Online Fingerstyle Lessons (paid or free)

[capemjs]

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with some "good" fingerstyle lessons online? I've been playing for over 10 years and feel pretty confident with fretting, rhythm, and even an aptitude to learn more challenging guitar lessons... but I find that good lessons are so hard to find. I'm even willing to pay for them to some degree.

I've already picked up travis picking and learned some Eddie Vedder songs and even wrote some melodies off of it so fingerstyle isn't completely new to me. Now I'm looking at some Bruce Cockburn but I'm finding it just too difficult to learn without more detailed instruction.

I suppose I'm kind of at a crossroads and I'm tired of searching youtube or online which as of late has been largely too time consuming with little results.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Billy Boy]

Mark Hanson, a fabulous fingerstyle guitarist, offers lessons via Skype. www.accentonmusic.com

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by capemjs

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with some "good" fingerstyle lessons online? I've been playing for over 10 years and feel pretty confident with fretting, rhythm, and even an aptitude to learn more challenging guitar lessons... but I find that good lessons are so hard to find. I'm even willing to pay for them to some degree.

I've already picked up travis picking and learned some Eddie Vedder songs and even wrote some melodies off of it so fingerstyle isn't completely new to me. Now I'm looking at some Bruce Cockburn but I'm finding it just too difficult to learn without more detailed instruction.

I suppose I'm kind of at a crossroads and I'm tired of searching youtube or online which as of late has been largely too time consuming with little results.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Paying for them is not the important issue.

The important issue is: Do you want live feedback, basically as you'd get if you were sitting in front of a real teacher?

If you need to ask a question in real time, and get a real-time answer (based upon experienced observation, etc), then you're wasting your time and/or time & money by doing it any other way.

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

[Colbyjack]

Plus 1 for Mark Hanson for sure!

[StringFive]

I offer fingerstyle lessons via Skype.

[Frankmayer]

I agree with the above posts. If you just want to learn some basic stuff to see if you want to continue, JustinGuitar has free lessons in that style with all the other styles he plays, and Gary Shepard out of Austraila has some uTube stuff. If you find you enjoy that style, then like the other posts recommend - hook up with a live teacher to really develop your craft (style?)

[capemjs]

Thanks for the responses!

I've never thought of using Skype for such a thing but I'd have a really though time sticking to a set schedule, I just find time daily when I can and it's always different.

I also feel confident that I don't need instant feedback but finding detailed lessons - especially fingerstyle - I find are hard to find as it is.

Maybe I am just looking in the wrong place? Anyone else agree?

[kats45]

Mark Hanson's beginner book, Travis Picking, is one I'm using now. I also take periodic lessons from KC Craine with Moving Hands Music...high recommended.

[HarleySpirit]

Originally Posted by capemjs

Maybe I am just looking in the wrong place? Anyone else agree?

Here's the right place:
Google "fast natural fingerpicking" and remember my name!

Enjoy!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by capemjs

...Anyone have any suggestions?[/FONT]

Hi Cape...

When I had exhausted my YouTube and free video avenues several years back, I turned to DVD sources of great fingerstylers to glean what each had to add.

Players with DVDs I found useful were:

• Pete Huttlinger - Particularly his DVD Essential Exercises for Fingerstyle Guitar and his DVD Wonderful World of Chords
• Pat Donohue - mostly for tasty licks
• Mike Dowling - a friend of Pat Donohue, and great fingerstyler
• Mark Hanson - for song arrangements
• Al Petteway - how to mold DADGAD and other tunings into more conventional sounding pieces
• Laurence Juber- good arranging and creative thinking about tunings
• Tommy Emmanuel - amazing simplification of technique
• John Carlini - great thoughts about using chords creatively for Chord Melody
• Thom Bresh - Son of Merle Travis and amazing fingerstyler
• Fred Sokolow - Rough and Ready player and anything but refined, but really nice sounding quick arrangements
• Martin Taylor - distills music to it's essence
• Tuck Andress - well it's Tuck what can you say

Obviously this is not an instant list, but a distillation of my library collected over the past dozen years.

[chadly]

Try this site: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/FO-000-Folk.php

I love this guy's video lessons. Very easy to follow and understand.

[Doug Young]

In this age of You Tube, it's easy to forget about books and DVDs. Larry's got a great list there to start with, but there are tons of others depending on what level you're at and what you're interested in. Happy Traum has a lot of basic fingerpicking videos. Mark Hanson has several "Basics" DVDs about introductory fingerstyle. Alex de Grassi just put out a very comprehensive book about fingerstyle, distilling his decades of playing. You might suspect it's too advanced, but he starts from the beginning and goes step at a time. Go to Homespun, acousticmusicresource.com or Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop and start browsing.

The Skype lessons are also a great idea. I'm sure you could find people to hit any schedule (or non-schedule) you want. That's kind of the good thing about skype, it doesn't have to be "every Wed at 7PM" like you'd get going to a music store or something.