How to get better? Fingerpicking Style

[YasunBey13]

I think everyone goes through a point where they are stuck on learning. I started playing guitar to learn songs I enjoyed listening to. After a while I learned most of the songs I wanted to play. I picked up reading musical notes to learn a little on that. What else would you recommend I can do or anything for that matter to improve my guitar ability. I want to improve but I don't know where to begin. Should I read books, DVDs, and or youtube? Maybe music theory? I want to learn the guitar more than anything (fingerpicking) at this point I just feel stuck...any advice or criticism is welcomed thank you everyone.

[mercy]

All of that will help but getting a teacher is the best way if you havent been playing fingerstyle. Theres a different answer if you have been and youre burnt.

[reeve21]

I have been down the same road. After playing off an on for a long time I decided I wanted to learn to finger pick. Thanks to advice here on the AGF I got started finger picking with Mark Hanson's book and a Toby Walker video (both were called introduction to finger picking or something like that). After 6 months or so I could play some basic tunes but felt stuck where I was, so I looked for a local teacher on lessons.com.

I've been with him for a year now and it really helps. The commitment of time and money for the lessons isn't huge but is enough to keep me focused and practicing every day. I've built up a little repertoire of folk and blues tunes, and have some basic skills that are helping me learn new songs.

This is rewarding process, but a long, slow one, at least for me. I had the idea I would be playing the melody to a whole bunch of Beatles tunes in a year or so and it hasn't happened that fast

Best of luck to you!

[Vancebo]

I kind of agree with Bob. I would add this. Find a teacher that can play the style you want to play and that can connect with you.

You should understand yourself well enough to know what motivates you. You should know if you have the time and energy to put into practice. Life happens and practice takes a backseat. For me, if and when I practice, it gets relegated to the time after the kids go to bed. By then, I am too tired to concentrate much. The big picture is this, I am in a season where growth isn’t going to happen much until the kids are grown and gone. Before kids, I was learning a lot, before marriage, I was practicing three hours a day easy. Oh well, I don’t regret it for a minute.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by Vancebo

I kind of agree with Bob. I would add this. Find a teacher that can play the style you want to play and that can connect with you.

You should understand yourself well enough to know what motivates you. You should know if you have the time and energy to put into practice. Life happens and practice takes a backseat. For me, if and when I practice, it gets relegated to the time after the kids go to bed. By then, I am too tired to concentrate much. The big picture is this, I am in a season where growth isn’t going to happen much until the kids are grown and gone. Before kids, I was learning a lot, before marriage, I was practicing three hours a day easy. Oh well, I don’t regret it for a minute.

And I kind of agree with Vancebo

For many folks, me included, learning this style takes a real commitment. If you haven't got the time and drive right now to practice (not noodle) for at least an hour or 2 nearly every day then the time might not be right. Of course that is based on my own experience and (lack of) natural ability, you may be a much quicker study

[jwing]

Be this:

Originally Posted by reeve21

...focused and practicing every day.

while keeping this in mind:

Originally Posted by reeve21

This is rewarding process, but a long, slow one...

Figure out how you learn best. Weekly guitar lessons are a waste of time and money for some people, and they are the key to success for others. The same can be said for most other methods for learning guitar playing, or any skill.

[joelhunn]

Originally Posted by reeve21

I have been down the same road. After playing off an on for a long time I decided I wanted to learn to finger pick. Thanks to advice here on the AGF I got started finger picking with Mark Hanson's book and a Toby Walker video (both were called introduction to finger picking or something like that). After 6 months or so I could play some basic tunes but felt stuck where I was, so I looked for a local teacher on lessons.com.

I've been with him for a year now and it really helps. The commitment of time and money for the lessons isn't huge but is enough to keep me focused and practicing every day. I've built up a little repertoire of folk and blues tunes, and have some basic skills that are helping me learn new songs.

This is rewarding process, but a long, slow one, at least for me. I had the idea I would be playing the melody to a whole bunch of Beatles tunes in a year or so and it hasn't happened that fast

Best of luck to you!

This echo's my experience. Video lessons are a good start, but I have found that I need the feedback of a live teacher. In my case, I am doing skype lesson. Maybe not for everyone, but so far it is working for me.

[Gobo]

Go slow, Build a repertoire, practice. Build on your repertoire, practice. Relax and don't forget to smile.

[Marcus Wong]

I would say the most important thing is to enjoy the process. If you are forcing yourself to sit down and read a book or watch a series of videos to make yourself the next Tommy Emmanuel, you will give up eventually. Pick songs that are at your skill range and a bit, and enjoy learning them. Don't be too caught up with trying to perfect it unless you are uploading videos/performing

[srick]

I agree with all of these responses. You can't beat a live teacher (and similarly, the group experience). Each workshop that I attended has done wonders to send me to the next level.

