I recently discovered something pretty cool that took me a lot of detective work. I have not seen it discussed here, or really anywhere else on the Internet (and believe me, I’ve looked). Before I get into it, I want to clarify a couple things:
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I am not saying that I have discovered the “One True Picking Method” and that everyone should immediately switch to this. Frankly, I’m not even sure that it’s something I will use extensively, and I certainly haven’t mastered it. It’s just another method, one of many valid approaches to choose from.
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I do not want to get bogged down into definitions of what true economy picking is. These terms are pretty loose. For the sake of simplicity, I am going to come up with my own definitions.
First, some personal and historical background. If you don’t care, and just want to get to the picking discussion, feel free to skip this.
Background
When I first played guitar, nobody gave me any picking instruction outside of “here’s how you hold the pick.” I had to figure it out by myself. And what I figured out for myself is what most people would call economy picking. Whenever I switched to a higher string (ie, D string to G string), I used a downstroke. Whenever I switched to a lower string (ie, D to A string), I used an upstroke.
This seemed logical to me. And I got pretty fast at it. I did not even know there was such a thing as strict alternate picking. Later, when I got a new guitar teacher who insisted I use strict alternate picking, I was completely baffled as to why anyone would do it this way. A side note to guitar teachers: if you get a student who has figured out a way to pick that’s working for them, do not force them to switch just because it doesn’t fit your personal preferences.
Thankfully, later on I discovered that other players did play my way. One guy was Jimmy Bruno. He had an instructional tape back in the day, “The Art of Picking”, that taught it exactly the way I played. Around that time, I also found Frank Gambale’s instructional materials. Gambale’s approach was very similar, he just arranged his left hand fingerings very differently than Bruno, to facilitate same-direction string switching. This all made sense to me.
Years later, I discovered a player/teacher named Tony DeCaprio. He was a great player in his own right, and he advocated something he called “Strategic Picking.” He had several columns in the now-defunct magazine Just Jazz Guitar where he went over his picking approach. They are pretty tough to find now, but if you use the Wayback Machine and search his site, you can find old PDFs of them he posted.
He talked a lot about economy of motion, smooth string changes, and some of it was similar to the economy picking I was familiar with. But some of it wasn’t. Some of the string changes were same direction (two upstrokes or downstrokes in a row), but some were strict alternate picking. I couldn’t figure out why he used one or the other. There was some sort of system, but it was a mystery to me. Even more intriguing: there was a long ago post from Jimmy Bruno himself on the old Google Jazz Guitar Forum (RIP) saying that Tony had one of the best right hands in the biz, and you’d be crazy not to listen to him.
DeCaprio said he learned his approach from Joe Sgro. That lead me down another rabbit hole, because it was a name I’d heard before but never really investigated. Unfortunately, there isn’t a ton of info out there. It seemed like he had a very similar career to someone like Barry Galbraith and Tommy Tedesco: a long career as a teacher, studio musician, TV band leader, and just general all around player, the kind of guy that Eugene Ormandy called when the Philadelphia Orchestra needed a plectrum guitarist for a piece. But he didn’t really have many recordings out there – the only record I could find was a long out of print vinyl of mostly easy listening, which didn’t seem to be the best showcase for his skills.
But he had a long, legendary stint as a teacher in Philly. Seemed like he had a sort of friendship/friendly rivalry with Dennis Sandole. Sandole is much well known in jazz circles, because his most famous student was John Coltrane, but he taught lots of other guys as well, including Benny Golson, Pat Martino, Matthew Shipp, etc. It seems like Sgro was “the guitar teacher” and Sandole was “the theory teacher” in that scene. And a ton of great jazz guitarists came out of that scene in general: Martino, Bruno, DeCaprio, Robert Conti, and plenty more that I’m forgetting.
But there wasn’t a ton out there about what Sgro actually taught, and particularly how he taught picking. I ran into this quote from him:
I was greatly inspired by the artistry of pianist Art Tatum. After hearing him, I realized I coudln’t play on the guitar the same complex and intricate arpeggios and scale passages that he played on the piano. Upon examination, I discovered the problem was in the use of the pick. This let me to develop a completely new approach to using the pick, which I call the “JS Systme of Slur-Alternate Picking.” This new approach gave me greater efficiency, flexibility, and a smoother flowing sound.
That’s great, Joe, but what is it actually??
The only resource I could find on him was an article by a former student, Stephen Slawek. Slawek is now a well-known sitar teacher, but he started on guitar, and Sgro was his student. There was an article he wrote where he talked about the similarities between Sgro’s teaching and Hindustani maestros. Interesting, but not super helpful.
