Beat the Odds

Luther Dickinson reveals his technique for fingerpicking with groups of five and seven.

- By Jimmy Leslie

I've been obsessed with fingerpicking in odd times and odd groupings of five and seven, says North Mississippi Allstars leader Luther Dickinson. While you won't hear much of the guitarist's obsession on the new North Mississippi All-Stars album (see page 54], it's a big part of the film scoring Dickinson created for the documentary Onward Christian Soldier, about American terrorist Eric Robert Rudolph.

As it turns out, Dickinson is deep down this rabbit hole, and he encourages everyone to jump in with him. We'll get a toehold before diving in headlong. To fingerpick fluently, mechanics must be internalized. Slow your roll and concentrate on counting until the flow starts to happen naturally, meaning neural connections have been committed to “muscle memory.”

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