I first met Steve Piticco when I was about 19 years old and playing at The Brighton Legion with a folk/rock group. I didn't know who he was at the time, but our singer did, and invited him up to do a couple songs with us. Being the young hotshot in town, I took the first solo and tried to dazzle everyone with my Yngwie and Eric Johnson licks, tastelessly played over some Neil Young song. Then Steve took a solo. It was humiliating. I had never played live with someone of that calibre before and couldn't believe what I was hearing AND seeing. Watching his hands and listening kinda reminded me of those old Kung Fu movies that are overdubbed, you know, when their mouth aren't moving with the voices? His right hand hybrid picking is unique and I've had a hard time copping his licks. Not only is he the greatest country guitarist Canada ever produced, but he's a really nice guy as well. He dropped his solo CD off at my Mothers house for me with a signed note way back when I was first starting school. He will play anywhere with anyone it seems. One week he's playing in front of thousands at an open air festival in Europe, next week he's playing some dive bar in Tweed. That's a real musician for you folks. Anyway, here's a transcription of his solo on Rodney Crowell's One Way Rider. It's fast.
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Here's the guitar part to Metric's Breathing Under Water. It's a forward roll. P,M,A,P,M,A,P,A. Basics, basics, basics. I was jamming with Mike Eckert today (a pedal steel and dobro player) and we were going over the basic right hand technique of the rolls I had talked about in part 2 of the Crosstraining lessons. For a player to get a feel for the syncopation of repeating a three note phrase over common or cut time it's necessary to repeat the basic pattern until it's 1. become muscle memory 2. the ear can track where the one is at all times. The second part is the hardest. Set the metronome to 80 or slower, and play Ex.1 non stop. After a while it's going to be hard to figure out where the "One" is in 4/4 time. Feel which right hand digit is playing the downbeat, even accent that note if it helps. Trying to silently count to four to yourself while doing this at the same time can help find some balance in a lopsided sounding pattern. Repeat the same process for Ex.2. I find my right hand and forearm tense up on this one and it might be because I have a tendency to bend my hand back toward my forearm, but so does Canadas greatest tele picker Steve Piticco! Nuff said. Ex.3 combines the forward and reverse rolls. Once you feel comfortable with the first two examples give this one a try with the metronome. Ex.4 is the same forward roll with one small change, a technique called "double thumb". Use two downstrokes in a row followed by the middle finger sounding the highest string. It takes a little getting used to but after a while it feels a little more comfortable than using the m and a fingers together. It worked for Danny Gatton and it's still working for Johnny Hiland. Bill Keiths melodic style of banjo influenced some of these open string licks for guitar. Combining fretted notes with sustaining open strings underneath gives the illusion that the guitar has more strings than just six sometimes. It can also give a harp like effect, not quite as convincing as the harp harmonic technique but that topic would require its own article. Example 1 is in the key of D and employs the reverse banjo roll that was discussed in part 2 of this series. Try to let all the open string notes sustain as long as possible. Example 2 is way up the fretboard and in the key of E. This resembles a reverse banjo roll as well but starting on the M (middle finger of the right hand). I use this one quite a bit since it sounds a little out of the ordinary, a little less predictable. Example 3 is in the same area of the fretboard as the previous example, but with some wider right hand leaps and a bluesier sound combing the flat third and major third. Example 4 is a nice looooong rockabilly lick in the key of E. It employs some forward banjo roll action and some reverse on the way down. Try to play this one as fast as you can over a "Mystery Train" kind of groove. Examples 5 thru 9 use the same type of descending open string lick that is altered to fit into 5 different keys. It's a good idea to have a bunch of these worked out for multiple keys just in case. Pay close attention to the right hand fingering on these. Pop the hybrid picked notes hard for a nice chicken pickin' effect. Banjo rolls are great for your right hand, requiring a hybrid picking style (combining fingerstyle with pick). A little bit of practice can have you ripping these things over fast tempos in no time at all since they are a repetitive arpeggiated pattern. Once the muscle memory is established you're good to go. Example A is a classic forward roll pattern. The trick here is to have every string sounding out at the same volume. This will require balance between the fingered notes and the pick. Keep your picking hand against the bridge in a quasi-palm muting technique. Once you get control over the the velocity of the notes you can try snapping that high G to give a sense of syncopation. Example B is a reverse roll. The reversing of the fingerstyle part of the hybrid picking technique can present problems for some players (like me). I always found this one required more work than the forward roll. A good trick here is to use the classical guitar technique of "planting" the right hand fingers. Place both a and m on their respective strings, perform the arpeggio. On the repeat place both the a and m on their respective strings again before playing the high g sounded by the a finger. This helps keep the rhythm intact and can improve speed. Finger planting for hybrid picking is a subjective I will get into in a future post. C is an arpeggio figure in the style of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" by Flatt&Scruggs. What kind of roll is this? Forward or Backward? Get this one up to speed and throw it in any tune in G you need to spice up a bit. Below is a PDF of the lesson you can download.
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