by James Jensen
When the Taylor Guitar company conducted a poll to find out who the public most associated with the acoustic guitar several years ago topping the list turned out to be the ageless, iconoclastic master of both six and twelve string; Leo Kottke. Kottke gained his initial reputation touring with many top pop/rock acts in the seventies and amazing crowds with the shear volume of his sound. Utilizing open tunings and a rapid fire fingerstyle attack Kottke blazed through aptly titled showstoppers like "Busted Bicycle" and "Vaseline Machine Gun". Kottke's twelve string assault, which was often compared to a locomotive out of control, eventually created some physical problems which threatened to derail his career over a decade ago. Only fierce dedication and commitment enabled Kottke to get back on track.
At one point you had to give up fingerpicks or fingerpicking altogether?
LK: Yeah, I was playing one night in Denver and my arm froze from the elbow on down. It was like playing with shrink wrap around my fingers and up my arm. I visited a doctor the next day who told me I had tendinitis. I had heard that other players had corrected these kind of problems by changing technique so I got rid of the fingerpicks, which takes a lot less time to say than it did to do. The worst part of it was having to keep working and not be able to say to the audience "look I’m really sorry but this is going to suck". I had to pretend that this crap I was dishing out was real tasty, and that lasted about three years.
Three years is a long time, what was the biggest obstacle in changing your technique?
LK: Of course the easiest first step is to lose the fingerpicks because nothing substantial changes when you do that, in terms of your geometry. I finally made the decision one night in Australia to lose the thumb pick as well, and not go back. Eventually I just sort of found a hand position which slowly curtailed the tendinitis. I felt I really damaged my audience and looked like a nincompoop during those three years, although I learned a lot about my right hand. You need a little "Mr Natural" in your technique, because if there is any contortion anywhere you can really hurt yourself. I also found out that if you play standing up your left arm is much looser and not cramped up against your body, kind of like classical players who play with the footstool.
You didn’t play a lot of twelve string when you first lost the picks, was it more difficult to readjust to?
LK: Absolutely! yeah, because the pick would give you a much more solid transient. I have finally developed a sort of geometry that gives me the volume without the picks. It is not a matter of muscle it is a matter of balance and where the force comes from. It starts way up in your back and specifically it is about being on the string and the fret before you need the note that’s going to come from it. You can then apply pressure , slightly bend your first knuckle and release the note. You don’t pick it or pluck it, it’s more like bowing the note and it sort of slides or pops out from under your string like a tiddlywink. Once I got that , the twelve string became even more playable than with the picks, and I am really happy about it. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with the twelve string but I will always need it.
What advice would you offer players trying to improve their fingerpicking technique?
LK: The challenge is how to express rhythm. The biggest thing that I had to figure out, and now it is second nature, is how to be rhythmic without the music sounding "thumby". You don’t want to hear patterns repeating or isolate your thumb.
Mark Knopfler told me he plays on some of the higher strings with his thumb and his bass strings with his fingers to disguise patterns.
LK: Exactly so, and I do the same thing but Mark also has , according to Chet Atkins and he’s done a lot of stuff with Mark, a kind of a kernel of a pattern and I have one too, but I never play it. I am always adding to or subtracting from the pattern so it never really happens. I showed Chet how I tried to keep my song "Airproofing" from sounding like pattern picking , and he said "Yeah Mark does that" and showed me this little pattern...just once... I glimpsed it , and it was gone. I asked him to show it to me again and he wouldn’t! It was a really nice and elegant thing and it was more than putting your finger or thumb where it wouldn’t normally go, it was a sort of Joseph Spence type of backward thing which I can hear a little in "Money For Nothing" on the treated guitar.
After thirty years what inspires your playing?
LK: The short answer is... I don’t know, but I think about it a lot because so much depends on it, and has since the first day I played one. Nothing has changed since that first day when I played an E chord and it just hit me between the eyes. I don’t really think I have a choice and I am grateful for that.