Who knew fingerpicking could be this much fun?

[wrbriggs]

After 1.5+ years of being solely a flatpicker, I finally started embracing my desire to learn fingerpicking. I was having trouble finding country blues arrangements at my skill level, when a friend hooked me up with a simple, short arrangement of "East Colorado Blues" that is played entirely out of a G chord, with the pinky hitting a few melody notes. What a riot (I know, I'm lame - I still think it's fun)! Anyone know where I can find more arrangements like this? I got Stefan Grossman's "Complete Country Blues Guitar" book, but even the first song is a bit beyond me - I'd like to find material that gradual ramps up the difficulty and gets me there.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by wrbriggs

A...I know, I'm lame - I still think it's fun

Hi wrb...

Me too...for 47 years now it's been fun, and is still growing.

[Eclectichick]

I've been working through Arnie Berle's book and highly recommend it! Thanks for sharing this arrangement, I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[Bern]

I'm glad you like it...keep it up !

[tomana]

it will open up a whole new music playing experience for you

[Greg580]

If you're going to start with Stefan Grossman's stuff, you should start with the DVD Fingerpicking Guitar Techniques. The arrangements start off easy and get incrementally harder. The one you have is for much more experienced players. This is what I'm doing anyway. I finished that one, and I'm on to Fingerpicking Country Blues Guitar right now. It's a ton of fun.

[Diamond Dave]

WRBriggs--it is fun and has really helped my finger dexterity. I have pretty much finished Nicola Mandorino's ebook (www.guitarnick.com). His website may offer some resources.

Your soundcloud piece you linked to sounds great. How can I get a hold of your friend's arrangement?

Downloadable DVDs are the way to go to learn fingerstyle. They're relatively cheap, easy to obtain and a huge improvement over books. A lot of this stuff you have to see in order to understand.

Stefan Grossman's arrangements can be sneaky hard if you jump in at the wrong level. I recommend starting here:
http://www.guitarvideos.com/artists/...ques-2-dvd-set

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by wrbriggs

After 1.5+ years of being solely a flatpicker, I finally started embracing my desire to learn fingerpicking. I was having trouble finding country blues arrangements at my skill level, when a friend hooked me up with a simple, short arrangement of "East Colorado Blues" that is played entirely out of a G chord, with the pinky hitting a few melody notes. What a riot (I know, I'm lame - I still think it's fun)! Anyone know where I can find more arrangements like this?

SG is a great source, no doubt, but that tune doesn't sound a whole lot more complex than many Mississippi John Hurt tunes. Here's a nice one in open D (capo 2) that doesn't even need you to hold a chord shape!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrAM31aDon4

Here he is in EADGBE (actually tuned up a half-step, so put capo on 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gytJemzNTM
You can see he's just using a G shape and sliding it up and down. Middle finger does occasional duty adding notes on strings 4 or 5.

[Greg580]

Actually the first song in SG's Fingerpicking Guitar Techniques DVD is Oh Papa, which is an Elizabeth Cotten tune, played around the G chord. Sounds a lot like East Colorado Blues.

The second song is Shake That Thing, which is a Mississippi John Hurt tune also played around the G chord. Both are good practice to get your pinky moving.

oh and don't make the mistake i did and get the audio CD version of FGT, the songs on there are different and a little more difficult.

[lkblock]

Started fingerpicking a few years ago. I strum only when called for in a song and much prefer trying to finger pick a song. I started out with The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking by Mark Hanson. It starts out with easy patterns and songs and gets progressively more complicated as you go through the book.