Hi all,
I've played chords (badly) on and off for years, but a few years ago I found modern fingerstyle which is sometimes referred to as American Fingerstyle. The artists I admire the most are people like:
- James Bartholomew
- Tommy Emanuel
- Gabriella Quevedo
- Sungha Jung
- Dan C Holloway
- Guus Dielissen
I've listed those people to show the type of fingerstyle I like as I've researched previous posts and lots of recommendations are given for alternate styles of music that I don't really like (Travis, Ragtime etc..) or older artists (apart from Chet Atkins) I admire but don't really want to learn from (Stefan Grossman as an example). I appreciate they are masters in this field, but a big part of guitar playing is staying engaged and enjoying what I'm doing and older fingerstyle just isn't for me.
I got back into playing when I came across this piece by Dan Holloway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Su7XStK2A
I thought it was incredible and spent months trying to learn it. I signed up to his website and mostly focused on this piece and another called 'Ashoken Farewell' (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwL6bqx5XM)
I learned to play both of them ok, but as with many people, I couldn't nail the harder parts so I moved onto other pieces to keep my interest going. I've bounced between pieces since then and have found a number of half decent YouTube channels to learn from - here are some of the ones I've followed:
One of my favourite pieces ever is by Emil Ernebro who's personal rendition of 'Desperado' is simply stunning in my opinion. I'd absolutely love to be able to play like this, but I imagine it'll take thousands of hours!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6CHwdgD3mQ
So in an attempt to get better, I started looking a bit more into the basics and wanted to understand where I could make improvements in the foundations of what I was doing. I've played for 25+ years on and off, but would it surprise you to know that I don't really know all of the chords apart from the main C,D,E,A,F,G etc...(?) Joining this forum is part of that push and I've already picked up on other threads that I need to start doing things like 'scales practice' and 'barre exercises'. I don't know what either are, but I'll be starting them immediately. I also found another guy on YouTube (
https://www.youtube.com/c/FeedbackGuitarAcademy) and happened across one of his inputs about timing and using the metronome which I'd recommend any beginner to watch (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxVwHToKOig). I had no idea how important it was and it made me instantly start practising with a metronome on my pieces to see if I could play all the way through at a steady pace. I was surprised how hard I found it on a piece by Dan Holloway that I'd previously learnt. His rendition of 'Amazing Grace' is a beginner piece, but I'm still struggling to get it smooth and steady all the way through, which has made me realise I need to work on the basics and then build up starting with easier pieces until I can play more smoothly. Then I can worry about the more complex pieces.
So I'll get to the point - with everything in mind that I've mentioned above, can you recommend any other YouTube page or website that I should consider to (1) build on the basics or (2) develop from beginner pieces into intermediate and onwards?
I really don't want to start right back at the very beginning as I just lose interest quickly. I want to learn and play at the same time, recognising that I'm an amateur but not a complete beginner. I hope I've articulated it well enough and apologies for the long thread, but hopefully this helps other people with similar interests.
Thanks all
Tony