Advice wanted: Where to go from here?

[Pine]

I finished Justin’s beginner course a couple of months ago. I’ve been taking some time to consolidate the skills I learned in Justin’s course before moving on. (Using the excellent “A Beginner’s Repertoire” videos I purchased from Jerry’s Guitar Bar.)

Since I only play for my own enjoyment, and never play with others, fingerstyle seems a logical focus. Is it reasonable to shift my learning to fingerstyle at this point, or do I need the skills taught in Justin’s intermediate course prior to “specialization”?

[TBman]

With hindsight, but without knowledge of Justin's courses, you might want to do his intermediate course, which I assume to be strumming and do a beginner's finger style course at the same time. You should keep up with your practising of chord changes and strumming even while learning finger style. I've been playing finger style for a few years, sound clip below, but I still practice barre chords and open chords a couple of times a week. "If you don't use it, you lose it.". Good luck. Finger style is very rewarding, but takes a lot of patience and practice.

Just go very slowly when learning a finger style song. Going too fast only teaches you to make fast mistakes.

[Howard Klepper]

There is no reason to delay learning the stye in which you want to play.

[Pine]

Originally Posted by TBman

With hindsight, but without knowledge of Justin's courses, you might want to do his intermediate course, which I assume to be strumming and do a beginner's finger style course at the same time. You should keep up with your practising of chord changes and strumming even while learning finger style. I've been playing finger style for a few years, sound clip below, but I still practice barre chords and open chords a couple of times a week. "If you don't use it, you lose it.". Good luck. Finger style is very rewarding, but takes a lot of patience and practice.

Just go very slowly when learning a finger style song. Going too fast only teaches you to make fast mistakes.

Very nice sound clip Barry. Gives me something to aspire to.

The core skills I'm concerned about missing in the intermediate course are 16th note strumming, barre chords, hammer-on and pull-off, bends, and maybe scales. Because I don't know what I don't know, I'm not sure what technical skills are needed for fingerstyle.

I have the Contemporary Travis Picking book by Mark Hanson. Is this a good place for me to start? I also own Fingerstyle From Scratch, Fingerpicking Pattern Encyclopedia, and Justin’s DVD “Folk Fingerstyle Module”.

Justin really preaches slow practice like you do. I use the Amazing Slow Downer, and just purchased Guitar Pro 6 on the recommendation of someone on the forum.

[SprintBob]

Like you, I finished the Justin Guitar beginner course two years ago and immediately jumped into fingerstyle. Highly recommend Mark Hanson's Contemporary Travis Picking and then Art of Solo Fingerstyle. I did about 80% of the former course and I am about 1/4 through with the latter course. I also do Skype lessons with Mark once a month. A great thing about Mark is that he has plenty of additional material that supplements both courses quite well. His website is accentonmusic.com.

[Pine]

Originally Posted by SprintBob

Like you, I finished the Justin Guitar beginner course two years ago and immediately jumped into fingerstyle. Highly recommend Mark Hanson's Contemporary Travis Picking and then Art of Solo Fingerstyle. I did about 80% of the former course and I am about 1/4 through with the latter course. I also do Skype lessons with Mark once a month. A great thing about Mark is that he has plenty of additional material that supplements both courses quite well. His website is accentonmusic.com.

Thanks Bob. It's nice to know that others have traveled the same path. I've just dabbled a bit with the first four patterns in the Travis Picking book, trying to get a little experience under my fingers. I haven't applied it to any songs yet other than House of the Rising Sun.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Pine

Thanks Bob. It's nice to know that others have traveled the same path. I've just dabbled a bit with the first four patterns in the Travis Picking book, trying to get a little experience under my fingers. I haven't applied it to any songs yet other than House of the Rising Sun.

Just jump into it (Contemporary Travis Picking), the songs are pretty decent for learning. I imported the songs from the audio CD on to my iPad and use Amazing Slow Downer to play along with them at whatever speed or however I want to break a song up or loop it.

His teaching progression is very structured and thoughtful for anyone wanting to become a solid fingerstyle player and/or Travis picker. You may also want to consider another book Mark did called Beyond Basics - Fingerstyle Guitar. There are some great songs in that book that are pretty doable for a beginner yet they are performance worthy pieces (four come to mind - Canyon Canon, Wheels, Windows, and Key to the Kingdom).

I'm a big fan of Mark's teaching method and materials. It really got me on a solid path to transitioning from a beginner to an intermediate player.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Pine

Very nice sound clip Barry. Gives me something to aspire to.

The core skills I'm concerned about missing in the intermediate course are 16th note strumming, barre chords, hammer-on and pull-off, bends, and maybe scales. Because I don't know what I don't know, I'm not sure what technical skills are needed for fingerstyle.

I have the Contemporary Travis Picking book by Mark Hanson. Is this a good place for me to start? I also own Fingerstyle From Scratch, Fingerpicking Pattern Encyclopedia, and Justin’s DVD “Folk Fingerstyle Module”.

Justin really preaches slow practice like you do. I use the Amazing Slow Downer, and just purchased Guitar Pro 6 on the recommendation of someone on the forum.

You will certainly need Justin's intermediate course. Before you try finger style on your own try his beginner finger style courses or look into TrueFire's.

Mark Hanson's books are excellent.

Guitar Pro is the way to go.

[Pitar]

Looking for a structured method for a structure minded person can't be argued with and the discipline is commendable.

Mine was a bit different insofar as the lessons went. I bought a book on Travis picking and a book of chords. The Travis picking book was straight forward and I had the style down in a couple weeks, smooth in a few more and making my own simple 3-chord stuff up not long after that. Estimating, maybe 6 months transpired before I was playing fluidly in the style and within a year it evolved to making up my own patterns and dynamics (hammers, pulls, bends, double stops, arpeggios, etc). Never got much into harmonics, though, so I can't speak knowledgeably about that.

So, I suppose I structured my time and discipline into a regimen though it was only via a single book on picking.

All I can say is to find a resource on picking styles and choose one that suits your speed at this juncture. Then, once you can honestly feel adept at it, combine it with one you already know. Make lot's of music with them mix-matched and you'll find yourself naturally progressing because your fingers just want to git-it once baited.

[Pine]

Originally Posted by Pitar

Looking for a structured method for a structure minded person can't be argued with and the discipline is commendable.

Mine was a bit different insofar as the lessons went. I bought a book on Travis picking and a book of chords. The Travis picking book was straight forward and I had the style down in a couple weeks, smooth in a few more and making my own simple 3-chord stuff up not long after that. Estimating, maybe 6 months transpired before I was playing fluidly in the style and within a year it evolved to making up my own patterns and dynamics (hammers, pulls, bends, double stops, arpeggios, etc). Never got much into harmonics, though, so I can't speak knowledgeably about that.

So, I suppose I structured my time and discipline into a regimen though it was only via a single book on picking.

All I can say is to find a resource on picking styles and choose one that suits your speed at this juncture. Then, once you can honestly feel adept at it, combine it with one you already know. Make lot's of music with them mix-matched and you'll find yourself naturally progressing because your fingers just want to git-it once baited.

I would be very happy if I could play fingerstyle fluidly at a reasonable speed within 6 months. I'm hoping to use Guitar Pro 6 to put the exercises from the book in. Then I can work on getting speed up while maintaining accuracy.

Unfortunately, I don't really have enough knowledge of fingerstyle styles to make an informed choice. I have read about "travis" and "carter" styles, but don't know which would suit my goals best. (I only play for myself, by myself, and don't sing a whole lot)