Did Charlie Christian play without a pick?

Seth

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Jan 21, 2002, 12:30:47 AM1/21/02

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There's a picture of Christian performing in the book Electric Guitars:
An Illustrated History. It almost looks like he's using his thumb and
forefinger to pluck the strings. Does anyone know about Christian's
right hand technique?

Bob Russell

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Jan 21, 2002, 12:52:10 AM1/21/02

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Seth wrote:

According to Barney Kessel,

"Charlie played probably 95% downstrokes, and held a very stiff, big
triangular pick very tightly between his thumb and first finger. He rested
his 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers on the pick-guard. He anchored them there so
tensely that it was like there almost wasn't a break in the joint. He almost
never used the 4th finger of his left hand."

This is from an old GP article, quoted at Dave Gould's website:
http://www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk/charliecq.html

-- Bob Russell
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/russellr

pmfan57

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Jan 22, 2002, 12:40:52 PM1/22/02

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I'd like to hear from Dan on this subject. How about it, Dan?

Tom Cotter

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Jan 22, 2002, 5:58:25 PM1/22/02

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jwra...@aol.com (pmfan57) wrote in message news:<f6b28b49.02012...@posting.google.com>...

> I'd like to hear from Dan on this subject. How about it, Dan?

pmfan57 and Seth
For just about all that is known to man on Charlie Christian
take a trip to Garry Hansen's site
http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/hansen/Charlie/
then head over to
Solo Flight The Charlie Christian Home Page....... you can find a link
to this on Mr. hansen's page
My vote for best on the Web
Tom

Bill Casady

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Jan 22, 2002, 9:39:58 PM1/22/02

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>or just about all that is known to man on Charlie Christian
>take a trip to Garry Hansen's site
>http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/hansen/Charlie/
>then head over to
>Solo Flight The Charlie Christian Home Page....... you can find a link
>to this on Mr. hansen's page
>My vote for best on the Web
>Tom

Wow. Nice site. Thanks for the heads-up.
-Bill C.

Seth

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Jan 23, 2002, 12:21:30 AM1/23/02

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Thank you for the answer, Bob, and thanks for the link, Tom. My next question was going to be where to find transcriptions of Christian's solos on the web. What a great site! By the way, the photo I was referring to is in the "Gallery" there. It's the third one from the Waldorf Astoria, Sept. 1939.

Stan Gosnell

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Jan 23, 2002, 1:38:36 PM1/23/02

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Seth <sdey...@earthlink.net> wrote in
news:3C4E4923...@earthlink.net:

> Thank you for the answer, Bob, and thanks for the link, Tom. My next
> question was going to be where to find transcriptions of Christian's
> solos on the web. What a great site!

You didn't find them on Garry's site? Last time I looked there were lots
of them.

--
Regards,

Stan

bobg

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Jan 23, 2002, 7:19:08 PM1/23/02

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Hi, My first trip to this newsgroup.
Yes!!! Charlie played without a pick. I know because I was often there
catching him!

79 yr. old X gtr player. bobg

Seth

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Jan 24, 2002, 10:42:55 AM1/24/02

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>
>
> You didn't find them on Garry's site? Last time I looked there were lots
> of them.

Yes, there are many transcriptions on the site. That's why my next question
WAS going to be where to find them. . . Sorry for the confusion.

Thom j.

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Jan 24, 2002, 4:26:04 PM1/24/02

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Firget the Charlie stuff bobg, Whats this X-crap? Get back playing :)

"bobg" <bga...@znet.com> wrote in message
news:u4ukg2g...@corp.supernews.com...

Garry Hansen

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Jan 25, 2002, 5:39:42 PM1/25/02

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"Seth" <sdey...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:3C4BA853...@earthlink.net...

He used a stiff triangular pick and played almost all downstrokes, believe
it or not.

Regards,

Garry Hansen
Charlie Christian: Legend of the Jazz Guitar
http://www3.nbnet.nb.ca/hansen/Charlie

Bob Russell

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Jan 26, 2002, 2:02:00 AM1/26/02

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Garry Hansen wrote:

Garry:

I know you hear this all the time, but your Charlie Christian site is about
as good as they get. What an excellent resource! Thanks.