Odd Techniques

[mcgraham]

I'm sure we've all seen some techniques that are a bit unusual or a bit different, either used by others or developed by ourselves. I'd love to hear about some new ones that I could perhaps take a shot at learning, as I find it really enjoyable getting new techniques under my belt. I've got a couple that perhaps you may not have seen/heard so I'll list them here.

1) Right hand muting with little finger - by straightening out the little finger slightly (not too much tension), and lowering it down onto the strings about an inch or two from the bridge, I've found I can get a great muted sound whilst still retaining standard technique. Effectively using your pinky as a fleshy mute rather than a foam one.

2) Right 'thumb' tapping - for those who've ever listened to Joe Satriani, he has a particular tapping technique he uses (see Satch Boogie, Surfing with the Alien etc). He brings his pick up to the fretboard and uses it like a pneumatic/piano hammer on the strings, yielding very rapid tapping/pulloffs. What I do is pretend that I'm clutching a pick, bring my hand up so that the plane of my palm is parallel to the plane of the fingerboard and use the side of my thumb as the side of a 'faux' pick. You mimic tapping your knuckles on the table, that's the shortest way to explain it. For an edgier sound try protruding your index finger beyond the edge of your thumb and using the nail surface, not the tip but the main surface of your nail.

Not super useful in a band context, but fun! I've got others but they are mainly subtle variations on already known techniques

Anyone care to share theirs?

Mark

[Mikey D]

[quote name='mcgraham' post='236595' date='Jul 10 2008, 03:11 PM']Anyone care to share theirs?[/quote]
For starters:
1)Having the right eq (Lots of treble) and round wound strings, you can mimic a scratch DJ by rubbing your right hand over the strings. I first saw Julian Crampton do something similar about 10 years ago.
2)Playing over the fretboard with the left hand. Something Marcus did/does to get peoples attention.