How best to play chords?

[Naetharu]

Hi folks,

I'm currently in the process of learning to play 'Give Up the Funk' by Parliament and I'm a little lost on how to handle the chords. At a few places in the song the bass is clearly playing more than one note at a time - these chords are either octaves or three-note 'root-flat5-ocatve' patterns.

I'm a bit lost as to how to handle these with my right hand (plucking hand). I'm playing finger-style. Should I just strum them with my thumb or is there a good way to do it? I'm really not sure what is the best approach and I'm keen to avoid developing bad habits if at all possible.

[bartelby]

Depending upon how fast the chords are played I approach them differently.

Usually I kind flick my fingers down and use the tops of my nails to strum.
Similar to Les Claypool:
go to 2:05
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U0jVZp13Jw[/media]

and the intro to this:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Ysta0xuPE[/media]


If it's a fast sequence I imagine I'm holding a pick and just used my thumb and first finger nails.

Edited December 29, 2015 by bartelby

[bristolmusiclessons]

You can also pick notes guitar style. This is called 'free stroke in classical guitar. This technique is useful for loosing some low end, making chords have greater clarity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8TIwGuxgv4

[probablypike]

Similar to Bristol's suggestion, you can pluck multiple strings at the same time using your thumb, first and second (and third) fingers to get a solid chord sound, too.

Sometimes you see people using their thumb in a strumming pick sort of style that brushes over the top of the strings. (I can't do it for beans, though, so I can't personally vouch for it.)

It all depends on what kind of sound you want to make, really

[jazzyvee]

You could try Stanley Clarke's approach. Here is him on School Days.
[url="https://youtu.be/rdRG-hD5ZKo?t=2m50s"]https://youtu.be/rdRG-hD5ZKo?t=2m50s[/url]

If you watch the video there are a few of the other players there using chords in their solo so you can observe their methods.

Edited March 23, 2016 by jazzyvee

[bristolmusiclessons]

Posts above got me thinking about Rasgueado technique...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hpWof00dfM

[timhiggins]

https://youtu.be/TMsVCcwTUCM

He plays a double stop right at the end of this vid. which as far as i no is the only chord like thing in it..
I would go with finger and thumb
good luck

[Daz39]

Yeah - simultaneous pluck using 1-3 fingers for me. You can accent individual notes that way too.

[ambient]

I use my right hand thumb, and fingers 1, 2 and sometimes 3 depending on the voicing.

Stanley Clarke uses a flamenco style strum.

It all really depends on what you want to achieve by it I guess.

[icastle]

Depends on what feel I'm looking for.

Could be flicking fingers, could be a straight 'strum' using forefinger and thumb, could be a guitar style finger pick (thumb and as many fingers as I need to play it comfortably).

There are no 'rules' as such, just different styles and techniques.

[Dazed]

ICastle posted pretty much all I was going to say.
There are many ways to strum. Pick one that fits what you're trying play.