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  #1  
Old 06-01-2023, 09:31 AM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Sometimes (for instrumentals anyway):
Make yourself use more of the fretboard (higher positions)
Create a clear melody line and then find the harmony
Watch out for using pure pattern picking
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Old 06-01-2023, 02:00 PM
Robin, Wales Robin, Wales is offline
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Love it Derek!

It is so not what I do! LOL!!!

But then, I don't play fingerstyle instrumentals, which I guess your sound advice is aimed at.

I do play at the 10th fret..... When I'm capo'd at the 7th.

And I sing a clear melody line... so a friend's daughter can find a great harmony.

And I pick steady pure patterns..... so I can sing melodic phrases across my playing.
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I'm learning to flatpick and fingerpick guitar to accompany songs.

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Old 06-01-2023, 08:47 PM
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I'm far from being proficient at performing music, but I remember trying to convince a few members that the finger style "patterns" are really just for training the fingers. I wouldn't try to fit a preset finger style "pattern" to a song under construction.

I think the mindset of vocalists who learned guitar on an accompaniment only basis might be different than instrumentalists (whose only focus is the guitar).

Regardless, the sun still rises in the morning,
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Old 06-02-2023, 03:26 AM
Robin, Wales Robin, Wales is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I'm far from being proficient at performing music, but I remember trying to convince a few members that the finger style "patterns" are really just for training the fingers. I wouldn't try to fit a preset finger style "pattern" to a song under construction.

I think the mindset of vocalists who learned guitar on an accompaniment only basis might be different than instrumentalists (whose only focus is the guitar).

Regardless, the sun still rises in the morning,
Barry, I believe that you are absolutely spot on with this. Fingerstyle instrumentalist and "troubadour" are two distinct tribes here on AGF (there are others!). I have seen and contributed to many posts where it is obvious that folks are coming at the guitar from completely different perspectives. Here are a couple of examples:

The capo - I was at playing at a campfire a couple of weeks ago and the guy sitting next to me asked "How do you get such complexity in your playing?". I said that I used a capo to bring everything back to open chords, allowing me to hammer-on and pull-off from within the chord shape. He said that his first thought was that I must be a beginner because I used a capo on every song, but quickly realised that I wasn't, and that I often used a capo on different frets to the other players. I explained that I was voicing my guitar to have its own space in the mix.

Travis Picking - this is sort of an anathema to fingerstyle playing. The objective is to lay down a totally consistent alt bass, and then add upper voice either on the beat, on the back beat, or syncopated using hammer-ons or pull-offs. That consistent bass rhythm though is essential. I can lay down a Travis pattern without thinking. I can hold a conversation with the audience whilst Travis picking. Therefore, my sung phrases are completely independent from my guitar playing. I could be singing to someone else's playing. And it is that separation between guitar and voice that is the performer's signature. Actually, with all my playing I work on getting that separation, and coming back together.

So those are just two examples of the difference in approach. And how suggestions for what to work on for one style of play may not be a priority for another. I don't know my fretboard. I couldn't tell you what notes I'm playing. I don't need to know. I rarely stray more than 5 frets from my nut or capo, I don't need to. I couldn't name many of the chord inversions I play, I don't need to. I can call the key and call chords in the Nashville system, I do need to be able to do that. I can transpose on the fly, I do need to do that. I can hear a melody or chord sequence in one key (say on a YouTube clip), and then play it in another. If someone sings a folk song I can usually find their key and build a chord accompaniment behind them on the fly.

All these are learnt skills, just like the learnt skills of the fingerstyle player. The skills progression for the singer/guitarist is just as complex as for the fingerstyle player - but a very different path.
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I'm learning to flatpick and fingerpick guitar to accompany songs.

I've played and studied traditional noter/drone mountain dulcimer for many years. And I used to play dobro in a bluegrass band.



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  #5  
Old 06-02-2023, 05:53 AM
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I’ll add one :

tab is a suggestion of how something can be played, there are other ways of playing the same notes/phrases that are perhaps worth exploring (even in the same key)
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