The time to break the rules of how to play the guitar is anytime a rule keeps you from making good music.

For example, in the previous post I talked about how it is sometimes desirable to break “The Segovia Rule” of alternating between fingers when striking a string. Although the rule is intended to help you become a more disciplined and faster player, you may sometimes find it works against you. One case I mentioned in which it works against you is when you want a very consistent tone from one note to the next.

Another example is a rule my Dad taught me when I was first learning finger style guitar: in using the thumb, start the pattern with the 5th string, then on the next beat hit the 4th, then the 6th on the next beat, and complete the measure (4 beats) by returning to the 4th string. In short, use a 5-4-6-4 pattern. This rule is great for learning, because it forces you to establish some muscle memory for your thumb, so that you get to the point where you don’t have to think about every bass note you strike: it comes automatically.

This rule is also good in the sense that it keeps you from having one string “sound off” too often. Example, you are playing a tune using only the 6th and 4th strings for the bass … after a while, the 6th string just gets to sounding too repetitive and a listener’s mind will become distracted from the music by the “over repetitiveness” of the bass.

The problem with the rule is that it limits you musically. There are times when you will want to start the pattern with the 6th string instead of the 5th. There may be times when you want to play a 6-5-5-4-6 pattern. There may even be times when it’s best to use a 5-3-4-3-5 pattern.

What you ultimately want is for your thumb to do whatever you want it to … you want to be able to switch between patterns without having to stop and think about it. That means practicing different patterns.

Jerry Reed wouldn’t have been the fantastic player he was if he always stuck to the rules. He often hit an open string and followed it with a sharp or flat of the note on a different string, letting the discordant notes sound at the same time. It was part of his style. He sometimes used his pick on the third string to accent a note instead of using a finger (even in the midst of a 5-4-6-4 pattern) … sometimes he would even dip to the second string because it was the best way to pick a complex riff.

The rules are there for a reason. And you should always try to understand the reason(s), so you will know when and when not to break them. They will be most useful to you when you are learning finger style guitar, and you shouldn’t try to break them until you’ve gotten the point they were trying to teach you. As you mature in your playing, you can learn to set them aside, as needed, to get the sound you are looking for.

Here is a video I put together tonight to show a couple of ways of getting one of the riffs in Jerry Reed’s The Claw:

It’s probably best to view this on the YouTube site, which has a wider version of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI_-zvFngxk

As I note in the video, I learned how to play The Claw using only two fingers (index and middle) for this riff (although of course I used all three fingers for the main part of the tune). But, a few years after I learned it, I read that Chet admired Segovia’s techniques, so I bought a book by Segovia and saw in it that he said, emphatically, to always alternate fingers when picking a single string. That is Never Strike a String Twice With The Same Finger. So, with this Rule in my head, I changed how I played this riff in The Claw, so that I used the middle and ring fingers for most of the lick and used the index finger for a “kicker.”

From that point on, I became obsessed with right-hand fingering techniques (well, maybe not obsessed, but I sure put a high priority on not breaking The Segovia Rule). Then, about a year ago (close to 35 years after The Rule changed my picking), I noticed that Christopher Parkening said that it is fine to strike a string more than once with a finger, and that it is sometimes recommended (for example, for tone reasons). Then, I got to looking more closely at videos of Chet and Jerry and Tommy and Richard Smith and others, and noticed that they weren’t “annal” about Segovia’s Rule like I was. So, I decided to “play more sensibly,” and of course that’s a life-long learning goal for me anyway.

So that you can see for yourself how Chet and Jerry and Tommy got The Claw, here are a couple of YouTube videos for you to study:

Chet and Jerry playing The Claw

Tommy Jones playing The Claw

I hope you enjoy.

Again I’ve chosen a title that is based on a quote by Chet Atkins. I used to wonder what he meant by those words, “play the music, not the notes,” but I think I finally understand some of what he meant. (I suspect he meant multiple things with that one remark.)

I think the main thing he meant was that you should not let how a song’s notes are written out to limit you in how you bring the song alive. For example, if the tablature for one beat specifies a C note at the first position on the second string, that shouldn’t mean that you cannot add in a G note (open third) and a G note (third fret on the 6th string). It also doesn’t mean that you should not bring that C note to life by first striking an open second (a B) and then hammering in the C note. In short, the tablature shouldn’t keep you from bringing out a more full sound than the song’s author wrote.

If you watch a lot of Chet’s videos on YouTube, you will see that he often picked two strings together with his index and middle finger, whereas a lot of other guitarists would pick only with one finger. Chet never overdid this. To do it all the time would not sound right. He had a knack for just how many notes to put into each part of a song, how to bring them to life (hammering, sliding, or just standard), how crisply, and so on.

In fact, one of the things I loved (love) so much about Chet’s music is that he almost never overdid anything … his sound was always so clean, with just the right notes for every part of every tune. So many artists clutter tunes up trying to show off in a single tune every lick they ever mastered. Not Chet.

I have a little more to say on this in the following video, which is my only instructional video so far. (I may do more, but I really need better equipment to do it right.) In this video, I walk through how Tommy Jones played a certain lick in Will The Circle Be Unbroken. I then talk about how I modified that lick to use in a tune that I wrote. Tommy’s version is very uncluttered, using a single finger and thumb for the counterpoint being discussed, whereas mine uses a counterpoint with the thumb and TWO fingers. Mine is fine under many circumstances. But, Tommy’s counterpoint is not only cleaner, it’s easier to get.

One thing to keep in mind while you are playing is “illusion.” If you are playing a tune with a lot of full beats in it, then a counterpoint with the thumb and one finger is often going to sound (to your audience) more full than it really is … they will hear notes that aren’t really there (ones you might be tempted to add in and get with a second finger), simply because our brains are used to filling in patterns.

Anyway, a lot of words for a conceptually simple point. Your thoughts?