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Re: fahey and thumb over technique.



About thumb over, it was standard practice until the middle of the 19th-century.  Even Sor and I think Giuliani mark where you should finger that way in their music. It went out later as necks got larger and a new school of thought came in, but even in the early 20th century there was the "parlor" guitar school of Olcott-Bickford that used it.

On Dec 29, 2008, at 3:24 AM, William Walker wrote:

There's no such thing as bad technique.
 
There are techniques which are more or less effective and efficient for a given situation.
 
TH
 If you mean that an unorthodox technique is not necessarily bad if it achieves a good musical result, I agree.  However, there is such a thing as bad technique in any music discipline if it involves doing things that diminish clear tone production like placing your finger at the back side of the fret which can create buzzing, which necessitates squeezing harder, which can create cramping and chronic hand problems, which in turn can cause the pitch to go sharp, causing tuning issues for yourself and the people you are playing with.  Did you ever notice that very few of the virtuoso rock shredders sling their  axes rock and roll low??? No Sid Vicious/ Duff McKagan. “sling it low for show”  for guys with names like Vai and Satch and Yngwie. That’s because those guys know that to much time spent with your wrist bent at a weird angle, not only limits your range of reach, it also can give you carpal tunnel syndrome. I think it’s possible to subvert good technique for artistic reasons, but that is a different thing to me. That is a matter of choice as opposed to simply not knowing any better. I don’t think there is any evidence to support the theory that learning good technique was an impediment to the creative process. Is it possible to create compelling music and art without having good technique? You will get no argument from me; I’d rather listen to Beck Hansen all day long than Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen.  I didn’t mean anything angry by that last comment, I just like to say Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen, because of the Brian Kenney Fresno song.
Bill