Advice needed - How could I evolve to this kind of fingerstyle?

[muadgil]

Hi
My current goal is achieving to be able to play that kind of piece (please take the time to listen to it entirely, it's beautiful...) :



A bit of background : I can play traditional fingerpicking (by folllowing the excellent Stephen Grossman educational videos). I'm quite fond of Colter Wall too, and his approach to a more "contemporary take" on traditional fingerstyle.

But I can't find ressources, or online lessons, that would be aimed at that kind of music... Everything I can find when I search for modern fingerstyle, is biased towards percussive stuff, exotic tuning etc...

Do you guys have any artist references (I tend to run in circles regarding what I listen to...), or online courses that would fit this goal?
Thanks a lot, any information is welcomed :-)

[Doug Young]

Fixing your video embed for you:



There must be thousands of lessons on playing fingerstyle like this. Very nice playing and piece, but I wouldn't even call it "modern", tho compared to Stefan Grossman's country blues, I guess it is. You might just look for "fingerstyle lessons".

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Very nice playing and piece, but I wouldn't even call it "modern", tho compared to Stefan Grossman's country blues, I guess it is.

I agree. It is a nice piece, but it reminded me more of the early Will Ackerman/Hedges school of acoustic fingerstyle playing from the Windham Hill days, ca. mid 70s, early 80s. I guess it was modern back then.

[muadgil]

Thanks to you
So I guess that although I'm only 42, I'm already am old school guy
I'll check Ackerman/Hedges then. I like that style

[Cecil6243]

Doesn't look especially difficult. In fact it wouldn't be that hard to figure out by ear, and seeing the finger placement makes it even easier.

I would think any good finger style lessons should get you there. Years ago I had a guitar instructor that could listen to that and write it completely out for me with one listen.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Doesn't look especially difficult. In fact it wouldn't be that hard to figure out by ear, and seeing the finger placement makes it even easier.

That can be deceptive. Looks like it's all feel and rhythm. The kind that only "looks" easy, given the player's skill.
Actually, even if it were easy, it's an excellent thing to practice, i.e. taking the easiest pieces in your library and making them sound as beautiful as you can. It's harder than you think, depending on your expectation levels of course.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by muadgil

Hi
My current goal is achieving to be able to play that kind of piece (please take the time to listen to it entirely, it's beautiful...) :.

Do you guys have any artist references (I tend to run in circles regarding what I listen to...), or online courses that would fit this goal?
Thanks a lot, any information is welcomed :-)

Hi maudgil…

For the 'Exotic' tuning, I recommend understanding the relationships between various open tunings, and then alternate tunings as well.

Homespun-dot-com - Secrets of Open Tunings and Song Accompaniment by David Wilcox. This promises three tunings but goes through 5 or 6. It shows direct relationship between the open tunings (tunings tuned to an open chord), including transferable (between tunings) fingerings.

Not to disdain David's course material, but when David goes off-script, the fluidity of his play becomes evident, and I've learned as much from that as the 'presented-material'.

Alternate tuning includes tunings like DADGAD, or CGCGCD, ORKNEY (CGDGCD) etc. They are not as exotic as they sound.

And sometimes an alternate tuning like DADGAD can become an open tuning by changing a single string. DADF#AD (Open D) or DADFAD (Dmin tuning) - one note changes from DADGAD.

How I introduce students to alternate/open tunings…
Students of mine over the years who wanted to learn DADGAD I'd start by teaching them to play in Dropped D (low E string down to D) for a couple weeks. By this time they were already learning fingerstyle exercises and simple fingerstyle pieces (not as part of alternate tuning training).

They had already learned to edit chords to only 3-4-or-5 notes (instead of all the strings on every chord all the time).

And I had them play fingerstyle pieces & exercises tuned to Dropped D but played in other keys (like G or A). They were learning to adapt the bass fingerings to account for the lowered bass note. We did both chording/strumming and normal fingerstyle material.

Then after a couple weeks we'd drop the high E to D as well. After a couple weeks of adapting both strings (sometimes just editing strings out of the mix for a measure), I'd have them drop the B string to A and they were all-of-a-sudden in DADGAD, and it didn't feel foreign.

I also (around the same time) exposed them to Dropped E capoing (capo from the treble side of the neck and leave the low E open). A quick adaptation of standard tuning to a Dropped D style play (but still in standard).

I also exposed them to to using a cut capo in the Esus position (which emulates a lot of DADGAD fingerings). Many of these students still have the Esus capo I cut and made with them in my garage (that was a 2 hour lesson). And if you own a Kyser capo, it's really easy to flip it upside down and trim the bottom bumper to use as an Esus capos.

Moving to DADGAD was a very organic process, not just based on assignments. We did a lot of playing together.


