PG's Pat Smith walks us through his lesson "Open String Fling" published in the November '09 issue of Premier Guitar.
In
this video lesson, Pat gives us some insight, advice and examples to
whiz up and down the fretboard with speed and flair by using open
string licks and phrases. These types of licks often heard and seen in
country chicken-pickin', flamenco, bluegrass and even Pat's hero Lenny
Breau. It involves adding in open strings between the fingered notes so
that you get "a nutty cascade of coolness" with relative ease. In
addition to the cascading coolness, you get a droning effect from the
open strings creating an illusion that smear a bit and sound much
bigger.