Hi all, new here.
I heard a really great version of wonderwall done on acoustic. It was done picking at the strings instead of strumming. I was wondering, if I wanted to arpegiate a song (not necessarily wonderwall), is there a general set pattern that sounds good for most songs, or do I have to trial and error it until it sounds good?
Thanks
Welcome to GN !
Now to your question.
Even I wonder if there can be any set pattern, but in general there is none. You have to think and play. Many people think that good music can simply be produced by random wailing on the instruments, but that's not true.
So get your guitar out, try to feel which pattern may work with a certain song and play on the guitar (or vice versa). Trial and error is the 'overall' method. Hence, intelligent trials are desired and not noodling.
Good Luck.
The following pattern works well for me frequently.
T I M I R I M I
That's Thumb, Index, Middle and Ring fingers, the thumb being the root note of whatever chord you are playing with the Index on the G string, Middle on the B string and Ring on the e string. This is probably kind of tricky at first but once you get the hang of it, it'll be easy.
Using this pattern you can adjust it a little for different songs to get them sounding a bit more like the originals but generally a lot of songs just work like this.
For example creep I'll play at the end of the pattern I'll pinch the A string and the little e string every other measure. Hotel california works really well with this pattern too though I'll throw a few finger nail strums in now and then, starting with the first Bm chord I'd strum down once instead of playing the root with my thumb and go straight into the pattern, some of the chords I'll play the Ring finger at the end of the pattern or stop the pattern a little early and hold the note.
Good one Maliciant! :D
Another frequent patterns are: T I M R for 4/4 songs and T I M R M I for 3/4 songs.
BTW usually the letters used for naming the fingers correspond to the Spanish names (P)ulgar, (I)ndice, (M)edio and (A)nular. So you also can see patterns refered as PIMA or PIMAMI. The Maliciant's one would be something as PIMIAIMI.
The Scorpions' song called Holiday admits the pattern PAMIAMIA.
Always each finger is associated to a string I-3, M-2 and A-1. The T usually is used with the root note in the lower string (lower tone).
On the other hand, you can use also an alternating bass or Travis picking, changing the previous. For example, for a C chord you could use something as PMPI, two bass notes in the 5th string and 4th string: so, the strings should be 5-2-4-3. Or even, PIPM or make sound two or even three strings simultaneously, with the fingers or the thumb and a finger...
As Rahul said, try several patterns and if you like, that is good! :)
And welcome to GN!
Is the PIMA naming convention for the fingers more common in music or just where you are located? I know I've seen it posted here before (possibly by Nuno) but I'm not sure if any of my books use that... though possibly I think one might have used PIMA for fingers but didn't necessarily explain why. I have a prefrence for T I M R since it's easy for me to remember the names of the fingers in my native langauge... but PIMA seems like it'd have phonetic advantages for remembering a pattern (so now I'm memorizing PIMA since I can remember the fingers in order from that).
I remember a post about the PIMA convention but I think it was Alan who wrote it. I did read it (I guess :lol:) but I don't remember if I wrote something.
The PIMA convention is used by classical players and classical methods. A lot of them (the initial theory) are Spanish, I think, and this convention is inherited from them (and also some words for describing techniques). Probably it is better than the English convention, as you said, by the phonetic advantage. I've read English books and magazines with both conventions.
I meant the phonetic advantage was for PIMA, because with two vowels and letters it just seems like it would spell out a word you can pronounce a lot of the time where TIMR with just one vowel doesn't (though it does spell TRIM but other than that it isn't).
I meant the phonetic advantage was for PIMA
Ok! Yeah, I understood.
I was searching and I think it was Noteboat and not Alan. The threads were:
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?p=138054
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/viewtopic.php?t=32334
The second one is not exactly about fingerpicking but Noteboat explains other Spanish terms used as "apoyando" or "tirando".
Awesome, thanks a lot guys :-)
I just realised I don't really know what a root note is :| Is it like the lowest string or tone on the chord?
Thanks
No - a "root" tone is the note a chord is built from. The lowest note is called the "bass".
In many chords, the root and bass are the same - these chords are in "root position". If something other than the root is in the bass, the chord is called an "inversion".
So...
If you're playing a C chord, C is always the root - that's the tone the chord is built from. But the bass can be C, E, or G. No matter what the bass is, it's still going to be a C chord.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Finally I remembered where I did read it! Slowly but usually my brain works! ;)
It was in the Noteboat's article "Finger Freedom" in Play Guitar (Winter 2006, pp. 32-36). Fortunately it is available online.
Read the whole article. Noteboat explains perfectly, as usual, the same I wrote in my clumsy post. Moreover, the online version is longer than the printed version. Try to play the exercises, including the first tabs of the "Romance Anónimo". If you like it, learn all the work, it is very easy and sounds great. Probably it is the first song which the Spanish guitarists learn. There is a tricky part in the middle but it is quite easy.
BTW I never said before but the text has a small errata. We say Ãndice and not indio.
