brian setzer's whole guitar technique

there has been discussion and knowledge about brian's gear, notation, and a little discussion about his use of tucking the pick on the fly for fingerpicking for many years.
but i would like to know more about his foundation as a beginner and intermediate player up until the time he played with the pharaohs, what lessons set brian off on such good footing?

of course individual talent has so much to do with it but i have a feeling his teacher helped get him rolling better than a majority of beginners - so here are a few questions i particularly have not heard much about:

first of all - 1. was it tony mattolla who taught him? -

2. was brian taught to use rest strokes? or some other classic jazz fundamental plectrum approach early on?
3. does brian have a good legato technique that helps him play more efficiently with the picking hand? ( it appears brian uses lots of down stroke or jazz sweep picking when his playing is slowed down.)
4. has brian changed his picking technique to any degree during his career? if so what was it in adjustment too?

5. would brian care to add any advice in the plectrum dept. in say an online advice/ lesson column?

6. in what position are his thumb and index fingers when picking and which direction does he point his pick, which angle.

of course people are welcome to give their personal input about these topics, (especially if they have some empirical knowledge: say from a magazine interview ) but ideally if anyone can get responses from brian on these 5 questions and post them here it would be very enlightening and fun for us ever learning pickers!!

regards
tw

Over the years, several Guitar magazines have offered up DVD lessons with Brian Setzer that may cover some of your questions. Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques, are two magazines that come to mind. Endless hours studying various YouTube clips may provide additional insight. Here's a clip of Sleepwalk with a number of close ups on the right hand:

Sleepwalk: Monday Night Concerts

Brian's guitar teacher was Ray Gogarty - a very talented local musician in Brian's hometown. Ray passed away a few years back. But you won't find any guitar textbooks or instructional videos from Mr. Gogarty. The only recorded work I've ever found featuring Ray is a CD of a performance recorded in 1962 where he sat in at a New York club with Joe Monk, another great teacher and guitarist. He is only featured on a few duets with Joe, and while it is an enjoyable listen, I doubt there are any "guitar lessons" to be found on that recording.

Brian's greatest growth as a player has probably come since his days in Mr. Gogarty's studio, but the solid foundation, including an emphasis on learning to read music, started very early on with those lessons. You can't give the teacher all the credit, of course. Brian's supreme talent and endless hours of practice made it happen.

I'll defer to the guitarists around here for the more specific questions.

Guitarded-billy

that jazz down struming is called comping. One of the best comping players is Freddie Green from Count Basie. Brian uses alot of 7ths and 9ths when he finger picks. He bases alot of his playing around jazz chords and style.

thanks for the clarification about mr. gogarty rickabilly!
i appreciate the info about brian reading music early on, but note that i specifically mentioned in the topic post, ' that i am not looking for information about his notation lessons' - as that aspect of his development as a player is well covered - there are even charts (notation) that brian has released through this website, so no need to cover that for the sake of this topic anymore. please be sure, i'm not being picky here, just trying to avoid covering things that i noted aren't useful to this particular topic from the get go, ok?


also thanks to flathead jack for his info - i know what you are relaying, although the "it" i referred to is not called "comping" - "it", is 'sweep and rest stroke picking' which is specifically different to comping:

the comping you mention refers to an approach using clusters (partials) of chords or full chords (like the7th and 9th you mention) and yes freddie green is very good at it.

sweep picking and rest stroke playing is applied to individual notes or arppegiated clusters, which is a whole other ball of fur

this sweep and rest stroke approach is something i suspect ray gogarty taught brian but i would like clarification as to whether brian was assigned this type of exercise early on in order to develop his precise note articulation and rich fundamental tone.

if indeed it is the case: that gogarty assigned brian to the rest stroke technique or something similar or even with a different semantic. then hopefully someone can highlight which specific exercises ray used to get brian going!!

tw

I don't know of anything specific in terms of exercises, lessons, etc. that was presented from Ray Gogarty to Brian Setzer, as I was sailing the seven seas when they were having lessons! (lol) As for magazines, I'm not sure. Nothing that I have is very specific on those topics. However, being a fan of Brian's for many years, and working out the arrangements/solos/etc. for a number of his tunes, I think I can give you my impression of some of his techniques and unofficially answer some of your questions.

? Answers

1. See Rickabilly post.

2. He uses rest strokes and free strokes when fingerpicking, both with his thumb and the remaining fingers. As for when he employs each, I don't know that there is an exact rule, but I'd figure the rest strokes would be employed mainly for single note lines with the free strokes being employed for chordal accompaniment. Note also though, that when he plays single-note lines fingerstyle, he uses his thumb like a pick, bending mostly from the first(?) knuckle, the one closest to the palm in sort of a "Wes Montgomery" style. As for rest strokes with the pick, he does use them, but mostly in an "economy picking" method.

3. For legato technique, I think one of the biggest things that he does, is he keeps all of his left-hand fingers close to the board, even when not in use. This efficiency is easier said than done. Also, he minimizes movement when changing chords, i.e. keeping a finger depressed on a common tone/note in both chords where applicable. The "down-stoke" picking you're referring to, I believe is the "economy picking" approach I was talking about earlier. In this method, which combines alternate and sweep picking, when you change strings you pick in the direction of the change (i.e. when going from the 2nd string B to the 1st string E you would use a downstroke even if you're on an upbeat, when going in the other direction say 5th string A to 6th string E you would use an upstroke even if you're on a downbeat). During the rest of the time you employ "alternate picking" which is down-up-down-up etc. He uses this technique with solely downstrokes on "Sleepwalk" at the beginning when he arpeggiates the C-Am-Fm-G7 figure. Sweep picking is generally used for "rakes" of chord arpeggios in the solos, examples are "The Dirty Boogie" as well as a reverse (upstroke) on "The Footloose Doll", while full-blown six-string sweeping is not quite as prevalent except in something like "Honey Man".

4. I don't know, except that in my opinion the fingerpicking stuff has become more prevalent and possibly more refined as he's gone on.

5. That's not my decision, but that would be an interesting idea.

6. Imagine if you held a glass of your favortie beverage in your right hand. Flatten out the thumb while keeping the fingers curled (don't try this with a real glass or you'll have a real mess on your floor!) and you have the basic fingerstyle right hand position. For the pick, going off of the Hot Licks Video (Brian Setzer guitar video lesson) it looks like the pick is angled with the tip approximately 30 degrees above the string with the tip being almost parallel to the index finger of the pick hand when held between the thumb and index finger.

In addition to all that I said, you can look up each of these techniques and find exercises, and they might help you out, provided you start slowly and work them up to speed (i.e. metronome). I'd also suggest learning some of the songs that have these techniques as that will help you out as well.

One other thing, I won't talk about notation, except to say that if you're attempting to play off a chart/transcription etc. and you're having trouble nailing fast parts, it could be because you're attempting to follow both the tablature and the notation, since TAB doesn't give you timing information. Something I discovered after some years, was that if you eliminate "reading" the TAB aspect, you eliminate one line from the score, and that can help you speed things up by keeping up with the sheet music.

Hope that helps answer ye questions.

Capt. Jones

Why ask "us"? We don't know!
Tom, maybe a Q&A session on this and other gear related topics is warranted.
Check with Mr. S and get back to us, please.
Rickabilly touched on the big-picture, it seems to me. There have been several
style/technique studies done, both involving Brian and not, so until those sources
have been exhausted, well, get back to us then.
There are no magic spells involved, or singular tricks to know, just practice. Lots
and lots of practice. And when practice is finished, go practice some more.