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Thread: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

  1. #26
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Miller View Post
    Very cool that you play monotonic bass too. I’ve been tugged at by Big Bill, Lightnin’, and so on but haven’t really dug into that. So much amazing music! Keeps life fun, huh?
    My guitar playing has always been more about vocal accompaniment than about any guitar virtuosity. I regularly put monotonic bass, fingerstyle blues numbers like Kindhearted Woman, Love in Vain Blues and Big Bill's Hey Hey on the set list. Hey Hey requires some pretty cool tricks, but those Robert Johnson tunes in A are pretty easy to get a workable version going, not too tricky; here's a simple version monotonic bass I recorded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdW_GSdYW_8

    I worked out a cool, fingerstyle version of CCR's Green River that folk seem to like listening to. There is some monotonic bass passages in that.

    A few of my favorites for alternating bass styles are Deep River Blues, Windy and Warm, and lately, a fun version of Dylan's Buckets of Rain, Buckets of Tears.

    I think a beginner would do well getting the alternating bass rhythm down first, make that second nature, then work on fancy stuff bit by bit. You can use that in country blues, piedmont blues, ragtime and so much folk music of different flavors. And anyone who can play a rock stead alternating bass can learn to change it up on simpler styles, or syncopate more like ragtime piano, or develop into more free bass lines like foldedpath mentions. Doesn't have to be a trap ... didn't keep foldedpath trapped ... but alternating bass is a good place to start for folk music, most people agree on this I think.
    Last edited by Mark Gunter; Aug-31-2018 at 11:05am.
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  2. #27
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    Default Re: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

    I learned to play fingerstyle via the Berle and Galbo book. I think it does a great job of slowly acclimating the student into having the alternating thumb become unconscious, as well as introducing concepts like syncopation.

  3. #28

    Default Re: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

    Agree with Mark for the most part - for most American "folk"-styles, the main approaches will provide a basis for plenty of music. As usual, if aspiring for styles outside of this, the trouble with getting locked into this approach can easily hinder progress in other idioms - classical, flamenco, various latin forms, jazz are based in a different concept.

    I'm biased, as I came up in the classical tradition, but there's great efficacy in beginning with formal classical technique/pedagogy. After assimilating classical and flamenco technique, when I later became exposed to folk music I was easily able to transfer skills and master various idiomatic picking techniques (banjo, pedal steel, charango, harp, wire clarsach, zithers, and any number of guitar styles). It's certainly more rigorous and takes time, but doing the harder thing first makes the rest easy. (There are other such consenses in music, such as clarinet before sax, conga before timbale, etc.) Classical/flamenco is the ultimate way to finger independence, and flamenco exploits as much of the hand as possible. As with drumming, independence is what it's all about - with it, you can delve into any style.

    "Finger-style" is a whole other dimension in string playing and will open many avenues for you in polyphony and rhythm.

  4. #29
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

    I confessed earlier that I used to have some classical, or pseudo-classical, exercises that I found helpful. One of my early teachers was Andrew Wasson ... so for the sake of balance, I'll recommend his simple Fingerstyle Guitar Primer alongside the aforementioned Tommy Emmanuel approach, as a FREE resource that a beginning fingerstyle guitarist can get some mileage from. Andrew's primer consists of one twelve-minute video (eight minutes of it appear below from YouTube), and a PDF file that includes notation/tablature for the exercises and for the beginner tune samples: Led Zeppelin's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Ludwig Von Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Paul McCartney's Yesterday, and Elvis Presley's I Can't Help Falling In Love.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aFmiIZ1Tyc

    PDF for this lesson: http://www.andrewwasson.com/lessons/...yle_primer.pdf

    ---------------

    And here is another free PDF resource from Andrew that contains some finger-busting stretch and dexterity exercises. I use most of these with fingers, and some with plectrums as well. Check out #4, the Octaves & thirds exercise, one of my favorites. Also, #3 is one I like to practice all over the neck using the plucking exercise that Larry Campbell recommends - alternating between thumb & index all the way, also alternating between thumb & middle, also alternating between thumb, index, thumb, middle. It is also good to work exercises like this using only the fingers, alternating between index & middle, or whatever combination you wish for the fingers you wish to exercise.

    The PDF: http://www.andrewwasson.com/lessons/...tar_tech_1.pdf

    And finally, a link to the Fingerstyle Primer page at Andrew's website, where the entire 12 minute video appears. Beware the ads for "Download PDF"! A link to the actual free PDF file appears only below the video on that page!

    http://www.andrewwasson.com/lessons/...yle_primer.php
    Last edited by Mark Gunter; Aug-31-2018 at 6:56pm. Reason: corrected
    WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
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    "Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN

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    HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
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    The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
    - Advice For Mandolin Beginners
    - YouTube Stuff

  5. #30

    Default Re: Guitar Question: Starting to Play Fingerstyle?

    Nice singing and playing there mark.

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