Page 144 Just Jazz Guitar ! February 2009

CHUCKWAYNE’S PICKING STYLEby Lee Irwin

One of the magical things about the guitar is thatthere are so many different ways to effectivelyplay it; much magic has been produced by

employing the fingers, thumb, pick or some combina-tion thereof. Among those who use a pick for playingsingle lines, probably the most common method is thatof alternate picking: using some variation of alternate-ly picking upstrokes and downstrokes when playingacross strings. I learned, however, that this is not theonly method of using a pick to play single lines. Thisarticle describes the method developed by ChuckWayne, guitarist for Woody Herman, George Shearing,Tony Bennett and a mainstay of the New York jazzscene until his passing in 1998. It is an alternativeapproach to playing single lines that may not be as wellknown as alternate picking, but one which Chuck feltproduced a smoother sound. I would like to shareChuck’s approach as a means of posthumously thank-ing him for all he gave to his students. Presenting it isin no way intended to suggest there exists a definitivepicking method or to create a “mine is better thanyours” divisive atmosphere among players.

It was 1968; I was 21 years old. I can’t tell you howexcited I was to go to Chuck’s house on Staten Islandfor my first lesson with him.We sat down on his couch,each sitting in a well-worn groove in the cushions thattold of the countless hours of teaching that had beenconducted there. Chuck smiled and effortlessly playedthe fastest, yet most clearly articulated two-octavescale I had ever heard. My first lesson would be tolearn his picking technique.

Learn to pick? My heart just dropped. I wasn’t going toargue with him, but clearly this was very disappointing.Picking? What a drag; I already knew how to pick (orso I thought.) I had studied two years with one ofBroadway’s top guitarists—he drilled me to death onalternate picking (“Make the guitar ring! Make the gui-tar ring!”) I could do that already—don’t teach mepicking, teach me jazz. Ah, the ignorance and presump-tion of youth.

Of course I didn’t say any of this to Chuck, but I stillremember what he said to me as if it were yesterday.He said he had a different approach to picking—an

approach that would result in a sound he felt was moreelegant, clear, and individualized than could be pro-duced by any other method—a sound that would beimmediately recognizable to others—even to thosewho didn’t know about the guitar. He said were I to useit I would be easily recognized as being one of his stu-dents.

Well, that made mesomewhat curious, but Istill remained reluctantto become involved insomething as boring aspicking. Besides, Iwould now have tounlearn my alternatepicking style—a styleendorsed by so manygreats. And unlearning isso much harder thanlearning. But then heproposed a challenge I

couldn’t ignore: he said that once I became familiarwith this method I would begin to change my opinionof how my favorite players played—that I would beginto notice that in many cases their great musical ideaswere being diminished by their technique. OK— thegloves were off. Show me.

My first thought upon hearing this, quite frankly, was“Boy, this guy has some ego.” But what I learned aboutChuck during the ensuing ten years of studying withhim was that he never bragged about himself or spokeof his accomplishments without first being asked; hewas a very self-effacing and modest man. He was neverinto self-promotion, and I think this played a big part inwhy he never got the wider recognition received byother players. But this is a separate issue. I realizedafter coming to know him that at that time he wasmerely making a statement for me to consider ratherthan flexing his ego.

Anyway, here we go: Chuck had several reservationsabout alternate picking, the chief one arguably beinghis belief that the upstroke could never sound the sameas a downstroke. Chuck wanted a balanced sound—tomake the upstroke and the downstroke sound equiva-lent. He was also concerned that alternate pickingmight make it difficult to produce a legato, flowingsound. Chuck wanted to sound like a horn player, andfelt that alternate picking could never approximate this

Chuck playing Lee's D'Aquisto

PhotocourtesyLeeIrwin

sound. Finally, he felt that alternate picking soundedharsh or brash. Chuck would always use the analogy ofa Mack truck versus a Cadillac: both could go 80 milesan hour, but which one would you rather sound like?

Chuck was relentless indevising a new pickingtechnique—it was reallyextraordinary and wasthe product of much ana-lytical thinking. Even ifyou disagree with hisapproach and wouldnever want to use it, youwould still have to beamazed at how hederived the technique.

Chuck threw away all the established assumptions ofpicking and started from scratch—devising a methodof picking in which each note sounded like a pearl,with no distinction in sound between an upstroke ordownstroke. The inevitable byproduct of this techniquewas that of graceful speed. He eventually suggestedchanging the type and position of the pick and pick-guard, the method of striking the strings, and the man-ner in which the hand created an arc as it passed acrosssix strings.

Chuck had always been distressed by the wasted move-ment involved with alternate picking—having to go upto then go down on selected strings in order to maintainthe strict alternate picking style. This wasted move-ment resulted in a sacrifice in speed when needed, butalso made the player sound, in his terms, like a Macktruck. Now this is clearly arguable, but Chuck felt thatan upstroke and a downstroke could never soundequivalent because of the physics involved in strikingthe strings. The upward arc when playing an upstrokewould always force the string out of its plane and makeit sound thinner in comparison to a downstroke; strik-ing it harder on the upstroke would only contribute tothis effect. The downstroke was always stronger—anyattempt to make the upstroke equivalent was doomedto sound thinner because of the physical arc made byplucking the string upward and outward. The first thinghe asked me to do was to close my eyes, play any notewith an upstroke and a downstroke, and try to makethem sound equivalent by alternately picking from thewrist. Chuck realized that the best way to make the upand downstrokes equivalent was to attack them in thesame physical manner—not striking or plucking thestring from two different arcing angles but rather by

pushing the string in a perpendicular fashion across thestring. In this manner, there really would no differencein how the string was sounded—no real up or down-stroke, just the same pushing motion across the stringin a perpendicular rather than arc-like manner. Brieflyresting the pick on the string and pushing it instead ofstriking it would make a fatter sound, and since youwould be pushing the string regardless of which direc-tion you were traveling (up or down,) all notes had tosound equivalent. The pushing would be done not byswinging the wrist over the strings but by the thumband forefinger acting as a unit pushing perpendicularlyacross the strings, anchored by placing the pinky on thepickguard. This was quite different than alternatelypicking by rotating an unanchored wrist.

