I'm trying to learn Ed Gerhard's arrangement of Moon River. In this video at 0:19, ThinkingDog sort of strums the strings downwards by seemingly plucking the individuals strings in rapid succession. Is there a name to this technique? How do I learn/practice it? For now I've resorted to just strumming down like with a pick, but it lacks the crisp and pleasant sound that ThinkingDog is able to produce with his technique.
2 Answers
I learned this technique from a jazz teacher and was referred to as a "Roll" because it resembles a chord sounding like it's turning or rolling. I do it by grasping the bottom four strings on the guitar, ( the melody strings), and smoothly, rapidly plucking each string in succession (low to high) by a slight twist of the wrist in a rolling motion, usually awkward at first, but a little practice will smooth it out and you'll have another tool to play with. The thumb is free to play a complimentary bass line or other embellishment to further enhance the piece.
answered May 10, 2018 at 3:15
It doesn't seem like he is "strumming" before watching the video I expected to see a flamenco style called rasgueo (rake forward), arrastre (raking backwards) each with all fingers, or abanico (which uses the index and thumb to loosely strum the strings). What the guitarist in the video seems to be doing is arpeggiating the chord by quickly releasing (plucking) the fingers one at a time. Done quickly rather than each note getting a specific time value. It is common in classical guitar to interpret chords this way for effect (left to the musician and not actually notated in the sheet music). Practicing right hand arpeggio techniques like those found in Giuliani, Carcassi, and other books will get the right hand used to doing this on chords. Then just speed it up to achieve this effect.