The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #13015   Message #1371647
Posted By: artimus
04-Jan-05 - 10:44 PM
Thread Name: Learning to finger pick
Subject: RE: Learning to finger pick
Contrary to popular belief, I have found that a good fingerstyle is the responsibility of both the right and left hand. An alteration in the method used by one will affect the style of the other. To really get the right hand performing try challenging it with a change of technique in the left hand.
Play the 3 notes of a chord up he neck on one sring with the thumb. Construct partials rather than using full 6 string chords. This is left hand technique that will put new demands upon the right hand.
For those of you who have used method and technique books and are still not happy with the results, I reccommend designing your own exercises based upon the ones you have already learned.
Also I suggest you watch guitar players playing. This is easy to do where there are lots of good fingerstyle players to view. But even if there are none, I say that you should closely observe how your own fingers and hands are moving. You can do this by drastically slowing down everything you play and look at the details of the motions you are using. Use a metronome and after you know what speed you are playing at reset the tempo down a few notches and move progressively down through slower and slower tempos. And look at every detail of what you are doing.
Study your own technique. You will then notice that you are going the long way when there are shortcuts to get to the same place. You can teach yourself this way even if there are no good players around to learn from.
Here's a song. Nothing fantastic. It's not a demonstration of spectacular fingestyle. Just a song. John Randolph