- Hey, I'm Nate Savage and in this video,
I'm gonna teach you eight fingerstyle guitar patterns
that you need to know.
So I've been playing a lot of gigs with my wife lately
and it ends up being that I play
a lot of fingerstyle with her,
I started switching to a thumb pick even,
because she does a lot of strumming and I accompany her
with a lot of of different fingerstyle patterns,
that's just the way it's working out
for the kind of gigs we're playing.
So I started noticing these patterns,
that I use over and over again,
they're really useful for accompanying people,
singers, that type of thing on acoustic guitar,
so I wanted to share those with you.
The first one is just a very simple rolling pattern,
this is a really important coordination to get down,
if you wanna play fingerstyle guitar.
So we're gonna be using a C major chord
for the most of this lesson and then a CFG progression
to kind of give you a musical application
for these patterns.
So the basic coordination
is just thumb, index, middle, ring finger
and my thumb is getting generally the lowest root note
for each chord, so in this case of a C chord,
I'm playing the fifth string, the A string
and then my three fingers are playing the top three strings
almost all the time for this type of stuff.
But that's the basic pattern
and I'm using a thumb pick,
so my wrist is kind of planted here
on the bridge of the guitar,
if you're playing more classical style, that's totally fine,
it's really up to you, either way is cool,
but the basic coordination, you have to get down
is a really smooth thumb, index, middle, ring
and if you need to spend more time developing your accuracy
with your thumb or your basic technique for your fingers,
there's some videos that you should check out
here on the channel, that are a little bit more
kind of beginner or fundamental.
You're gonna notice when I'm doing rolling like this,
as soon as my fingers come in, my thumb prepares
and this is my thumb hits the low A string there
and my fingers shoot out
and prepare to do the rest of the roll,
so I end up with this kind of motion back and forth,
there you go, there's a really good shot of that.
But that's the first one
and you just work on it with the one chord
and then put it in the progression,
C,
F,
G.
So that's a really nice one, it's very foundational,
it's good to play in some song context,
when you have another guitar player
that's strumming or something like that.
The next two patterns are kind of variations of that.
It starts off the same, so one and two and, pattern two
and then you're gonna alternate your bass with your thumb,
so instead of the A string, the second time around,
you're gonna hit the D string.
This is interesting, because it gives you
a little bit different shape and a little bit different feel
to the accompaniment pattern.
So you have to be really accurate with your thumb
and it works for some songs
and some songs it doesn't work for,
you just have to use your judgment as you play,
but go very slowly, actually look back and work on your aim
and one thing that I would really recommend doing again,
if you haven't developed the ability
to just alternate between bass notes,
work on that first, if you can,
then put it with a progression.
Alright, the last pattern
that uses this kind of rolling variation
is pattern three and here it is.
So what we're doing is kind of forcing this to roll up
and then roll back down
and forcing it to fit in four four times,
so you have one and two and nothing different there
and then roll back down three and four,
but you have an end that you need,
so grab it with your index finger.
So one and two
and three and four and,
or a thumb, index, middle, ring,
middle, index, thumb, index, I'll do that really slowly.
So it's a little bit different,
'cause you get that da, da in the bass,
so it makes for a little bit more
of a unique strumming pattern
that will fit some songs better than others
and you can put it with a chord progression
just like we did.
Alright, this next pattern deviates
and goes in a completely different direction
and this one again works with some songs better than others.
So my bass is alternating
between the three lowest strings in the C chord,
just constant,
so A string, D string, G string, D string,
that's the pattern, one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four
and all I'm doing is throwing in a high E string
with my middle finger between each note with my thumb,
so one,
one and two and three and four.
So again a pretty different accompaniment pattern
that you can choose from, depending on the song
and you can put a progression
once you get it down with the C chord.
This next pattern is kind of the inverse of that,
so we're gonna keep our bass note constant on the same note.
A one, two, three, four
and in between each bass note, we're gonna stick an index,
then a middle,
then a ring
and then one more middle, so you end up with this.
So the last one was this
and this one flips things around, so
and again take this very slowly with one chord
and then you can stick it in whatever progression you like,
here's the CFG again.
Alright, three patterns left,
this next one gets us into the coordination that we need
to start playing some Travis picking, which is really cool
and all you're gonna do is play on your C chord again,
steady chord notes going with your thumb
and then in between each quarter note there,
just put index then middle on the high B and E string,
so something like this.
Okay, so thumb, index on B,
thumb, middle on the high E
and that's the entire pattern,
you just repeat that over and over again.
It's a really nice accompaniment pattern
for folk music or church music,
not too hard,
so work on that with the one chord
and then you can put it with a chord progression.
The next pattern takes this to the next level
and throws in some alternating bass
with that exact same pattern,
so instead of staying on the C,
what we're gonna do is just alternate
between that C on the A string
and then that E on the D string, so,
if you need to work on this alternating bass
on its own first, I'd highly recommend that.
That same pattern, thumb, index on the B,
then thumb on the D string, little finger on the high E
and that's the whole pattern.
Now your starting to get into the fundamental coordination
you need to start doing like some Travis picking,
but this is like a super common pattern
that you're gonna hear in a lot of folk music, so,
super nice to do when somebody else is strumming,
there it is with the chord progression there.
But take it really slow at first,
stay on that C as long as you need to,
very slowly, just ramp it up as you go,
it may take a while, but that's okay.
This last finger picking pattern is really important,
if you can get the coordination for this one down,
it opens a lot of doors for you
and if you've ever heard this song,
then you'll know what I'm talking about.
Dust in the Wind, right,
that's what a lot of guitar players aspire to play,
if they're into fingerstyle,
so I'm gonna teach you a pattern that's similar to that.
Okay, here's the pattern,
you basically just have a constant eight-note
alternating bass pattern with your thumb,
just keep that in mind as we go through this
and there's only three notes on top
for the entire pattern with your fingers,
so it starts off like this, middle finger on the B string
and the thumb at the same time
and then you alternate to the D string with your thumb
and then the open G string with the index finger,
that's the first little bit,
only worry about this one note at a time.
So start with the first note,
just that
and then throw the next thumb in,
take this one at a time as the best way to do this,
really train your brain to where those notes are
and the order of 'em, then fill the next one in,
so middle and thumb at the same time, thumb, index,
then you have another thumb on the root note,
so I'm gonna play that for you.
Just live there for a while, 'til you have that memorized
and then throw in another B string with your middle finger
and then finally to finish off the pattern,
you just alternate with your thumb back to the D string,
that's the entire pattern.
It may seem really tricky at first,
but slow down, be really methodical by the look of the tab
and then just start looping it over and over again
and that kind of playing is used so much
in so many different kinds of music,
so once you have it down for that chord,
you can throw it on a F chord,
the only thing that changes here
is you're alternating between the low E and A strings
and then the G chord, same thing too.
So once you have it down, work on the individual chords
and then you can put it together in a progression.
So I know that's a lot of information,
but don't feel like you have to tackle
all of these fingerstyle patterns at once,
just print out the PDF, put it in your stack
of stuff to practice and be really consistent with it,
take it one at a time and you will get better.
So how long have you been playing fingerstyle guitar
and what are some of your favorite patterns,
that you've come across over the years?
See you later.
(gentle guitar music)