

NylonDave

Ah the old Dunlop purples.
And also the Pink I remember them well.

In fact I have a confession, there were a few in the case the other day.

But, and I am being honest here, I truly don't have any shark fins.

Honest.