Chords for Benson Picking Tips.MOV

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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Hi everyone, so _ _ _ I _ _ figured I should do this as a video to give you a better idea of how the
_ the Rodney Jones
_ _ _ _ Thing is and how [E] he taught it to me _ _
_ in terms of the George Benson right hand
_ _ _ I never really studied how George Benson picked _
_ _ _ _ I
Learned this from Rodney 20 years ago almost 20 years ago
_ And at that point there was no YouTube or anything like that that I could go searching around _ and and _ _ _ _
You know and figuring this out from so what I've done is pretty much.
You know learned this from from Rodney and _ _
_ _ _ _ I've [Eb] done this for years, and I think it's pretty similar to to
_ What George Benson does but you know don't take me at my word, _ so the main thing is this _ _ _
_ Before a hold a pick is
_ _ _ _ _ _ Let your hand drop down with your palm up _ _ and let your fingers curl naturally _
Don't hold them out like this.
Don't crunch them in _ just a natural hand position like this now once you've got that _ _
put the pick in _ and hold it between you thumb and forefinger and
_ What you should find is that _ the pad of your forefinger and the pad of your thumb are holding the pick
Not the way that we traditionally do it which is
_ _ _ like this
_ You know with a side of the forefinger, _ but it's more the pad _ so you got this nice relaxed hand fingers gently curled
_ [B] Pick being held and then you just place it on the pick guard like this so that when I'm looking down
At my hand I can see
My palm _ _ and that's it so your thumb needs to be
_ _ The knuckle _ _ _ _ needs to be pushed back like that
_ _ so you shouldn't be _ flopping and _ _ _
_ Then
_ [D] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
_ You pick like that so _ _
What I find and I've noticed a lot of people asking about this is what's actually making contact with a pick guard
and what's not _ and I _
Find that the the palm _ on the the side or the heel of your hand whatever you want to call it _ _ _
_ Sometimes I've got it resting but most of the time
_ It's _ raised and what where I find the point of contact is is right here on my on my pinky
This is like the the fulcrum point where everything pins so that when I'm playing is
_ _ Where it's [Em] always touching the pick guard I never I never
_ Raise it completely off
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
so
_ [E] Everything is coming from that little finger pinning down _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ Pinning my hand down like that _ and then everything else moves from there _ _ _ _
In terms of exercises and things that Rodney showed me to start this off
It was mainly stuff that you've I'm sure you've seen millions of times before
_ _ _ _ _ and
That was a lot of very straightforward
_ _ _ Sweet picking _ [C]
like sweet picking 101 _ [F] exercises _
[Gb] _ _ [G] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [A] _
_ [Bb] _ _ [B] _ _ [C] _ _ [Db] _
_ [D] _ _ these sort of things [Db] or taking
_ _ like a D flat arpeggio I
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [E] _
_ [F] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [Ab] _
_ [G] _ [Gb] _ _ _ should say
[D] _ _ the
_ The picking method that that I was taught by Rodney
_ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
is
sweet picking going this way as in from _ low string to high [F] string and
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _
Then cross picking going back, _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ and I think that's [B] just because in this hand [D] position
It's very natural to to sweep going down, but [G] it's not really natural sweeping going back, [Em] and we can do these _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ [Bm] _ _ Those sort of [C] _ affectations _ _ _ _
_ [G] But as a general rule, I don't sweep [C] going back, _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ [E] so there's that _
_ _ _ Another exercise
[A] _
_ That's that he did us a warm-up exercise that he showed me
I think it may have been the first thing he did he ever showed me was taking the E flat scale
_ down here in the first position _ and playing [G] it
_ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [E] _
So is that it's [B] a handful to play _ but?
_ _ _ Just starting with the first four [Ab] notes
[F] And _ _ _ [C] then starting the next note [Bb] up [F] and going [D] all the way down the next note up
[G] _ _ [F] _ _ [Ebm] _
_ [C] _ [G] _ _ [F] Just keeping it.
It's a constant eighth note exercise once you do that then start at the top
_ [Abm] _ The top four [E] notes and [F] work back down _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [E] He showed me that 20 years ago, I still don't play it very well _
_ _ _ _ So you know that's [G] that's the main thing there was _ _ things _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ like that fourth exercise _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _ [E] _
_ But you _ know
Mainly the exercises were things that you've seen everywhere _
But the hand position is the main thing and if you if you can get anything from what I've shown you today
_ _ On the hand position or if you want to ask me any more questions, please go ahead _ _ _
I
Hope that helps
_ _ Okay