Hey, It's Bob Harris here for
fingerpicking for beginners
This is your very first guitar
lesson as if you've never
played before as if you've
never even picked up a guitar before.
You're an absolute beginner!
I'm going to show you right
now how to do this.
All right. So three things you
need to be able to do this lesson.
Number one of course you
need a guitar.
So get your guitar out because
we're going to be doing this
right now together.
Number two you need to be able
to tune your guitar.
And number three you need to be
able to count to four.
So if you've got all those
things covered let's get into
the lesson. Right now your very
first song.
So just a quick run through
about some terminology
here that you need to know.
This is the first string right
here. It's a little hard to see
it's the thinnest string on the
guitar.
And this is the second string.
Third.
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth.
You would think it would be the
other way around because this
is the big string. But no they
have it labeled one two three
four five and six.
Now the way to hold your right
hand is you want to
hold it in kind of a claw
looking position as I call
it.
OK not pinched like this but
you want to be able to have
your hand sort of in this kind
of
position right here as you can
see.
And the reason is is you want
to have your fingers down here
are going to be ready to play
other notes.
Okay.
So the first thing we're going
to learn without our left hand
is we're going to learn the
pattern that I'm playing
with my right hand to be able
to play the song.
First part is we're going to
be alternating between the
fifth string and
the fourth string with our
thumb. (counting) 1
2
3
4
I hope you have your guitar
with you. Let's try this
together...... Real slow.
Here we go.
1
2
3
4
1,
2,,,3
4
Now all I'm doing is... if you
could see my hand,,, I'm just plucking
or hitting the guitar's (string) I like
to call it... hitting (plucking) the note
on the fifth string
and then going and hitting the
fourth string
and as evenly as possible in time.
Because timing (groove) is important.
We're counting it off evenly.
1,
2,
3,
4,(Play along with me)
1,
2,
3,
4.
1,
2,
3,4.
If you want to download the
study guide (in English)
Please do so.
That might help a lot of you
that want to see a visual of
how we're doing it.
That also has the tablature
and I'll show you how to read
tablature as well over there
with the study guide.
It's free to (my guitar group) just go ahead and
download that
So what we're going to do is
we're going to add a note to
this pattern. So we were on the
fifth string with our thumb and
the fourth string... alternating
back and forth.
1,2,3,
4. 1,
2,3,
4.
What we're going to do is
insert a note
in-between that pattern.
and it's going to be this
third string... kind of hard to
see because the strings are
thin but, it's that third
string. one, two, three and we're
going to be doing it with our
index finger. finger number one.
Okay
And all we're going to do is....
just pull up.
Pull up on the note.
So all we're doing is just.
So let me show you where this goes.
this is what we're going to learn.
1,,,, and it's going to be an "&" (and ) note...
AND
note.. it's in between the count of 4.
1
2 AND
3,
4, 1
2.
and 3.
4 let's do it together- here we go...
1
2, and
2
3
1
2 and
3
4
1, 2
And
3
4
1,2 AND 3
4
to finish off this pattern
we're going to add one more
note and it's going to be with
our middle finger on our right
hand (of course) and it's going
to be on the B string or the
second string.
Once again it's hard to see so
we're counting (strings One Two..
same thing like we
did with this (index) finger
we're going to be pulling up.
Pulling up on that note.
Okay
So we pulled up on this note.
And we're going to pull up on this note.
Hitting (plucking) it with the tips of our fingers
I'm going to show you where
that (note) is going to go.
1
2 and
3 AND 4
Watch it again.
1
2 and
3
AND 4.
OK let's try this together
we're going to go even slower.
1
2
and
3 AND 4
1
2
3 AND 4
1
2
and 3 AND 4
1
2
and 3 AND Four.
1
2
and 3
AND 4 (even slower...)
1
2 and 3
AND 4
1
2
and 3
AND 4
1
2
and 3 AND 4
On the left hand we're only
using one finger chords
for this song.
So we're going to make it
really easy for the left hand and
this is where students have
the most difficulty... is getting
their left hand to work properly
(coordinating) their fingers.
But we're going to make it
really easy... We're only going to
have to press down on two
different strings (with one finger) to play the song.
Two frets up on the fourth
string. One two three four.
