Cross-string Trills

Playing Technique
#1

Hi,

Here’s a technique I derived from the Classical Guitar that I think could be useful to some flat pickers. The trills happen at about about 2:18 in the video. On Classical Guitar my trills are a bit unorthodox because I use a,m,i,p whereas most players use a,i,m,p, however with the pick I’m playing a downstroke with the pick for the bass note, hybrid note on high e with my m finger, then a downstroke on the b string, upstroke (also a rest stroke) on high e, and finally an upward free stroke on the b string, I realize this ends up having an outside string change so perhaps that could be tweaked for a bit more efficiency but that’s what initially felt comfortable.

Thanks,
Chris

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#2

Sounds very interesting (and your playing is great!) But I didn’t really understand how you do it :sweat_smile:

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#3

Thanks Tommo,
I’ll try to explain it better, let’s say you’re playing an open Dsus2 chord and you want to trill between the open high e and the D (3rd fret on the B string)

  1. Pick open D (fourth string) with a down stroke
  2. With your right hand middle finger play high e open (hybrid pick)
  3. Then a down stroke with the pick on the D (3rd fret of the B string)
  4. Then an rest stroke (up stroke) on high e open
  5. Then an upward free stroke on the D (3rd fret of the B string).
    This works for a trill that is 5 notes.

One could also just trill the open high e and the D (3rd fret of the B string)

  1. Pick down on the D (3rd fret of the B string)
  2. Pick a rest stroke up on high e and rest the pick on the B string
  3. Pick a free stroke up on the B string
  4. Lastly, hybrid pick the high e and just keep repeating the 4 notes.
    You can also attach the first concept to the second one if you want a longer trill.

I hope that makes more sense? Little concerned it doesn’t.

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#4

I’m going to have to dig into this. Your articulation is great, and the tone (I guess combined with the fact that electric guitar isn’t the most dynamic instrument) is quite like a harpsichord. Really cool

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#5

Thanks Timehat, I mainly play Bach stuff but I’m sure there’s a way to transfer it into shredding somehow.

Chris