What is Chicken pickin?

[folkstar]

Hi lads i'm not a regular poster here but i was wondering if somebody could clear something up for me

What is Chiken picking?


I am playing about 2 years now , i,ve covered as many picking techniqes as i can. So far I have discovered , eg fingerstlye, slide fingerpicking/dampening (ala kirk lorange who i think posts here sometimes!) fingerpicking scales runs and coils, flatpicking ,crosspicking carterstlye etc and hybrid picking(country) and claw hammer .

what is chicken pickin though ?
When i type into google strangley enough you can't find a clear definition anywhere !!!

A guy told me that it was hybrid picking -a country technique that is done with the pick for bass note and midlle and ring for notes on the higher strings (but i can do this already )

another person told me that Mark Knopler does it all the time , but the thing is that he dosn't use a pick, only his fingers!!!

So is it done with fingers only and can anyone give me an example or description?

Much aprecciated

Gaz( currently geting into to country music!)

[gersdal]

IMO Chicken picking is hybrid picking like a banjo roll, but with half damped strings on the roll to create a clucking tone. The strings are damped by fretting fingers only half pushing the string down on its fret.

[gersdal]

Check out Guitar player mag on Flacke:
http://www.guitarplayer.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=10880

Chicken Pickin’
A hybrid attack and fretting-hand muting are crucial to Flacke’s chicken pickin’ solos. “You get the clucking sound by fretting selected notes only halfway,” he says, tearing through Ex. 5. “Those first, Jimi-style ascending bends [beats 1-3] get three attacks. I’m hitting the third string with the pick and then following with a pair of semi-fretted notes plucked with the ring and middle fingers. It creates a galloping rhythm.”

http://www.guitarplayer.com/musicpopup.asp?title=Ex.%205&fpath=/Pictures/musicscore/t/x/s/GP10.05Class.eps05.jpg

[gersdal]

Sorry about this fragmented information, but I also remembered a tab site that had some chicken picking exercises:
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/melody/73/tab.html

Scroll down to "VI. Audio/Sound Wav Files", and you'll find a lot of great stuff including some chicken picking examples. These do not fully coinside with my definition of chicken picking :( :p

[Bizarro]

It's easy to recongnize the sound, but hard to define. It includes a lot of pick and finger attack, and you need to snap the strings a bit with your fingers so they slap down against the fretboard.

This link and the quicktime video are very good examples: http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/LJ2/LJ2T05a.html

[Malcolm]

We use the phrase Chicken Picking to explain the way some hunt for the melody notes.

A chicken will hunt for seeds and stuff by picking here and there, then go scratch some new dirt and start picking and hunting again.

When I'm finding a tune I chicken pick my fretboard notes...........

[Bizarro]

or in a rock context, check out the Zakk Wylde video here:
http://www.marshallamps.com/zakk/

This rips pretty good. As Zakk himself has said many times, he plays a bunch of Albert Lee licks. :)

As a side note, Marshall is looking for a design engineer! :) If it wasn't in England I'd be interested! :D

[Arachclaw]

John Frusciante from RHCP is a really inventive Chicken Picker,
listen to Can't stop as an example, really nice and not that easy, and everyone knows it ^^

[folkstar]

Man this stuff is ace ,thanks to all you guys and for the links.

Spot on as always.



Cheers

Gaz

[tinsmith]

I think Roy Buchanan used to do a bit of chick'n pickin'.

Some samples.....

http://www.chickenpickin.com/tdtc/tdtc.php

[gersdal]

A well, there is obviously more to Chicken Picking than what I was aware of. Thanks for the info... I'm off to look for my old Roy Buchanan lp's :D

[tinsmith]

I think part of the secret is that telecaster twang.

[Bizarro]

Check this out. Go to video.google.com and search for "pentatonic hardcore". Zakk's video is up there. At about 35 minutes into it he does the chicken picking stuff. Very informative. It has some INSANE playing.