I'm new to playing bluegrass guitar and have a few questions.
What's the difference between flatpicking and crosspicking?
Are there advantages/disadvantages to either style?
Which is better for Bluegrass?
What thickness or kind of pick should I be Using?
What are the first 10 licks I should learn?
Should I learn licks in every key or just in G at first
How important is it to pick up and down, it feels more natural just to pick down is that normal?
Thanks, Juan Solo
I'll try to answer a few of your questions.
With crosspicking, you're continually changing strings in a certain pattern. With flatpicking, you can play melody or riffs without changing strings each time you pick. That's a rather simple explanation, but I think it gets the idea over.
The advantages/disadvantages are pretty much a personal thing. Which sounds better with what song and which type are you more at ease picking. I can flatpick fairly well, but cross picking seems to be beyond my abilities.
Bluegrass can handle either type of picking, it's according to the song.
Licks or riffs? Learn the walking up and down from chord to chord. The Lester Flatt runs are always useful to know and to know in the different chord; i.e., G, D, C.
If you're a complete newbie, learn the Flatt runs stated above. That will let you play bluegrass songs and use those runs. As you get more experienced, add more licks to your repertoire.
If you want to eventually play smoothly and faster, get used to the up, down. You can use down strokes if you're playing something slow or medium, but the faster songs will be difficult to do if you just pick down.
Hope this helps.
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