Sick Riffs #133: We hear you – you're in need of a new fingerstyle line to show off with over the festive period. It's natural – you put all this hard work into becoming an acoustic guitar wizard, and it's only fair that your friends and family hear the fruits of your labor.
If you're looking to really impress, this gorgeously emotive line from Christian Lee Hutson's Talk should do the trick nicely. Whipping this one out will transport anyone lucky enough to be in the room to a dreamy and magical place – a place they'll only be able to reach again by hearing the sweet nectar of your playing.
This track requires very little in terms of gear, too; an acoustic guitar and capo on the second fret will suffice. Of course, if a capo is not readily available, you can always transpose the entire thing down two frets.
Hutson also uses a small piece of foam right in front of the bridge for a string dampening effect, so use one if you wish to recreate the track faithfully, though it's not essential. After all, it's rare to have a piece of foam lying around.
Talk is taken from Hutson's new album Beginners, which was recorded with indie phenom Phoebe Bridgers at LA's iconic Sound City Studios. The record purposely preserves the lo-fi quality of Hutson's cell phone demos.
“With almost all the songs, we started with my voice memos and then figured out what to add – if anything – as opposed to going in with some grand idea of what it should sound like,” the singer-songwriter recalls.
“Phoebe and I have the same musical shorthand, which made it really easy to share and add to each other's ideas.”
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Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.
