Clarification question on rest stroke

cantzon

I recently migrated into this realm from the classical side of the world. I've recently been studying Gypsy Jazz and am having to recall my time spent almost twenty years ago when I used a pick and played John McLaughlin, Dimeola type of things.

My question is this- I keep seeing people talking about "rest-stroke" technique.

I know what that is in classical but am unaware of exactly what it is describing w/ regard to using a pick and playing Django type stuff. Does it have something to do with either anchoring or not anchoring the wrist near the bridge or does it refer to something else.

I am aware of what alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking, and a classical rest stroke are. If any of those techniques can help you to explain please refer back to them.

Thanks.

MichaelHorowitz

HI,

The rest stroke plectrum technique is very similar to the classical fingertsyle technique. With the pick, every down stroke is played as a rest stroke. So your pick is always resting on the next string after a down stroke.

The wrist is completely off the guitar when performing this technique. For more info see:

Gypsy
Picking

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cantzon

Generally speaking, would you then not use a rest stroke on fast passages?

MichaelHorowitz

Some of the fastest players in the world use rest strokes....Bireli Lagrene, Stochelo Rosenberg, Jimmy Rosenberg, etc. It's an incredibly efficient technique and you play very fast with it.

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here's some flawless rest-sroke:








it's all about grace.