With each one, my ear has improved. Once you can get that feedback loop established (from ear to brain to fingers and back to ear), you begin to self-correct. IMO, there seems to be a re-wring of the brain that facilitates this.

I have done almost all of my other learning through online videos, but the leaps came from the live teachers.

best,

Rick

[vindibona1]

I'm going to suggest a multi-pronged approach. You'll need music that will help you figure stuff out. But you'll need to find things that are challenging but not so over the top that you can't work through it. You'll need audio and video examples to help guide you. And you'll (IMO) need in-person coaching to help you get past the speed bumps (or even get going initially). Lastely- patience, but most importantly practice and dedication.

The first part is easy. Spend $70 and buy GuitarPro (now 7.5). https://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php With this program you can download thousands of free pieces of music that have tab/standard notation/midi all included. There is a free trial download. You then can then search YouTube videos to see which songs you want to play and determine if you could ultimately tackle them. As you get into different new songs the videos will help you visualize what you should be doing.

Coaching... If you've really never finger picked before, developing solid technique is important. Often a coach/teacher can provide ways to approach things mentally which can short cut learning. It is my experience both as a student and a teacher that private lessons are many times more effective than online lessons for a host of reasons. The biggest reason is immediate feedback and supervised practice. Accountability to another person keeps the student on track and practicing.

And as Forrest Gump would say... That's all I have to say about that.

[taylorgtr]

I've been playing for 40 years this year, and I still have periods where I feel like I can't play...and others where I finally find that I really CAN play something I've been trying to play for years (and found it impossible earlier).

I've had teachers, and not had teachers, I've used video lessons, tools like Amazing Slow Downer, Tabledit, other tab players, jammed with others, etc.

At work, I teach a class called "How to pass the PMP (or any other) Certification Exam". Most certification tests are difficult, but what I've found is you can make them easier by doing certain things.

1. People have a preferred learning style (like classroom teaching, hands-on learning, audio, visual, etc)....but the best way to learn something is to use ALL of those methods, because they each reinforce each other. SO....focus on one song, and attack it from all angles (with a teacher, using tab, video, slowing it down).

2. Speaking of slowing down, break things down to their lowest common denominator. As Covert Bailey wrote in the book "Fit or Fat"...

"Start so slowly, people make fun of you".

He was writing about exercise, but the same applies to playing. Start so slow, that it doesn't even sound like music. As you get confident on where your fingers go (left or right), speed up a TINY bit.

3. Make it fun. If you're not having fun by learning something new or enjoying the music, try something else. It should be enjoyable, not a death march. If it's stopped being fun, put it away for a while, and come back later. You'd be surprised how easily it comes to you after not thinking about it for some time.


As an example, when I started playing fingerstyle, I wanted to play "Never Goin' Back Again by Fleetwood Mac. I worked on that thing for 2 solid years...and could never get the right hand timing down. I'd leave it for a while, come back, leave it...and then one day, it just clicked.

This past year, I've been working on Tommy Emmanuel's Day Tripper / Lady Madonna arrangement. I still can't play a couple of his flashy riffs in Lady Madonna up to speed (or that ending), but I've finally got the intro, and main parts of both songs working - a year ago....I thought it was impossible. You can get there...it just takes time, patience...and keeping it fun.

[6L6]

I'm right handed.

My left hand has never been very coordinated when it comes to playing guitar or much of anything else.

But back in the 60's my college roommate taught me Travis Fingerstyle and it's allowed me to make some great sounds via my right hand that I otherwise couldn't have made.

I second the above suggestion to take lessons. And when you start to get it down, learn to play fingerstyle with a plastic thumbpick and at least two metal fingerpicks. Awkward at first, but once you get on to them you'll never look back.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by Marcus Wong

I would say the most important thing is to enjoy the process. If you are forcing yourself to sit down and read a book or watch a series of videos to make yourself the next Tommy Emmanuel, you will give up eventually. Pick songs that are at your skill range and a bit, and enjoy learning them. Don't be too caught up with trying to perfect it unless you are uploading videos/performing

I want to second what Marcus said. As a brand new finger picker I was certainly inspired to learn by Tommy E. and especially Pete Huttlinger. I figured I'd get some of their tab and have it. That didn't work out too well. You need a lot of basic skills learned very well to even think about those kind of tunes. That is where a teacher can help. A good one will drill you in the technical fundamentals, while also assigning some simple tunes that incorporate the skills you are learning.

And for a beginning repertoire, some tunes that you are already very familiar with will give immediate feedback when you miss a note. Songs from your childhood, even. Things like You are My Sunshine and Take Me Out to the Ballgame have worked for me, and are a lot of fun to noodle around on once you get the melody down. Plenty of free tab on the net to old folk tunes.

[mr. beaumont]

For people who like fingerpicking, I can't recommend going through some classical method highly enough. You'll be amazed at the power and variation in tone available from your hands, and learning "good technique" will help with any fatigue/tension issues you might have--or not even know you have.