And so, no picking—just pushing. The contact pointwas the outer tip of your index finger, and the playerwould push the string rather than rotate the wrist andstrike the string. Holding your index finger in front ofyou with the fingernail pointing toward you, the north-west corner of your finger is where the contact must befelt. Chuck used a small pick between the thumb andforefinger. He sought to avoid coming up from underthe string on an upstroke by keeping the pick above andperpendicular to the fingerboard and pushing the pick.You would anchor your pinky on the pick guard andmove your hand in a fan-like motion across the stringsrather than use your wrist in a free-floating manner.You were never to see the fleshy part of yourpalm/thumb: your palm remained parallel to the stringsat all times, with your index finger/thumb acting as aunit, opening your hand and separating itself from therest of your fingers to arc across the strings, the pickalways remaining perpendicular to the strings. If yousaw the underside of the thumb/palm you would likelybe arcing the string on the upstroke rather than pushingit in a perpendicular manner from side to side. Ratherthan using the wrist, the fingers opened up like a fan—always perpendicular to the strings. The forefinger andthumb made a unit which sought to “separate” itselffrom the other fingers as the fingers fanned out, againwith the forefinger and thumb always remaining per-pendicular to the string. Chuck had to physically holdmy hand in place over the strings when I first learnedthe technique to ensure that my fingers were fanningout and that I wasn’t simply moving my hand/wrist upand down across the strings.

This technique was coupled with consecutive picking,not alternate picking. Quite often he would use twoupstrokes in a row or two downstrokes in a row; in this

PhotocourtesyLeeIrwin

"Chuck's secret to playing withsuch speed." Note third handwe stuck under his sweater.

manner he got tremendous speed with a soft, fat sound.Chuck further devised a variety of different scale andarpeggio patterns to enhance this picking technique,allowing the player to gracefully play across strings,enhancing the legato sound rather than being forced toplay too many alternating notes as is often found whenusing traditional scale patterns.

To ensure the pick was perpendicular to the string hesuggested raising the pick guard so you were less like-ly to come up from under the string and more likely toremain perpendicular, floating across the strings. If youwere anchoring your hand on a pickguard which waslower than the strings you would again be more likelyto come up from under the string rather than fromacross the top of strings.

Chuck enhanced this sound even more by varyingstring gauges: he used a wound second string and (Ibelieve) used a string set of 12’s for the 3 higher stringsand chose the lower 3 from a set of 10’s, so when youplayed across the strings you had approximately thesame string resistance. Chuck had his own brand ofstrings for a time, made I believe by a German compa-ny.

So that’s it. Chuck’s early words continue to ring truefor me as I regularly get compliments on my sound—people always ask: “What are you doing there?” Ishould also mention that I have continually beenkicked out of rock bands over the years because mysound was no longer consistent with a rock sound. Somuch for the idea of a single picking method beingappropriate for all styles of music.

I would strongly suggest you experience the soundfirsthand; you can do so by obviously listening to anyof Chuck’s recordings. But you would really want tosee it as well. You could best accomplish this in one oftwo ways: log on to Peter Prisco’s website: www.peter-prisco.com. Peter is a great player in the New York/NewJersey area who has successfully adapted Chuck’s sys-tem. Peter plays very much in the Chuck Wayne stylewithout sounding like Chuck, although Peter himselfagrees that no one will ever have Chuck Wayne’s‘economy of motion’ principle down better than themaster himself. One of Peter’s gifts to the guitar com-munity: he has posted several videos of Chuck on YouTube. There you can get to see and hear Chuck playingin this style—you can easily watch his hands and listento his sound. It’s really something.

If you have the time and/or inclination, try this methodout and let me know what you think. The greatestobstacle you might encounter: not that of learning themethod, but that of unlearning or putting aside yourusual way of picking in order to try it. Unlearning is somuch harder than learning, but you just might find itsapplication useful. Unless you want to play in a rockband.

The following two photos may help clarify Chuck’sthumb-finger unit and how it attempts to “separateitself” from the rest of his fingers in order to remainperpendicular to the strings.

Note than when Chuck is playing on the higherstrings his fingers are close together, in an “un-fanned”position. Note the thumb and forefinger unit perpendi-cular to the strings. The expression on his face resultedfrom me telling him he played the guitar as well as JackBenny played the violin. I think he enjoyed the comple-ment but was too modest to thank me.

Notice Chuck playing on the lower strings(strings 4,5 and 6:) in order for the thumb and forefin-ger to remain perpendicular to those strings, the finger-thumb unit must “separate” from the rest of the fingers,fanning out. Note this unit, not his wrist, is what movesto reach the lower strings.

Lee Irwin continues to gig and teach in the Chuck Wayne traditionin the New York Metropolitan area, and can be contacted atLeeIrwinMusic@gmail.com. He continues to audition for rockbands just for spite.by Lee Irwin

PhotocourtesyLeeIrwin

PhotocourtesyLeeIrwin