How much attention do you pay to the duration of the notes you are playing? If you mean to play a quarter note, are you actually playing a quarter note, or are you playing an eighth note followed by a rest?

Turn off your reverb and delay, and really listen...

Consciously release each note, but keep your fingers touching the string so that you really "end" the note.

Hand movement will release each note just before the next, for legato play, but with each note articulated. This sounds different from hammer-on's and pull-offs which are another great articulation, and it sounds different than staccato.

All of these are choices you can make while playing.

Choose!

Good post! Will be thinking about this today.

TRUTH! I had to remind myself of this concept when playing my Balmy Blizzard. There are stacked fifths (think CGD rolling up and down) in the RH that only work when articulating with hand motion.

I like the “turn off the reverb and delay”. It’s a crutch sometimes instead of proper technique. Teaching trumpet it is all about the tone you get as each note needs to ring out fully. Great post Greg. I’ll be turning off my reverb and listening more. If you listen the notes will take care of themselves

Great post. Something I need to keep in mind especially when working on structured pieces for both hands. Thanks Greg

Excellent post and advice, Greg, thanks!

I play too much with a Stick not plugged in at all, which I know is bad for lots of reasons, but I watch the news and noodle. And then plug in and play later, but still. That's an hour of Sticking I can get in and most of it is subconscious Sticking. Nothing like doing mindless repetition like scale patterns while watching TV. It's better than using one of those fake dummy fretboard practice things that don't even make a real sound. And I can hear what I'm doing, especially on the NS/Stick with the heavy-gauge strings. And then rock out and bring my attention back for the commercials.

But at least there's no reverb or delay. Or amplification.

Legato play is crucial with Stick, since there's no damper pedal on a Stick like a piano. No one uses reverb or delay on a piano (well, they do, but you know what I mean): you got to play legato on the Stick with the fingers and not the foot. Cheers!

I had a lesson today with Markus Reuter wherein we discussed the same topic. Hammer the string, release (while touching string) then move finger by gently rolling off the string. Great practice in making the perfect note

On occasions when I'm at Emmett's shop I'll often pick up an instrument and play a little. He has twice told me I was tapping to hard. Sitting around practicing blues scales on an unplugged Strat is one thing but on Stick, the details of technique are so subtle and the amp is such a big part of the equation, you really need to practice thru a fairly dry amp at enough volume to cop that kind of detail. Sometimes on a fast moving melody I'll do a 7 note run across 2 strings and only 2 notes are tapped and the others are hammered or pulled off. Sorting out the fingering and trying to get control of the dynamics of all that takes a helluva lot of repetitive practice and could never be achieved with a drenching reverb or unplugged.

Glad you all liked the post.

Markus, to yours specifically, I guess my fingers are engaged with the strings more than not, so the idea of having to deliberately "roll them off" isn't necessary.

Instead, I wait until just before the next note needs to sound and "move the hand", rather than "move the finger", sort of like lifting a hammer before striking a nail but with the energy coming from the hand rather than just the finger.

Interesting to hear about Markus's approach, though. Thanks for sharing.

Seriously haven't done this for at least 12 months !

This is definitely one of my favourite topics, something I learnt from Bob C and later from your good self.

When you say choose, I find I'm generally happy with my default playing but I could definitely think of doing things differently. Thanks for the inspiration as always.