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Question: Are there any examples or a name for my style of guitar playing, which is almost but not quite clawhammer!?
When I'm playing in a finger picking style on guitar I use my thumb down-picking for the bass and my index fingernail up-picking for the rest of the notes!. My understanding is that most finger-picking styles use more than just the two fingers, or else there's clawhammer, but that uses an index (or middle) finger that is down-picking, not up-picking!. Is there any name for this variation on the clawhammer style for guitar, or, more interesting to me, any prominent examples of musicians who use a style along these same lines!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Yes, on banjo it would be called "up-picking"!. As a banjo style, its commonly associated with Pete Seeger, but he didn't invent it; its a venerable Southern old-time banjo technique!.

But up-picking is NOT the same as clawhammer!. As you noted, clawhammer involves the use of the flat back of the index or middle fingernail to strike the long strings of the banjo in a downward, percussive motion on the downbeats, while the thumb plucks either the banjo 5th string or an additional melody note on one of the long strings ("dropthumbing") on the offbeats!. Index or middle finger on the downbeats, thumb on the offbeats (or alternatively -- hammer-on or pull-off on the offbeats to get additional melody notes)!.

Most fingerstyle guitarists, OTOH, use their thumb to play bass notes on the downbeats and finger(s) to play melody notes either on the downbeats simultaneously with the bass notes, or on the offbeats!.

Two very different picking styles, IOW!.

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The best example of an artist using that style is Paul McCartney!. I believe he always uses only those two fingers for fingerpicking!. His most-covered tune in this style is probably "Blackbird!." I don't know of anyone else using this style or that it has a name, though you may call it "Pi Pickin' ", since it uses the fingers notated as P (thumb) and i (index) in guitar tab lingo!.Www@QuestionHome@Com