[RICH.J]

I play any runs I do with my index and thumb, but I'm starting to want to play the things I hear in my head a bit quicker than I am at the moment.

I play my scales everyday, major, minor, major/minor pentatonics.

I've got a few DVD's, and there's a Buster B. Jones one I have, and his speed is incredible playing runs, clearly it's more technique than speed, but I noticed he doesn't use index and thumb, more his fingers. He doesn't explain his technique in the DVD though.

The main reason I ask is because I've been trying to make up a few ragtime style progressions which tend to be faster, and when I hear a run in my head that I want to do, I'm struggling to play it, which is no good. For alternate bass blues songs, I tend to be ok at putting runs together because everything is a bit slower

Any tips? Should I try to play a different way other than thumb index? Can you ever really be as fast without a pick? Should I play my scales more legato, would that help. It's hard on acoustic.

Any help greatly appreciated as usual.

[Father Fonz]

Keep practising a range of different playing styles.. Stick to the same scales if they suit you, but use thumb and index, the middle 3 fingers, all four fingers. Generally you should speed up as your range increases and you'll naturally be able to pick up your speed over time.

[rasav]

Practice Triplet runs with your right hand using your first three fingers. It's a bear to get a decent sound past the first two strings, BUT, once you have it down you can get in and do those 32nd and 64th runs.

What scale are you useing for your rags? 1 2 b3 3 5 6 8 OR???
(I'm collecting them for personal use.)

If you insist on finger style (Good Man) and haven't done so, a week or two of spanish guitar studies could help a great deal.

Quite frankly though I'm waiting with a note book to see what dadfad has to say.

[dadfad]

Buster is sort of an anomaly among fingerstyle players (I know Buster's brother Rich who lives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.). Buster's got a wide range of mixed influences... from Chet to bluegrass (which is probably where his speed comes from) mixed in with a bit of trad-blues and things. I'm not into Buster's material all that much. It's great, but not as country-bluesish as I generally like (Rich is more into old-blues and trad and books artists and festivals, etc and is a pretty mean player himself.) Some of the lightning speed techniques Buster uses are the frequent use of hammer-ons (and pull-offs) (often in triplet or quadruplets) in sort of a rolling-style and a back-and-forth double-picking style similar to what a bluegrass-guy (or speed-metal guy) might do with a pick. He also sort of reverts back and forth between the typical informal-fingerstyle approach (thumb+dominant finger(s) and a more classical-styled approach (one-finger/one-string) as he plays. Learning to double-thumb might help if you're going for speed. (I double-thumb, but only when I try to play some things as authentically as possible, like Blind Blake and John Jackson who often double-thumbed, but not necessarily for speed.) I can play pretty fast when I want to for a run or something, but I'm no speed-demon or anything.

[RICH.J]

Practice Triplet runs with your right hand using your first three fingers. It's a bear to get a decent sound past the first two strings, BUT, once you have it down you can get in and do those 32nd and 64th runs.

What scale are you useing for your rags? 1 2 b3 3 5 6 8 OR???
(I'm collecting them for personal use.)

If you insist on finger style (Good Man) and haven't done so, a week or two of spanish guitar studies could help a great deal.

Quite frankly though I'm waiting with a note book to see what dadfad has to say.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Everthing I've been playing does seem to be 1 2 b3 3 5 6 8.

I've always played with my ring finger between the bridge and sound hole as support, first and most comfortable way I guess. So playing runs with my index and middle has always made sense, but it feels like I can only get so fast playing that way.
I'll start practising playing triplets with my first three fingers, and see how it goes.
I'll just keep playing chromatics up the neck 'till it feels natural I suppose.
Any comments from DADFAD would be of help... A true book of musical knowledge

This post has been edited by RICH.J: 06 December 2005 - 03:36 PM

[emalco]

Three finger triplets im gonna have to try that. I would always try with two fingers like you would with a bass and gave up after a while and went back to alternating between thumb and pointer finger.

[RICH.J]

Learning to double-thumb might help if you're going for speed.

Could you explain double thumbing a bit DADFAD. I think I've heard you mention it before. It's coming back up with the thumb after a downstroke isn't it?

This post has been edited by RICH.J: 07 December 2005 - 02:04 PM

[Father Fonz]

I believe (but could well be wrong) that it's where you play a bass note with your thumb, followed by a treble note with your finger, then back onto the thumb, then treble etc. It ofter rolls from E-A strings or A-D.

[rasav]

If you really want to blaze in finger style start working on some blue grass. Also for playing rags try dropped D, dadf#ad and DGdgbd