Gypsy Picking Bebop?

MichaelHorowitz · August 2006

One of the biggest questions I get asked is "can I play bebop using Gypsy Picking?" In the book I took I conservative stance on that issue and said that it wasn't ideal.

However, over the years I've found that all the bebop licks I used to play (from Bird, Wes, Oscar Peterson, Grant Green, etc) actually work pretty well using Gypsy Picking. I just needed to refinger a lot of them to make them Gypsy Picking friendly.

One of my favorite modern bebop guys is Russell Malone. He's one of the few electric guys that has a strong right hand. I found this video of him and it looks like his right hand is very Gypsy-esque.

Check it out:

Jack · August 2006

Yes! I've got a Black Lion disc of Malone playing with Stephane that I've always loved...now I know one reason why! Good find, Michael-there's so much modern electric stuff that does less than nothing for me, but Malone is a standout. It's nice to see how much chordal stuff he throws in too, instead of just running lines the whole time.

Best,
Jack.

pallopenna · August 2006

This is really interesting as just yesterday I got some Bird transcriptions for the guitar in order to see if I could adapt his lines to a gypsy-style of picking. In the back of my mind I remembered some of Michael's comments from earlier, but decided to go ahead and see anyway. Now that you've changed your tune (as it were), I feel validated in the decision. I'm especially interested in learning Bird's second bridge to Ko-Ko (Cherokee), which I think should adapt nicely. Of course I'll be playing it about 1/3 the tempo...

-Paul

ash · October 2006

Russel melon right hand tech is exactly like geroge benson ! :shock:

nwilkins · October 2006

good obsrevtaion

dennis · October 2006

does anyone know where that technique comes from? is it from george benson? i remember watching a lot of videos of jazz guitarists, and many black guitarists used that technique (surely it isn't a race thing)... it seems to come from wes montgomery's thumb technique but applied to a pick

like this guy

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CsSCJkCc2B0

this guy seems to use the technique too

http://www.sheetsofsound.net/danwilson.htm

stubla · November 2006

dennis wrote:

does anyone know where that technique comes from? is it from george benson? i remember watching a lot of videos of jazz guitarists, and many black guitarists used that technique (surely it isn't a race thing)... it seems to come from wes montgomery's thumb technique but applied to a pick

like this guy

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CsSCJkCc2B0

this guy seems to use the technique too

http://www.sheetsofsound.net/danwilson.htm

Benson always credits(the very white!) Hank Garland as the guy who got him into jazz;Wes came a little later.
Listening to Garlands fantastic playing(shame there isn't more!) i think he has a great tone and drive which sounds like the downstroke technique to me.
But Pat Martino of course uses straight alternate picking(at least he was when i saw him play earlier this year)and he has drive and tone in spades as did the fantastic Billy Bean.

I've come to think that on electric the pick technique is less important but i still think that on acoustic the rest stoke technique is amazingly efficient and not just for volume.Your phrasing and timing also benefit greatly.
I think you definitely can use the rest stroke technique for bebop;the key to it is the string choice and left hand fingering imo.
Stu

emicad · November 2006

Absolutely great! Thanks Michael for posting this. Anyone knows the song name?

cantzon · July 2007

I was here awhile back discussing picking technique. I pick like these guys you are referring to. I assure you these guys have very strong right hands. In fact using this technique it is very very important that up srokes be as strong as down strokes. After a few weeks of analyzing what the gypsy jazz guys call "rest stroke" I've come to the conclusion that they are actually doing a bit of Frank Gimbale type economy picking on ascending runs. DUDDUDD etc. That all makes sense and it is economical although patterns must be rehearsed to insure synchronization. What I don't get is why the Gypsy guys don't invert the formula when descending. If DUDD makes sense then UDUU makes equal sense. It has come to my attention that most of the gypsy guys modify their left hand fingerings to accomodate the difference. In my opinion this will lead to he player having to rerehearse almost all of the patterns he plays. That's why quite a few of the gypsy guys repeat themselves whereas people with more modern techniques will be more free to improvise. That's just my 2 cents and not meant to iss anyone off. By the way I noticed that Joscho Stephan alternates. I have been checking out all sorts of guys on youtube. He has a few insructional clips and he clearly begins some descending patterns with an up stroke on a string change.

In any event, there is clearly more than one way to do things. My guess is that players who alternate will spend a lot of time working on making that up stroke on the string cross strong and gypsy players will spend a bit more time on synchronization and making their left hand fingerings gypsy friendly.