This collects my thoughts on two videos and an academic paper that Australian guitarist Bradley J Green released. The first video was research film that was a study in ‘Backward Picking’ for his Masters degree.
This is the first film:
And this is the YouTube version of the second video:
I found this video after I was exploring lesson videos and tutorial on the Cory Wong guitar style. This video was one of YouTube’s recommendations.
Essentially, what Bradley J Green calls “The Backward Picking Technique” is most often called Benson picking. There are other variations of it (and different names) but that is what Bradley is referencing.
Basically after going through the videos, I found that Bradley’s work is a good starting point to see how this picking technique works and to find out more about all the artists that use it.
Although there are Benson picking tutorials and also courses (such as Cecil Alexander’s Picking Masterclass), there is still a lot of room for different educators, players & researchers to contribute their thoughts on this technique.
The academic paper version of the video is basically the same as the first video. The main thing is that you can read through it slowly, in case you are more of a reader than a visual learner.
In conclusion, I recommend anyone curious about this to at least check out his videos on YouTube… and if you’d like to go deeper, to check out his Patreon page. Good stuff and worth a watch!
Pros: Good research, examples, clips – all done with love!
Cons: Because of the sheer scope of the topic, I felt like there is a lot of room for further research on this.
TLDR: Interested in this technique? Check this out for insights from a guitarist who did the research to learn it, even with all the challenges of not actually being surrounded (geographically) by players who play like this.
You can get the academic paper and the extended version of The Backward Picking Technique Vol 2 on Bradley’s Patreon page. You can access the paper via his $3/month tier.
Find out more about Bradley’s work here: https://bradleyjgreen.com.au/
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