Robert Randolph's right hand

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Karlis Abolins
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Robert Randolph's right hand

Post by Karlis Abolins »

I watched the Austin City Limits with Robert Randolph the other day. I was extremely impressed by his musicianship. He generates a lot of high energy music. I kept trying to figure out how he got that flat pick sound with all the speed wearing a thumb pick and finger picks. Then I saw a close-up of his picking. He plays with his thumbpick like a flatpick. He picks it forward and backward. He thus gets twice the picks for the hand movement. Pretty impressive!

Karlis
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Joey Ace
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Post by Joey Ace »

I think the left hand has a lot to do with it. I've watched Sacred-Steeler Chuck Campbell up close and he explained the technique.

The bar is lifted up off the stings much more than we do. The bar comes down and hits the strings as they are being picked, even in fast single note runs.

This produces a slight percussive sound, similar to a standard blues/rock guitar player.

They don't use a round bar. The bar looks like a large Dobro (Stephens?) bar.

Unfortunatly, the ACL show you are all talking abiut was not broadcast here. Image <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 26 December 2002 at 08:07 AM.]</p></FONT>