"Can someone explain to me once again about her distinctive guitar style? And please....the fingernails!!"
I've always tried to look at pictures of Joni to check out how she kept her nails also. I've noticed that often she keeps the left hand nails long which would very difficult to play with. Maybe these photos are taken during periods when she has not played for awhile? However on the right hand she always seems to have her nail quite long which is important for playing her style. I would say that to me the most distinctive technique to playing style is that with the right hand she often uses the thumb on the lowest bass string only. The is very different than the traditional method that most of us are taught, wherein the thumb plays the 3 lowest strings and the index, middle and ring fingers each play a treble string. For example in the song Night Ride Home (or Hejira) Joni will thumb on the lowest string, index on the next lowest and middle on the next lowest and then "brush" up on the high strings -- sometimes hitting the highest string only, sometimes getting a bit of the next highest string with it. It's kind of similar to playing a harp. This brushing up on the high strings creates (with the altered tunings) a wash sound or "colors" as she often uses to describe her music. Howard Wright wrote good notes to capture the style of Joni's playing in the Taming the Tiger songbook. This is my first post in a long time... and I've missed jmdl very much. I left NYC last fall a bit after 9/ll -- had been there 12 years and felt like it was time for a change. Spent periods of time with family in Ohio and North Carolina. Went to California and Colorado and Massachusetts (where I am now). Turned 40 and thought about what I want to do for the next forty (fifty? sixty?) years of life. Do I know? not really! I guess I feel that it's not so much what you're doing or where you're at so much as who you're with... People on this list have been very kind to me and I've felt bad at times not keeping up with everyone. I'd like to rejoin and post more. Its a great gift to have such an intelligent, fun and warm group as this to share one of life's passions. Well, it's Friday and weekend begins soon .. Cheers to everyone and wishing you a great weekend. With love, Jeff NP: Peter Tosh "Mystery Babylon" __________________________________________________________________ Pre-order the NEW Netscape 7.0 browser. Reserve your FREE CD and pay only $2.99 shipping and handling. http://cd.netscape.com/promo_one/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
