Text and transcriptions by Joe Gore JJFP ASTELESS” IS HOW DANNY GATTON DESCRIBES "NIT Pickin,” his Soundpage contribution, “They said, You've got {ive minutes to incorporate as many styles as you can into ‘one song’ and this is more or less a sampler of the things | do. | wouldn't usually mix things up quite so brashly. | just wanted to show what you can do by changing pickups, tone, picking patterns, where you pick, and whatever—to show as much variety as possible, ‘There's a lot more things | can do, too, but not in five minutes!” ‘The Gatton Method is quite systematic. When asked why he opts for a given fingering, his answer is invariably, "I's the easiest way to do it” His right-hand approach, in particular, is very logical. He holds a flatpick between his thumb and index finger while picking with his ‘middle, ring, and litle fingers. This enables him to alternate between straight fatpicking and various types of fingerpicking, Most of his devilishly fast scale and arpeggio figures are executed with some Ext ‘The next few bars (Ex. 2), says Gatton, are “more of a straight Travis-picking thing." The pick alternates between the fourth and x2 A a, n zn ‘The run in Ex. 3 is based on a halt-step/whole-step scale pattern that Gatton picked up from the late Lenny Breau. I's an eight-note ‘scale formation buit from alternating half-steps and whole-steps. ‘After descending an octave, Danny reverts to the blues scale. Notice how the left-hand fingering combines open and stopped notes, "That THE GATTON METHOD ‘combination of pick and fingers. Gatton’s ability to play independent lines with his right hand and his command of mult-note slurring techniques often create the illusion of two guitars playing at once, ‘There are a couple of overdubs on "Nit Pickin." but most of what you hear is just one Gatton with one guitar. ‘The following musical excerpts are presented in the order oftheir ‘appearance, along with Danny's suggestions and commentary. Right-hand fingerings are included, Ex. 1 shows the tune's first eight bars, The thumb plays repeated low A's, but sometimes drops to the low E. “The left-hand thumb hangs over the sixth string in places,” says Gatton, "so the A alter- nates between the sixth and fith strings. The tune here was inspired by ‘Sack O' Woe,’ a song by [jazz saxophonist] Cannonball Adderley.” third strings. as as technique,” declares Gatton, “originally came from the Boston schoo! Of 5-string banjo playing, where you play scales using open strings. AAs far as i know, Bll Keith invented that style, These sort of patterns hhave to be worked out in advance.” Continued MARC 1900/GUITAR PLAYERTHE GATTON TECHNIQUE E38 a any Re aV¥ngn on on men manen For the ascending rolls in Ex. 4, Gatton uses the pick on the low- “the Lone Ranger bad guy music." (Yes, that ultra-fast Les Paul-style ‘est note, followed by the middle and ring fingers. When descending, lick was overdubbed at halt-speed) he relies mainly on the pick. The progression is inspired, he says, by x4 Ft y 0 +f —— von. 2 vn Mom ns Y mine ‘The rock and roll lick that begins Ex. 5 is played entirely with the ‘Waitin’ In School, claims Gatton. The next phrase is a chromatically flatpick. “it comes from the part Joe Maphis plays on Ricky Nelson's ascending line played in three octaves at once. x5 For the next section, Gatton kicks in the echo (see Ex. 6). He effect when he plays rockabily standards such as “Mystery Trai stresses the importance of ming the effect—there should be an and "My Baby Left Me.” At other times he creates a manual echo audible sixteenth-note slapback. He uses the same type of echo effect by double-picking each bass note. Continued 52 cuanptaversmance 1980