“There are so many sounds tobe discovered when you get away from using a pick”: Jared James Nichols shows you how to add “snap, crackle and pop” to your playing with banjo rolls and string snaps

Jared James Nichols plays his gold-top Les Paul onstage, fingerstyle as per his wont, and wears a pained expression as he pinches a note. .

In this lesson, I’d like to delve deeper into what I feel are the advantages of fingerpicking. There are so many sounds to be discovered when one gets away from using a pick.

I like to incorporate “chicken pickin’” sounds, as well as snapping the strings against the fretboard, to give my playing some “snap, crackle and pop.”