How to play guitar FAST like George Benson (Isaiah Sharkey lesson) 

How many hours a day were you playing at the time of writing?

@@faultyclone0013 Not enough, just about an hour or two in the evening. But you can strum all day and learn nothing, it's more about intent and intensity imo. I remember at that time skin peeling off... Also it's a reference to Beatles's song Helter Skelter where at the end of it Paul yells that line... :)

@@Fyloeu In fact Ringo says this line at the end of the song ! Cause it was one of the most intense harsh sessions where he played the drums like a Hardcore (for the era) Hardrock drummer !

@@MrRaphypoops Ha, my bad, it was Ringo then! Thanks for the correction.

Maaaan who you telling🤦🏾‍♂️

Yep, he's number 1, any more Isaiah would be appreciated. Forget $6 a month, I'll pay $20 a course for this guy.

He don't appear to have the chops going. I've heard him sing also and nothing spectacular about it either. For all the haters, this is just my opinion enuff said✌🏻😎✌🏻

@@danaeverhart6487 He doesn't have chops?

@@danaeverhart6487 are you serious?

Andrew Apte keep your opinions your opinions, I wasn't talking to you or anybody else! Damn!

I swear 😂🙏🏽

Good recommendation, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the high praise! Benson was a master. Well worth the study of this technique.

Oh, and one more thing: George Benson's good friend, and also a world-class player himself, Henry Johnson, mentioned to me once that Benson likes very heavy picks. The same kind that he - Johnson - uses. They give a great tone with heavy flat-wound strings on a jazz box.

I'd like to know the brand and size Do you know it?

Aum Mu Ra tackle and grapple!

Lies you did nothing

Phil Monger stfu it’s not like he’s saying “i personally curate and choose the wood for sharkey’s necks” he’s just sayin he illustrated and made picks for him it’s not that outlandish of a claim

It’s a standard tortex and looks to be the .88mm in custom white .

he said he liked it cause it made his guitar sound like a cello

Magic

Just a standard gospel praise break bro

you know? you do a little...

Hand just glided across the fretboard

Alternate picking 101.

🤩🎸

It's true that some people certainly find playing faster naturally easier than others, but also a lot of people might not realise just how fast they can learn to play themselves! Sometimes, it's just finding the right exercises and making small but effective changes

I believe that Pat Metheny also uses this method

Pat uses the round edge of very thin picks

@@pauldouglas4158 Jim Hall was too

The important point here is: don't hold the pick with a lot of pressure. The pressure I put is just enough to keep the pick in place, so it will flex (also called pick slant) in between your fingertips ans you strum or hit a note. The second thing is: angle the pick. See that Isaiah's pick is at an angle of about 45 degrees, it's not parallel to the strings. This provides a much better "slip" from the string. And the third thing, in my opinion, don't use more than the very point of your pick when hitting the strings, especially when playing fast. You want to just gently brush the strings. Takes a while to get it right.

@ Red Brown: Isaiah Sharkey is a heck of a player, right? I wish I knew more about him and could listen to more of his music. He's really got it going on. Regarding his picking hand, far as we can see, it looks like he holds the pick flat-pick style (like a bluegrass player would, for example) for strumming chords, but reverts to his index finger-thumb grip for fancy single-note work. George Benson was/is famous for this method, very much like he (Sharkey) demonstrates here. Some people find it uncomfortable to curl their hands into such a posture, so they go the other way and angle the pick in the opposite direction to get the same effect, just 180 degrees opposite in orientation, if that makes sense. It's really quite simple. When George Benson was playing jazz back in the early 1960s, and wanted to add speed and fluency to his playing, yet reduce pick noise and have good tone, he decided that one way to do it was to angle the pick (plectrum) so that it was perpendicular or mostly-perpendicular to the strings. The angle between the string and the plectrum is less there, so it takes less work to pick, and it sounds nicer, too, since lower pick noise. If you play single note lines using your pick at various angles to the string, you can experiment around with this effect yourself. Another guy who did this technique really well early in his career was Mark Whitfield, the brilliant jazz guitarist and one-time Benson protege in the 1990s. Whitfield's first couple of albums were almost a clone of Benson's approach to the instrument, and Whitfield had G.B.'s style down cold.

@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Thanks for that explanation bro, I'll try out what you suggested. Peace2U

@@redbrown7355 - Happy to help. Benson's style isn't easy to master. If it was, everyone would do it. I know I'm not there yet. Keep on trucking....

@@iagobroxado GREAT TIPS

It's 'Time', by Isaiah Sharkey

He is using 2-3 mm picks

I must admit it’s a trick. I know I can aliterate and economy pick faster with my Normal pick positions but, this was a good point out.

It’s a Paoletti, an Italian handmade guitar

@@francescotostiguerra7352 thanks :D

Someone said 1.5 mm But what brand? Clayton?

Crazy that I went to that song and time just to see what u were talking about....that shit was fast...how the hell lol