Walking fingers to the chords. Neat.

[rllink]

I'm sure with all the accomplished guitar players hanging around this is old hat, but it has been a real break through for me. I've been religiously going through the Flatpicking Essentials books and have learned to move my individual fingers around to hit melody notes outside the chord when playing Carter style. So over time my chord changes have gotten very smooth and I realized last night that I'm walking my fingers over fretboard from one chord to the next to get to them. It is very interesting and as long as I don't think about it everything just flows. Of course when I do think about it everything goes back to stabbing the fingers into the chords, but it is coming along. It is pretty exciting for me.

[Dash_Starkiller]

That’s great. Easily on of my favorite things to do, especially because I don’t use a pick much at all. I like to use my thumb a lot. Walking from d to g is always a good one. Then reverse that and go g to em.

[KevWind]

Not sure if this below is what you are actually referring to, or something more structured or complex (and I don't know what "Carter style" is) But yes when it just seems to just flow (as opposed to thinking about it ) it is indeed a lot of fun

[rllink]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Not sure if this below is what you are actually referring to, or something more structured or complex (and I don't know what "Carter style" is) But yes when it just seems to just flow (as opposed to thinking about it ) it is indeed a lot of fun

Yep, that's it. You do it very well, by the way. Some inspiration there, thank you.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by rllink

Yep, that's it. You do it very well, by the way. Some inspiration there, thank you.

Hey thanks. It is a journey but as you have noticed, a kind of hallmark in that journey

[Kyle215]

I noticed that I needed to work on this when I started recording myself… I was way choppier than I thought I was. Definitely an “aha” moment when it starts to click!

[Italuke]

By "walking" do you mean keeping any common tones between chords, without lifting those fingers? If so then yes that's a valuable basic habit to develop. (Or do you mean walking the bass line from one chord into the next by playing the scale notes in between?)

[rllink]

I'm learning both but I'm talking about what you first describe. I think the latter led to the first.