Quote:
Originally Posted by Bsmooth
I can hear its the same. I guess I have to see it as opposed to hearing it. As its been said those root notes from the thumb have to be automatic, I want to get that down first, but more important done correctly.
If I can look at it in say a book, then I can memorize it.
Great playing BTW, I hope someday I can eventually get somewhere close, but its a long way off right now.
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It becomes reasonably automatic after a while - like riding a bike. You just have to understand what's going on that's all. If you already play guitar reasonably well it's just a matter of talking about it and showing what's going on.
Take a tune like Freight Train or Baby's Coming Home or something and download an MP3 of it. Put it in some software that will slow it down like "Audacity" or "Transcribe"... Slow it down to say 20% speed - at any rate real slow... Select a few bars of the tune and put that on repeat... Then concentrate on playing those few bars for a week or until you have them under your fingers.
Regarding the "root notes" as you put it... Well as I was saying there is a root note and a fifth note of every chord... They are generally the ones you need to play although there are exceptions to that rule depending on the circumstances but for a simple tune it's pretty much those... Understand that regarding the common open chords like G major, E major (and E major or minor shaped Barre Chords, The Root Note is on the 6th String. The fifth of those chords is generally on the 5th String (a regular G open chord on the fifth string is a third but a G barre chord is a fifth on the fifth string - Merle Travis would often play a different version of the G chord by thumbing over the G and not always playing the fifth but I digress). So you hit the 6th string first, hit the 4th and 3rd string with the thumbpick to play and get a sense of the chord, then hit the fifth string to get the fifth note which in the case of an E chord would be a "B" or in the case of a G Barre Chord it'd be a "D". Then hit the 4th and 3rd string to play the chord...
Re: A major/minor, C Major, D major/minor etc and their associated shaped barre chords the root note is on the 5th string, The fifth is on the 6th string. So hit the 5th string first, play the chord with your thumbpick on the lower strings then hit the 6th string, then play the chord with your thumbpick. Again your fingers are free to play the melody and Chet generally uses his index and middle finger for this. Less commonly the ring finger and little finger but for something like freight train you won't need those fingers much or at all. Merle Travis generally just used his thumb and index finger I might add.
So apart from those general rules (which can be broken sometimes) take a piece of music that you have an accurate transcription of. Put the real piece of music into some slowdown software and play it using your ear until it sounds the same. Just loop a phrase of the song - a few bars until you can play it at an extremely slow speed. Then just slowly speed it up.
I am sure that doing it using a real tune is better than a text book exercise. They are boring and it's a slow way to learn. I can assure you Chet wouldn't have learnt using a textbook. Learn a real song assuming you already know guitar.
All I can say is I had a person show me and go over how it worked and using real songs and an accurate transcription you pretty quickly should be able to work it out. You just need to understand which fingers in the right hand do which note. That's the critical thing and that's the bit that is easier to have shown to you. If you already understand that then start learning a song.
I would show you over Skype or Facebook Messenger at a pinch if you want. Someone showed me once because I used to be a flatpicker (for like 25 years before I learnt thumbpicking) and fingerstyle was a mystery to me. Seeing and asking questions on one occasion helped me understand how to use my fingers and thumb because as a flatpicker I had no clue...