There was also this video of Sgro taken by Slawek, shortly before Sgro died. The first minute or so he talks about his picking, but doesn’t get into the weeds. Sgro sounds pretty good for someone in his late 80’s/early 90’s!
Finally, I discovered there were some books by former student James Tillman where he apparently goes through the system. His website was mostly out of stock of them, but you could still order a couple of them from Lulu. That’s when it finally clicked for me what the system.
The Actual Picking Discussion
So let’s reiterate a few things.
Gambale’s picking approach involves choosing left hand fingerings that maximize consecutive direction string changes. It’s actually pretty simple:
- when going one direction, use an odd number of notes per string
- when changing directions, use an even number of notes
Jimmy Bruno’s picking is even simpler: when playing a new string, the stroke you use depends on the string you just came from. If you came from a higher string, you play an upstroke. If you came from a lower string, you play a down stroke.
So for example, an ascending two note per string pentatonic scale would be played with alternating D U. This looks identical to alternate picking.
D U D U D U D U D U D U
E|--------------------------------3–6–
B|--------------------------3–5--------
G|--------------------3–5--------------
D|--------------3–5--------------------
A|--------3–5--------------------------
E|–3–6--------------------------------
But descending would look very different.
D U U D U D U D U D U D
E|–6–3--------------------------------
B|--------6–3--------------------------
G|--------------5–3--------------------
D|--------------------5–3--------------
A|--------------------------5–3--------
E|--------------------------------6–3–
You could also play U D on the first two notes, but it doesn’t matter all that much. The direction of the previous string determines whether you start with an upstroke or downstroke.
Joe Sgro’s method is different. What he was trying to do was avoid situations where the pick “floats away” from the next string, or moves in the opposite direction of the next string change. An example would be an upstroke on the D string, followed by a note on the G string: the upstroke is moving away from the G string, which is what he’s trying to avoid.
In Bruno’s approach, the direction of the previous string determines which stroke you start with. In Sgro’s, the direction of the next string change determines which stroke you start with.
This is easier to show with examples. Let’s take a simple idea like this:
E|-----------------------
B|-----------------------
G|-----------------------
D|-----------3-----------
A|–3–5–6----6–5–3
E|-----------------------
In Bruno’s system, it would be played: D U D D U D U
But in Sgro’s system, it would be played: D U D U U D U
Because you’re going back to the A string after playing the solitary note on the D string, Sgro would play an upstroke so that the pick is headed in the same direction as the next note. In this example, I’ve ended the last 3 notes with U D U, because the idea ends there. But this is a bit misleading – if the line didn’t end there, it would depend on where it ended next. Identical sequences of notes could have completely different picking depending on followed. Examples:
D U D U U D U U D
E|-----------------------------
B|-----------------------------
G|-----------------------------
D|-----------3-----------------
A|–3–5–6-----6–5–3--------
E|--------------------------4–3–
Compare that to. Note the up stroke that ends the top of the arpeggio to head back down.
D U D U D U D U D D D D U U U
E|------------------------------------------3--------
B|--------------------------------------4-----4-----
G|-----------------------------------5-----------5–
D|-----------3--------------------5-----------------
A|–3–5–6-----6–5–3–5–6--------------------
E|----------------------------------------------------
Remember that two note pentatonic? In Sgro’s system, it would be played like this:
U D U D U D U D U D U D
E|--------------------------------3–6–
B|--------------------------3–5--------
G|--------------------3–5--------------
D|--------------3–5--------------------
A|--------3–5--------------------------
E|–3–6--------------------------------
And descending like this:
D U D U D U D U D U D U
E|–6–3--------------------------------
B|--------6–3--------------------------
G|--------------5–3--------------------
D|--------------------5–3--------------
A|--------------------------5–3--------
E|--------------------------------6–3–
What’s interesting in that, for some lines, Sgro’s system will pick ideas identical to Bruno’s. For other lines, it will almost be the opposite. And what’s further interesting is that Gambale’s system resides almost entirely in the middle of the Venn diagram between Sgro and Bruno, consisting of fingering arrangements where both players would pick it the same way.
I’m not entirely convinced Sgro’s way is ideal for everything. That ascending pentatonic feels incredibly awkward to me. It also requires planning ahead in a way that Bruno’s system doesn’t. Even strict USX picking, which also seemingly requires a measure of planning, has been easier for me to “wing it” because if you feel like the picking is backwards, you can always add a slur. But for those economy pickers looking to play lines with a mixed number of notes, this might be something worth experimenting with. At the very least, I hope this helps preserve a picking technique that hasn’t gotten much attention.