I use an old-timey method called fingernail-picking, basically the same as piano. You start with a thumb in the tip of the finger and then the rest of the fingers come in.
I do the thing where I’m playing from the back and playing in time. That’s how I started and what I’ve been doing since.
Now the other thing I’ve been doing: It’s a very easy guitar to finger pick because it goes almost all the way up and then it goes all the way down and there’s a really nice natural bend.
How does a finger pick ukulele differ from fretboard picking?
It’s a different kind of picking. When I started doing it a long time ago, I had to go around the outside of the fretboard, just to get all the fingers in. I’d go around the inside of the fretboard and I had to pick all the way down. Then it was getting too heavy just to pick that way, so now I’m picking all the way up and then going around the top.
You’re doing the same thing with the other instrument you play, what makes some instruments more interesting to play?
I think, mostly, because you can do it as many ways as you like. I like to play both, but my favorite is to do all the way up and then go around the top.
What else should people be doing in their free time?
I think most of us would rather be talking about other things than playing stuff. My wife and I were chatting about her friend. I said “I’ve got a very good idea for a book.” She said “Do I want to know anything about it?” and I asked if she wanted to know anything about the fact she’s an actress. She said ‘yes.’ I said “Well, if you have a book about your friends that you really love and care about, don’t hold it up the way your friends hold their books up, I mean, hold it like a movie theater. We are talking about you, not it. Or your friends. You got to think about what’s going on right now, not what’s happening 10 years from now.”
It doesn’t mean I’m not doing something else. I am. [Ed. note: It’s that idea that people want to read about other people doing cool stuff. They want it to be just as exciting to them as it will be to any