On Practicing Guitar

We'll be playing at the Wild Horse Tavern this Sunday, October 18th at 10pm. The joint is located at 1629 Second Ave between 84th and 85th streets. We're performing as a trio, with myself on Guitar/Vocals, Dave Gerstein on Bass, and Christof Knoche on Harmonica. We've been playing a lot of varied material, with new songs every show. This time out, we'll be playing "That'll Never Happen No More," originally made famous by Blind Blake, shown above. I got hipped to this song by Hot Tuna, and although I learned the basics long ago, I never played it live.

I recently bit the bullet and copped Jorma's right hand technique. I had been playing it sort of classical style, right hand wise, with the right hand floating freely above the strings. After finally wising up to the fact that John Hurt and most others including Jorma brace their right hand via the pinky or pinky/ring fingers, I started experimenting. I finally went whole hog and decided to use the full compliment of fingerpicks, ie a plastic thumbpick and two metal fingerpicks. I'm bracing with my right hand pinky and I can also do some palm muting from this position, as well.

I found that adjusting the metal picks, ie putting them further up on the fingers, made them easier to control. Also, I found that using a different thumbpick than I had been using for more Texas style, 'dead bass' thumb work made it much easier. The pick that I had been using had a big curve that stuck out over the top of the thumb, and it was catching on the A string  when I would reach in for bass notes on the D string, for example. What a revelation to get it right because it was like murder doing it wrong! Playing it on the Tele. Wish me luck!