Hi, I'm Peter aka GP and this is the second episode of my fingerstyle tutorial series
called Fingerstyle 101.
In the first lesson we discussed some theoretical aspects of playing fingerstyle
and this time we'll look at some basic exercises and picking patterns.
So let's grab your guitar and let's get into this.
So as I have mentioned in my previous video, you use your
thumb to pick the bass notes
and your index, middle and ring finger, to pick the melody notes.
If you learnt to play to play chords on guitar then this is going to be probably
the hardest thing for you to get used to because instead of
moving your hand as one
(and I mean using a pick) instead that you
you have to pick different strings
with different fingers and often
multiple strings at once - but that's exactly what makes fingerstyle beautiful.
Alright so here's the first exercise:
I want you to pick the 6th string with your thumb,
then the 3rd string with your index finger,
then the 2nd string with your middle finger,
and then the 1st string with your ring finger,
then move on to the 5th string (*fixed*) with your thumb,
3rd string with your index,
2nd string with your middle,
and 1st string with your ring finger.
Then the 3rd string (*fixed*) with your thumb,
and the melody notes.
So you just pick open strings in this order.
Start at a slow-speed and slowly work your way up.
If you miss a string, start the exercise again
because this way your fingers will
get used to the correct pattern.
And whenever you're ready,
you can speed up.
So the second exercise is basically going to be
an extended version of the previous one.
You start the same way - you pick the 6th string with your thumb,
then the 3rd string
with your index finger,
2nd string with your middle finger,
and the 1st string with your ring finger - but here's the difference:
then pick the 2nd string with your middle finger,
and the 3rd string with your index finger again - and then change the bass note.
That's it. Again, start at a slow speed
and speed up if you don't miss the strings
The next one is going to be a reversed version of the
2nd exercise, so you pick the
6th string with your thumb and then the 1st string with your ring finger.
2nd string,
3rd string,
2nd string, 1st string.
Then do the same with every bass string.
Just like before, start at a slow speed
and then speed-up if you pick the
correct strings - in the correct order.
Now we're going to modify the
previous exercises a bit, so you have to pick the
bass note and the first melody note at the same time.
So you pick the 6th string with your thumb
and the 1st string with your ring finger at the same time.
This is a pretty important pattern
because as you could see you have to pick
multiple strings at once and this is
used in fingerstyle a lot,
so you want to practice this a lot.
Last but not least, we've got 2 more patterns -
you pick the 6th string and the
2nd string at the same time and then
3rd string,
then the 1st string
and then repeat this with every bass note.
And the other on is kind of reversed
version of this - so you pick the
the bass string and the 2nd string at the same time just like before
and after that you pick the first string
and the 3rd string.
All right, so you now you could take
some actual chords instead of just picking open strings.
You could take exercise 2, 4 and 5 for example.
With a D major chord,
C major chord
and G major chord.
And use the patterns you just practiced.
So that was the second lesson of Fingerstyle 101,
I hope it was helpful. In the next episode we'll discusse the ways of rhythm picking.
If you have any questions, suggestions or requests for the upcoming lessons,
feel free to leave a comment below, send me a private message or
contact me on Facebook. See you next time, and thanks for watching!