Need help with fingerstyle

[Mort722]

I got the basic patterns down and it is going great, then I hit a wall when we started doing melody and alternating bass notes at the same time. I been learning this style for only a week but I been stuck on this for two days usually stuff comes a lot faster. Just so you know I have ten years of playing down so not a newbie just a newbie to fingerstyle

Any tips to help me out will be great

[MissouriPicker]

Stay with it. It does feel strange when you first begin adding melody notes to an alternating bass style. It seems awkward to keep your thumb moving while adding a finger on the same beats. This is part of the reason we often hear something like "don't get stuck in the rut of playing finger patterns." Something you might try in order to loosen-up your muscle memory is mixing the patterns together. Break the patterns into 2-3 notes and then maybe mix it with a half-strum or the tail end of a different arpeggio.. I don't know that there's a set rule on how fingerpicking has to be done. You mostly do what works best for you.

[Kerbie]

I learned by starting with just the alternating bass... then add one note... then a second note... and so on.

Just be patient and try to build on your most recent successes.

[handers]

Check out the recent thread entitled "A master building fngrstyl arrangement"

There's lots to be learned from watching Michael Chapdelaine.

hans

[AlbertR213]

Only a week? You're not going to master it over night just keep at it. I mean you have been playing for ten years right? You should know this by now if you're not a "newbie" like you say.

[fceltia63]

Originally Posted by handers

Check out the recent thread entitled "A master building fngrstyl arrangement"

There's lots to be learned from watching Michael Chapdelaine.

hans

Yes this video and thread is quite informative.

[CyberFerret]

Stick with it.

My advice is to play the passage as it should be, but slow it down. Slow it RIGHT down - even to as much as one note every two seconds to start with, and then build it up from there.

The idea is to get your finger's "muscle memory" happening. It is important to play it correctly and not miss or move any notes.

Work on the correct note pattern, then when you think you have got that down pat, then you can expand on it and work on the dynamics and groove.

I still do this to this day, when I come across a particularly difficult bar where my fingers just knot up and don't do what they are supposed to. I take that one or two bars and play it over and over again, starting slow and focusing on getting the exact right notes, then gradually speeding it up to 'racing speed'.

Sometimes I play just that passage over and over again about 50 times. Once I do that, it seems to me that my fingers will automatically find their way without me having to think about it.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by Mort722

I got the basic patterns down and it is going great, then I hit a wall when we started doing melody and alternating bass notes at the same time. I been learning this style for only a week but I been stuck on this for two days usually stuff comes a lot faster. Just so you know I have ten years of playing down so not a newbie just a newbie to fingerstyle

Any tips to help me out will be great

Putting aside the left hand for a moment, playing a melody along with an alternating bass involves a limited set of possible right hand finger execution combinations. Isolating what those possible combinations are, and distilling a technique/practice regimen to encourage muscle memory for those right hand actions is an efficient way to improve your capabilities to play a melody along with an alternating bass.

Of course, the left had has things to do too. The left hand has a larger universe of possible actions to accommodate playing a melody along with an alternating bass. Still, those actions can be isolated and a technique/practice regimen to encourage muscle memory for those left hand actions can be developed.

Putting the two together is yet another step.

[Luke_]

Never give up or get frustrated.... It's the most rewarding thing I've done

[HAPPYDAN]

Agreed with others - Play the entire piece all the way thru REALLY SLOW. I assure you that tomorrow it will go better. And then the next day. And then the next. And then one day, MAGIC!

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by Mort722

<<snip>>

I been learning this style for only a week...

<<snip>>

I've been learning this style for about 42 years, now.

We all keep learning.