Beloved by hot-rod country
and rock guitarists alike,
hybrid picking combines the
power and speed of flatpicking
with some benefits of a purely
fingerstyle approach, such as
being able to weave arpeggios
across non-adjacent strings or
simultaneously strike chord tones
for a piano-like sound. (For
details on this versatile technique,
see “Hybrid Picking 101” on
page 2.) But compared
to a four-digit classical or jazz
fingerstyle technique, hybrid
picking has several limitations.
The most obvious is that when
playing chords, this pick-plus-two-
fingers system lets you attack
only three notes at a time.
Most guitarists who use
hybrid picking shift between
a full-on flatpick and a pick-and-fingers approach on the fly.
While this offers a huge timbral
palette, it can be tough to balance
the big, chimey sound of
strummed five- and six-string
chords with the thinner tone of
plucked three-string chords. One
way to beef up the latter is to
use special three-note voicings
that are spread out across a wider
range than the typical triads you
might otherwise grab. It’s easy
to generate “hybrid-friendly”
chords, once you know the
process.
We’ll begin by modifying
standard root-3rd-5th triads,
which always occupy a single
octave. To make these triads
sound bigger, we simply move
the middle note—the 3rd (or
in the case of a minor triad, the b3rd)—down or up an octave,
while leaving the root and 5th in
the same register. In this lesson,
we’ll discover what happens when
we drop the 3rd an octave lower.
Next time around, we’ll focus on
raising the 3rd one octave higher.
Either way, the resulting open
triads span more than an octave.
Download Example Audio 1...
Fig. 1 illustrates the process,
beginning with a root-3rd-5th A
triad in the 5th position. First,
strum A on strings 4, 3, and 2 as
written. Next, using hybrid picking,
pluck the A/C#—the second
chord in our example. Musically,
only one thing has changed:
We’ve dropped the middle note,
our 3 (C#), down an octave. But
to fret this new chord, we’ve had
to refinger the voicing. In this
instance, the root migrates from
the 4th to the 3rd string. Though
the root has moved, its pitch
hasn’t changed.
Incidentally, when a chord’s
lowest note is
not the root, the
harmony is typically written as a
slash chord with the chord name
on the left and the special bass
note on the right. Most slash
chords have the 3rd (or b3rd) in
the bass, but the 5th and other
chord tones can show up here
too. (You can even have nonchord
tones in the bass, but that’s
a topic for another column.)
Now, repeat the process for
the second pair of chords in this
example, Am and Am/C. Here,
we’re pulling the b3rd (C) from
inside Am and dropping it down
an octave. As you play both
chords, listen carefully and compare
their relative sonic “weight.”
With its expanded range, Am/C
sounds bigger than its more compact
sibling, although without
the root as the lowest note, it can
also sound more ambiguous. It’s
good to keep these qualities in
mind when arranging music with
slash chords.
Pushing on, we tackle E and
Em, pulling out G# and G (the
3rd and b3rd, respectively) and
dropping them an octave to create
E/G# and Em/G voicings.
Fig. 2 gives us an alternative
visual perspective on the four
new voicings we’ve created. We
can clearly see that the only difference
between A/C# and Am/C,
or E/G# and Em/G is the half-step
shift that results from moving
the 3rd to the b3rd. Perhaps
you’ve played these chords
before. If not, take a minute to
chase them up and down the
fretboard, and then hop back and
forth between the grips on string
sets 5–3–2 and 6–4–3.
Download Example Audio 2...
Now, let’s put our chords to
work.
Fig. 3 contains strummed
four- and five-note chords (A2,
D2, and the Aadd2 at the end),
as well as plucked three-note
voicings. Pay attention to the
picking-hand markings for A/C#,
D/F#, and G2. In bar 3, we get
a piano-like effect by simultaneously
plucking the notes in G2
and D/F#. It’s a sound you can’t
get using a flatpick alone. As you
play through this example, notice
the variety of picking-hand textures:
full strums, arpeggios, and
piano stabs. Also, in bars 1 and
2, notice how the lowest note in
each slash chord lies a half-step
below the root of the subsequent
chord and how strongly one leads
to the other.
Download Example Audio 3...
Fig. 4 consists entirely of
hybrid-friendly slash chords
voiced on strings 6, 4, and 3.
To accentuate the root in any of
these chords, simply yank the 4th
string a little harder—that will
do the trick. Try this progression
with some slow flanging or
modulated delay.
Download Example Audio 4...
In this lesson, we’ve created
new voicings by dropping the
middle note of a root-3rd-5th
triad down an octave. Next
month, we’ll see what happens
when we push the middle note
up an octave. Meanwhile, use
these chords to create some progressions
of your own.