Worthwhile resources on DADGAD and Alternate tuning…
Al Petteway's "Celtic, Blues & Beyond" DVD (no longer in print). Al is one of the most prolific DADGAD player/teachers. If you can find a copy (Amazon?) it's a worthwhile DVD to own.

Doug Young (from this forum) is another wealth-o-info on DADGAD. He has teaching materials on Amazon (several DADGAD books).

I have DADGAD & Alternate tuning DVDs by Laurence Juber, Martin Simpson, Mark Hanson, Al Petteway, David Wilcox etc.

Monkey-see-Monkey-do resource - Candy Rat Records (YouTube)

Hope this adds to the discussion…

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by muadgil

Hi
My current goal is achieving to be able to play that kind of piece (please take the time to listen to it entirely, it's beautiful...) :



A bit of background : I can play traditional fingerpicking (by folllowing the excellent Stephen Grossman educational videos). I'm quite fond of Colter Wall too, and his approach to a more "contemporary take" on traditional fingerstyle.

But I can't find ressources, or online lessons, that would be aimed at that kind of music... Everything I can find when I search for modern fingerstyle, is biased towards percussive stuff, exotic tuning etc...

Do you guys have any artist references (I tend to run in circles regarding what I listen to...), or online courses that would fit this goal?
Thanks a lot, any information is welcomed :-)

Are you looking to simply play pieces like this that are already written, or are you looking to arrange your own in this style?

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by AndreF

That can be deceptive. Looks like it's all feel and rhythm. The kind that only "looks" easy, given the player's skill.
Actually, even if it were easy, it's an excellent thing to practice, i.e. taking the easiest pieces in your library and making them sound as beautiful as you can. It's harder than you think, depending on your expectation levels of course.

Oh sure I agree. A lot of things look easy until you try them.

[4mykey]

Clive Carroll is an awesome fingerstyle player who can play most anything under the sun. His tastes are varied: Celtic, classical, renaissance, blues, jazz, folk, contemporary compositions, music from around the world... And his tone is exquisite. He has a lot of tabs available on his website.

I actually came to guitar from the opposite perspective. I started learning on my own just playing pieces I liked from transcriptions. Then studied with a few notable fingerstyle players. And it has only been the last couple years that I've gone back and learned Travis picking!

[TBman]

Well, you can start out strumming basic chords up and down the neck adding some bass slapping and a harmonic thrown in once in a while. Make something simple up and just try to copy the style in the video. As far as the traditional finger style portions of the tune, look into Masaaki Kishibe, Gin, and Daria Semikina.

And a bit of advice - lose the notion of "exotic tunings." Just get an electronic tuner.

[Doug Young]

FWIW, on the topic of "exotic tunings", the way I read the OPs question is that he's complaining that all he can find is info on exotic tunings (and percussive techniques), not that he wants to learn them :-)

I find this a little odd, since I know of very few decent lessons on percussive playing and more unusual tunings. There are lots and lots of learning materials on fingerstyle in general, as well as various "non-exotic" :-) tunings.

[muadgil]

wow
Thanks a lot to all of you for your answer !
Many new artists to listen to...
I dove into Hedges Aerial Boundaries. I just love his playing!
MrBeaumont : my goal is first to learn to play pieces like that, and then be able to incorporate a bit of this into my own playing.

ljguitar thanks for the crash course on alternate tuning, I'll perhaps go that road later, but as Doug said in his last post, for the moment, I prefer focusing on classic tuning (or Drop D)

4mykey thanks for this suggestion, I'll go and explore Clive Caroll stuff.

I guess I have to find pieces I like, find transcriptions, and learn them.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by muadgil

for the moment, I prefer focusing on classic tuning (or Drop D)

I guess I didn't think your definition of exotic limited you to standard and drop D. I think you may be a little frustrated in your search, since that sample recording is almost certainly some alternate tuning. Didn't your Stefan Grossman studies at least include things in Open G and Open D? I don't consider DADGAD to be "exotic" - some people even call it "the other standard tuning". Based on your example, at least, I suspect that a lot of what you're thinking of as "modern" is due to the use of alternate tunings, which is extremely common in fingerstyle, and even common in older country blues styles. So trying to create that sound in standard may be challenging, depending on how much of what you're liking is related to the tuning (possibly a lot...)

If you want to limit yourself to standard, check out Tommy Emmanuel - rather advanced, but he has lots of good tunes, and there's tab for much of it, all in standard tuning. Mark Hanson's books and materials are mostly focused on standard tuning (and easier to start with than Tommy). Classical music is also a good place to look for learning the technique and concepts of fingerstye, and is usually in standard tuning. There are also many people who offer lessons 1-1 online or online workshops, including people who often post here. Check out Toby Walker, Rick Ruskin, Eric Skye, for starters - all of whom often (or always) use standard tuning.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I guess I didn't think your definition of exotic limited you to standard and drop D.

I hate to say I told you so, but....