How does Jerry Reed work his magic?

He was really known for his sense of humor and goofball antics back in the '70s, but that really disguissed his skill as a mighty fine picker and song writer from what I understand. Search you tube and you'll find a few of him and Chet Atkins picking together. Good stuff.

Oh, and then there's the Chet Atkins' video of him playing entirely different songs at the same time. One with his fingers and one with his thumb.

A couple of jems for ya:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvmfsivdavQ (bass line is yankee doodle dandy, high notes are dixie)

Roy,

I have scanned the entire youtube for JR's videos and when I saw them, I became a HUGE fan of Jerry (and also of Chet).

Now, if only I can get started...anyone...David?

This video makes my day whenever I see it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLqyNV1SMWE

That fingerpicking is tough stuff for me. I fingerpick exactly one song. "land slide" by Fleetwood Mac. Not enough light on Buckingham to see what he's doing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM7-PYtXtJM I just did the pattern really slowly over and over at least once a week. usually once avery few days. It's starting to become decent. It's actually helped me on other songs that are more arpeggio flat picked like "House of the Rising Sun" and "Everybody Hurts" by REM.

There are fingerpicking lessons all over the place including the main GN pages.

I can do some fingerpicking fairly well. My main problem is the fretting hand. I have no idea which kind of guitar playing is this.

Which scales/chords are supposed to be learnt for this kind of playing? I am esp. amazed the way Jerry/Chet move along the chords and what seem to be walking notes/bass lines.

No wonder Jerry was called a 'C.G.P. - Certified Guitar Player' by Chet Atkins himself. Chet found Jerry a better picker than himself. That says all!

Yes Rahul, that gets me sometimes too. My one song is easiest for me to not worry about the frets that I do not need to fret and just fret them anyhow.

The song, "Landslide", is basically C-G-Am-G. Not all of the fretted srings are played, but I frett the whole chord anyhow. (Which might be wrong in some cases...more later) The tricky one for me is one that can be finger picked or flat picked or what, but it's R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts". The transistion from verse to chorus, or G to EM, but the bottom of the fretted chord stays in place while the top moves in a three note pattern to Em. Once in Em, I use the thumb to pluck the 6,5,4 strings in arppeggio order, but on the high side (the high notes close to the floor) starts back up the fret board hitting the 1,2,3 strings. Like in Landslide, I find it easiest to go ahead and fret all that need fretting to make the chord, but don't worry about not hitting them all. It's a mental thing. I can form an Em chord without thought. I can't place my fingers in a particular, un-named spot without thought.

I rambled. I hope that somewhere in my rambling was some intel. If not, I apoligize.

Im not a fingerpicker but Roy for the most part I don't see anything wrong with your technique to fret the whole chord and pick just the notes you need to. I think that's the more standard way but I could be wrong it'll work in most cases but sometimes because of where you come from or are going to it might not make sense.

But that's what kill sme when I look at song books etc. They'll show some 3 or 4 string chord give it some exotic chord name when in reality all it is is just a regular chord you already know but you only play part of it. So it looks like the song has all these weird chord voicings when in fact they are just small parts of a regular barre chord or open chord.

That's why I always wondered why most of the tabs i work out with my instructor are pretty common chords sure there are a few we run into that are a bit different but 80% are your standard chords, but you buy one of those song books and they have all kinds of weird chord names in them and make the song seem much harder than it really is.

cnev, I understand what you are saying. Tab is wonderful, but it must be studied and alterations made when need be. Perhaps an easier way sometimes is the answer. A B7 at the 1st position when the rest of the song is near the 8th-12th frets kind of thing. Some books so state the whole chord despite only having to do few strings. That took me a while to figure out.

I'm ure that this applies to finger pickers too. Maybe one not sounds off. Is the guitar out of tune? Is there a bad fret? Am Istriking it properly? Too soft or too hard? Does it need to ring more until the next note (which on chord changes makes things interesting)

I think my biggest weakness is that I don't know the entire fretboard without having to think. I know all my open chords to the point where I gotta play a G chord and the fingers do it automatically. I bet that if I new my fret board inside and out, or more than I do now, that the finger picking would become easy. I could be somewhere in the middle of the neck and know I gotta play an A note sounds a lot less intimidating to think about then thinking that I have to go to the 7th fret, third string down for the same note. 1/20ths of a second sounds awful.

fingerpicking is a great art form. It's on my list of things to do. I'm thinking of doing a longer song again, Suite Madam Blue by Styx. 1:45 of at least arpeggio followed by some power chord rock and in this video, the process is repeated. Finger picking and powerchords. One song, and it covers two areas I am week in. Just as long as I don't have to shake and girate like Dennis DeYoung's replacement. :D :D

I just love this album of Jerry - http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-Jerry-Reed/dp/B00138KNNC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1277918159&sr=8-1

Just listened to 'Guitar Man'. Oh Heaven! :D