And this is this is called
the "NUT"
Open (not pressing down on a note with left hand).
And this is fret one.
And this is fret 2.
And as a rule of thumb when
you're pressing down, you want
to get as close to the fret as possible
without touching the fret
to make a note.
In this instance (for this song) the first
chord that we're playing for the
first patternthat we learned,,
we're going to be pressing
two frets up on
the fourth string.
One two we're going
to do it with our middle finger.
Now you could use
whatever finger you want
but I think the easiest one is
the middle finger (for this song).
Okay.
So the rule with fretting..
Like I said
is to be just below the fret
without touching it.
You don't want to be on the
fret because then you go
to press down it'll make a thud
it will mute the string.
The idea is just to be down
just a little bit below it.
So the fourth string.
One two three four..
fourth string.
And we're up two frets
up... one fret, two frets
and just below the second fret.
And what you want to do is arch your finger
And the best way to
keep your finger arched is to
put your thumb down
here like this.
OK... do you see my thumb?
you don't want your thumb out here
you don't want it up here.
You don't want it curled around.
That's not the right way to do it..
What you want to do is you want to
put your thumb
right down here.
And what that does is that
naturally makes it so
that your finger is arched
and you want to be playing on
the very tips
you see. See where you could
see the string made a groove
right here my in my finger you
want to play it right on the
tip of the finger you
don't want to play on the
fleshy part you want to play
right on the tips.
So what we're going to do
is we're going to put our thumb
in the right (correct) position.
And we're going to press with
our middle finger, two frets
up on the fourth string
.
And to test out to see if the
sound is good.
Because you don't have to press
real hard, you just have
to do it accurately.
So to see if we're doing it
correctly, what we're going to
do is with our thumb....
Fourth string, we're going to
play the note.
Pluck the note.
Sounded like a pretty clean note.
Now if you're back to far here.
It's liable to not sound good.
You want to be just below the fret
to make the best sound!
You want to be on the tip of your
finger and you want your thumb
in the right position.
Now a lot of people
they will hold the guitar this
way and that's okay...
But to make it even easier what
you're going to want to do
to start out with.. and this will
make playing for (the left hand) a lot easier
is to do it the classical way.
What they do is they rest the
guitar on their left leg.
And the reason they do that is
it gets to tilt the guitar
neck up in the air.
Tilting the guitar neck up
in the air makes it so that
your fingers are naturally in
the position to be able to play
the note (cleanly).
Okay... and have your thumb in the
right position.
So if you want to make things
even easier.
Best way to do it is to keep
your guitar
on your left leg rather
than your right leg. You'll see
all the classical players doing it
and have your guitar tilted up.
Now if it's not comfortable
and you want to do it on the
right leg go ahead and just
kind of tilt up your (guitar neck)
Raise up your legs so that
tilt up your guitar so your
guitar neck is not flat
because (a flat angle)causes your fingers
to do the wrong things (and touching other strings or muting other notes or thudding).
You want to have your guitar
neck tilted.
Okay!
So very simply what we're going
to do now is we're going to get
this note here
that we're playing or we're
going to go ahead and play that
pattern that we learned....1
2
and 3
and 4
1
2 and 3
And
4
1, 2 and 3 and 4 Let's go ahead and try
to play this together okay
Hope you have your guitar with you.
So we'll go real slow.
Here we go and I'm going to
count it off. 1,2,3,4
and then we're going to start.
1
2, 3
4
1,2,and 3
and 4.
1,
2, and
3 and four.
1,
2 and 3
and 4.
1, 2 and
3 and 4.
1
2 and
3 and 4.
1, 2 and 3
and 4.. AGAIN,.
1
2 and 3
and 4.
One two
and 3 and 4.
OK now if you haven't
downloaded the study guide it's
popping up right here.
Go ahead and download the study
guide and I'll see you in the
next lesson.
What we're going to be doing in
the next lesson is the next chord
(of this song).
And what's cool about this next
chord is we're not going to
have to move this (middle) finger!
We are just going to change the
pattern down here (right hand) we're going
to change one note down here.
We're going to have a
completely different sounding
chord even though we didn't
even move our finger here (on the left hand).
Click on the next lesson right here
and I'll see you there.