I was watching some of Robert’s Youtube videos and found this one where he talks indepth about picking. Some might find it interesting.
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Thanks, that was really interesting!
- Trigger grip
- Straight thumb
- Keep the wrist neutral
- Track from the elbow
Those were my takeaways. Totally contextual though. We’ve seen more ways to DBX than that. Still, I think it’s cool he’s aware of things like that and knows how to explain his approach.
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He may be a great player, but Robert Fripp has always seemed to think his way is the only way.
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For sure! He is very rigid about what he thinks technique should be.
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I guess a lot of great players are like this about their technique. “This is the way!!”
To be fair, what they’ve landed on is probably the only thing that works, for them. Since that’s their experience, they are trying to pass that on to the rest of us. I get easily distracted (and dazzled) by all these different setups/motions Troy does effortlessly. The reality is that most of the greats are limited in some capacity, and the setup/motion they’ve gone with is very conducive to the phrases/patterns/style they are comfortable in.
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Fripp seems like a very intelligent person, and he’s obviously an excellent teacher.
In fact, my brain is so small that I have to tune in 4ths, but his brain is so big that he can tune like this:
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He most definitely is intelligent and can articulate his ideas.
The problem comes in where it often appears to be his way or no way. He’s not subtle about it. Which as we clearly know, and despite a lot of opinionated history, is not how the guitar works at all.
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Fripp is a legend and his playing and writing are great. But the picking motion he demonstrates around seven minutes is stringhopping. The League Of Crafty Guitarists videos all show everyone doing variants of this as well. I suspect as he speeds up this will change and become something more efficient.
Sorry didn’t finish watching! The 9:30 motion or so looks much better.
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…and he had to relearn all the KC material for his new tuning!
Not to mention I actually own one of the Fripp picks and they are NOT at all what I thought they would be - they are really quite small and flexible. Me, used to Jazz III’s that are stiff and have little flexibility it was totally at odds with what I thought they would be. Guy has refined flatpicking for six decades so he knows his stuff. I’ll watch the video with interest. He can be a bit dry but he is quite smart about his playing. How else has he kept his chops in shape for so long? Brilliant man he is.
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They are very slightly rounded tips.
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