What were the first fingerstyle songs...

[cpeehler7]

Hey everyone again, I was just wondering what were the very first fingerstyle songs that you learned how to play. I've been searching for easier songs to just get more of a base in fingerstyle but don't really know where to look. I've been trying to learn some songs that on paper look easy, and seems like I should be able to play it, but I seem to be missing something...

So I figured where else to ask for advice but the AGF where there are thousands of people who already went through this, or are currently going through the same thing I am. The two songs I've learned completely so far have been "This Old Guitar" - John Denver, and the easier version of "Don't Think Twice" Bob Dylan. The Dylan song I learned is basically the same picking pattern as Dust in the Wind, which I only partially learned and am currently going back to, but I kind of improved a little extra stuff in there to make it more complex. I like how it turned out, it's not a total copy directly off the internet and I think I need to do a little more of that instead of learning 100% off the book.

I've also been trying to learn Doc Watson's music, but I've been having so much trouble wrapping my head around the alternating bass. I guess what I'm trying to say is that when I think of playing fingerstyle I just know the pattern and repeat it, but the thing is with a lot of the blues stuff is that the pattern is irregular. When it's irregular I start picturing it as two separate parts, as in what the thumb should play, and what the other fingers should play. When I do that I just fall apart! I'm not the best multitasker, I can't really talk much when I play guitar, but I'm getting better.

Anyway if you guys could just help me get on track I'd be grateful. I'm more of a strummer, but would like to be well rounded at both. A side note, when I play This Old Guitar, you'd probably think I was much better at fingerstyle than I really am. It's weird how when I get a pattern down I'm good to go, but it takes forever (weeks) just to start getting the pattern down and so on... So thanks for any advice or song suggestions.

Christian

[prsplayer12]

An easier first song that I know a lot of people (including myself) learn is Blackbird by the Beatles. It's pretty fun and a good intro to both fingerstyle and basic travis picking.

I pretty much play mainly fingerstyle blues and I started out there with some videos from Toby Walker and David Hamburger. The Fingerstyle Blues Handbook Part 1 on TrueFire (taught by David Hamburger) is where I became really comfortable with both steady and alternating bass. That video/lesson/download was what got me from having no finger/thumb independence at all really to being smooth and comfortable with alt. bass in about 2-3 weeks.

[j3ffr0]

Dust In the Wind by Kansas

[JonPR]

First ones I learned would have been Bert Jansch or Donovan tunes: such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRgDUgRJcmQ
(neither Donovan's not Jansch's version is available on youtube, but this one is accurate, if a little slow.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3mGV5pDDsM
Donovan's version of that was the first time I ever heard fingerstyle guitar, early 1966 (I'd had my first guitar just 1 month then!). (Only 2 chords, pretty easy.)

Other tracks I learned from that album (pretty much my bible in 1966 - I transcribed almost every track):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjUWJtH88c
(not nearly as hard as a lot of people seem to pretend it is)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGRCIslg0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMlLlwVk9eI

Donovan had some nice easy ones on his 2nd album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOrQuUAxTc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74N-OWpFO4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTzniYkUq34
(hey, girls used to scream at folk guitarists in those days! )

Then Joan Baez (Phil Ochs' song):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BYOJ1tc-k

And Dylan's Don't Think Twice, of course, and Girl From the North Country (Freewheelin' versions).

Later in '66 I was blown away by two great UK guitarists, Cliff Aungier and his pal Gerry Lockran (both now dead) - first players I'd seen playing live like this. Here's GL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XRw-cbDH4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPFqqmwkWTk.
That started me on my journey into Broonzy, Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, etc.

Stefan Grossman turned up a little later (here in London, 67/8), and I learned stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMICKJQMldA
- more of a challenge! (took me a few months to master that, although I never quite got it that fast, without mistakes)

[Greg580]

mine was Blackbird

[Erich Andreas]

One of my favorite songs to finger pick is a Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. It's a super easy introductory type song in 6/8. I have a tutorial for it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlKiJn2hDOc . I hope you love it as much as me. Good luck my friend!

[Kerbie]

I think it was Paul Simon's "April, Come She Will" off the "Sounds of Silence" album. Then "Blackbird" wasn't far behind.

[cpeehler7]

Thanks a bunch guys! I used to know how to play a bit of Blackbird, I love that song but I hate playing it... I don't know if that makes sense, but every time I go to play it I just don't like it and learn something else

I'm going to check these suggestions, I think Hallelujah is going to be the first I check out. Also on my list right now is Tomorrow is a Long Time. Just finished watching the first season of Walking Dead and it just reminded me that I didn't have that dylan song on my iTunes! So I decided I need to learn it.

Thanks again for the suggestions, now I just need this semester to end so I can catch up on all of this guitar stuff haha.

EDIT: @ Jon thanks for all the suggestions! I'm still looking over a lot of that, Dylan's freewheelin stuff is a little above me at this point. I did learn Don't Think Twice, but I started learning it from a guy playing folksongs and he slowed it down a bit and it's just kind of a bare bone version of it. Fun to play, I figure I need to learn the basics before I try to get ahead of myself again. I definitely want to learn the 'real' versions once I get the hang of fingerstyle more.

[Bern]

A bunch of Donovan stuff (patterns) and some easy classical pieces (independent picking), Carcassi, Carulli, etc.

[sbennett53]

You'll need to learn alternating bass as your first order of business. Put you efforts there. until you thumb becomes independent you wont be able to be an effective FPer. There's lots out there with alternating base tabs but what about delta blues? Look at something simple like Mississippi John Hurt's, My Creole Bell?

[cpeehler7]

Originally Posted by sbennett53

You'll need to learn alternating bass as your first order of business. Put you efforts there. until you thumb becomes independent you wont be able to be an effective FPer. There's lots out there with alternating base tabs but what about delta blues? Look at something simple like Mississippi John Hurt's, My Creole Bell?

That's what I'm trying to get better at, I can move my thumb and play the bass line, but only if the pattern is regular. That's why I have trouble playing John Hurt songs. The pattern isn't the same through the song. I can play This Old Guitar like I said which the thumb is jumping from 5 to 4 back and forward on the most chords and 6 4 5 4. I have no problem moving the thumb like that, just trying play a beat that's not consistent makes me lose my mind! I think the problem is that I'm jumping the gun trying to learn songs before I get the basics down. So that's why I was asking for the first songs you learned. I'll forget about all the songs I tried and can't get down and just have fun playing easier ones, and gradually build up.

[Howard Emerson]

My first fingerstyle song was one I wrote as I taught myself to fingerpick. I no longer play it, but I vaguely remember it.

I wrote it while cutting class at Berklee School of Music, where I basically avoided the draft until dropping out after 2 months.

HE
It Ain't Necessarily So: http://howardemerson.com/music2.html

[Paikon]

this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkSGSG05YHU

[oldhippiegal]

simple arpeggiated patterns (by string, 6-4-3-2, or 6-1-2-3 -type patterns) on songs like: Vincent, The Riddle Song, If You Could Read My Mind, Can't Help Falling in Love. If you have a good voice, a simple arpeggio works quite well.