I've never really been able to get fingerpicking down. Can anyone suggest some fingerpicking excersises?
I pity the fool, but also suggest ways he might better himself.
Mauro Giuliani's 120 right hand studies.
I suggest Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant ,
It is classical but has a bunch of great exercises and includes Giuliani's exercises as well.
Try these fingerstyle blues lessons from some reprobate Classical Guitarist who hangs around here:
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
thanks guys
I pity the fool, but also suggest ways he might better himself.
Fingerstyle is a very personal, individual technique. Yes, there are mechanics out there who play a brutally rigid, exacting right-hand technique. And, yes, this can sound very impressive and can really contribute to a highly disciplined approach to playing. There are also many fine lessons out there which will ask you to pick exact patterns to achieve a musical result. These are good things, too. But, in my experience, building an intutive feel for your instrument - feeling the strings, letting your mind take a walk - is what will allow you to find your own voice.
When I was about 12 years old, I just abandoned the plectrum and played my cheap classical with my bare hands, gradually working in all my fingers, exploring what sounded good and what didn't. I spent a lot of time in front of the TV, not really paying much attention to the screen, but rather letting the box shut down my verbal/analytical mind. It was not very long before I found myself playing stuff, in my own way, that sounded really nice to me. It was undisciplined, caused me to develop a few "bad" habits, but ultimately my many hundreds of hours of noodling gave me a sound that was mine and mine alone. I'm 45 now, and I still noodle like this every evening in front of the news. I also have a very methodical practice routine, but the intuitive stuff just so key to bringing me and my instrument closer to each other.
So, I'd say that for even a half-hour or so a day, sit in front of the tube, drop the pick, and just noodle around with a few chords you like. You will be amazed how quickly you'll start loving what you hear.
Oh, yeah. Use a thumbpick, preferably a light-gauge one. If you can only find the really stiff ones, you can file them down. Using a thumbpick will give you a nice, clean sound on the bass strings, which you will be using to accompany whatever your fingers are able to come up with. Try it. It'll come together in less time than you'd think.
Ok, the easiest, and the most obvious way to improve pickin, is just to keep picking. It's just like chords, u practice, u get good!!!
"No pain No gain!"- The Scorpions
The three headed dog that guards the gate to hades. I didn't know he played guitar!
The three headed dog that guards the gate to hades. I didn't know he played guitar!
Well I started out on the Lute, but then moved on guitar. Its a little irritating because one of my heads is into (shudders) disco.
I pity the fool, but also suggest ways he might better himself.
Try these fingerstyle blues lessons from some reprobate Classical Guitarist
:D Alan, just wanted to congratulate you on two really fun (and funny) lessons. :)
I had never ventured into the "Blues" section of the site - :oops: I'm just not a Blues person... - so I'd missed those tutorials up till now.
Great stuff! :D
Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.)
If you're looking for some very nice fingerpicking lessons for the beginner, checkout http://www.homespuntapes.com
Happy Traum has a really nice DVD couse on learning to fingerpick. I even found one of his old VHS series courses in our local library, so if you like to hunt around you may not even have to buy it.
In the fingerpicking course he starts slow with an alternating bass line and slowly adds in some in-between beat syncopated notes, what I refer to as 'off-beat'.
The syncopated notes are what give this style of fingerpicking it's distinctive style
