Free guitar fingerpicking booklet

Subject: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 05:04 AM

I've been spending time recently on developing some more simple tutorial material on basic guitar fingerpicking. If anyone's interested, there's a free booklet available as a PDF download from my website:

Fingerpicking The Guitar

The booklet is aimed at the beginner guitarist who knows some basic chords but who has little or no knowledge of fingerpicking. Many 'Catters, I'm sure, will be well beyond this level, but you're welcome to take a look or download it. It's produced in conjunction with a widescreen/HD video which is on YouTube at:

Guitar Fingerpicking Examples

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 06:12 AM

I think that looks useful. I also found your Youtube "How to play Anji" useful.

I'd dearly love to know if there is a secret to persuading the thumb to carry on (if you are in drop-D tuning) playing the alternating bass octaves while the other fingers play other things - or the other way round persuading the fingers to play an endless rain of triplets on the G Band E strings while the thumb plunks a tune on the three bottom strings (the latter sometimes called "ripple pick") - or whether it is just a case of sitting there hour after hour gradually speeding up the ripple while trying to keep it even and eventually adding the thumb.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 06:17 AM

or whether it is just a case of sitting there hour after hour gradually speeding up the ripple while trying to keep it even and eventually adding the thumb

Richard - I think you hit the nail on the head with that phrase! I think the 'secret' is constant practice - starting slowly and picking up speed. If you play fingerstyle for long enough, you start to feel a kind of affinity with the strings - difficult to describe - where the thumb and fingers are almost separate entities with minds of their own. But practice is at the heart of it all.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 10:05 AM

practice is essntial, and thank you Will.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 11:21 AM

Hey Will, that looks pretty useful. Downloaded and will be looking at it properly tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 11:31 AM

Same to you Rob - and to you Dick!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 30 Dec 10 - 12:20 PM

Thanks Will!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 10:58 AM

And thanks, Sandy, for taking an interest. :-)

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: JohnB
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 11:55 AM

Looks like a very nice production Will Fly, the You Tube stuff is really neat.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Nick
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 02:26 PM

Will

Really well put together and I'm sure will be appreciated by many.

You express yourself really clearly which is a huge art in itself. Is that a life skill from previous work experiences or one that you particularly apply to this?

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: maeve
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 02:30 PM

Thank you very much, Will. I'll print it out as soon as I can.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 04:15 PM

You express yourself really clearly which is a huge art in itself. Is that a life skill from previous work experiences or one that you particularly apply to this?

Well, as well as playing music as a pro and semi-pro for 40 years, my day jobs were in broadcasting and education... Helps a bit, I suppose! My philosophy is to try and make things as clear as possible - and not try to be "clever" about it. A lot of the so-called "instructional" guitar videos on YouTube, for example, are by very clever musicians who seem to be more intent on showing off their technique than trying to get it across clearly to the beginner. That's not for me. :-)

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Nick
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 09:20 PM

Skills well used :)

Happy new year

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Clontarf83
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 10:01 PM

Thanks. Now to try and undo decades of doing it the wrong way...

Happy New year!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 01:10 PM

Will many thanks for that resource.............you truly make a remarkable contribution to the development of musical skills with your you tube and website offerings. Such a fantastic talent and wonderful generosity of spirit. Many thanks and have a great new year.

Frank

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: GUEST,Bagger
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 09:54 AM

That booklet looks really good and will start to go though it tonight and, perhaps, as someone has already stated above I think, relearn what I've already picked up.

Something else, if I can extend the thread, which I have never been able to track down are the "walk down/up" finger placings, when you are transferring from, say, a C to a G or from F to C. Those two examples I have actually learnt just from watching and messing about myself, but what about all of the other "walks" and whether it's in 6/8 or 4/4? Is there a book or a web site that gives these? I've looked and looked but never found them. What is the correct terminology for these "walks"?

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 10:46 AM

Bagger..........do you mean a turnaround as in many blues tunes?

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: GUEST,Bagger
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 11:20 AM

Frug,

I guess that's half my problem in locating what I'm looking for; I don't know what the correct term for it is. But in many songs you can put in a climb up or down from one chord to another (You don't have to but it does give greater interest to the tune rather than using the same picking pattern all the way through). I don't mean a simple change from one chord to another but a stepped climb or decline from one chord to another, with one, two, three or four steps in between, depending on what timing you are playing the song in.

Don't know if there are books or web sites with this information or whether it's just something you pick up along the way, but I would have thought that there would be a written down sequence somewhere.

Any help or pointers much appreciated.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: alex s
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 11:24 AM

Bagger, I've just been teaching this.
pm me and we'll discuss.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: MikeL2
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 11:25 AM

hi will

Thanks for this very interesting and informative booklet. As usual with your presentaions it is easy to read and the instructions are spot on.

Like Richard I believe the control of the thumb in more difficult music to be the key to being able to play fingerstyle very well.

As others say here....practice practice practice

Many thanks and Happy New year

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Bagger
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 12:01 PM

Alex,

Just made myself a member so I can PM you, but where/how do I do this (PM)?

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 02:17 PM

To send a PM to someone, look at their post and you will see the small letters 'PM' just to the right of their name. Click on this and you should be connected to your personal page where you can then compose your message.

But, before I forget, I want to extend thanks and appreciation to Will for the instructional booklet. As someone who is just starting to attempt fingerpicking, help like this is absolutely invaluable. (And I need all the help I can get!)

Jay

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 02:30 PM

Will, I've been playing guitar for about four years, and I see your YOUTUBE videos for the first time today. So easy to follow the separated hands and the charts! Much of what you demonstrate on the blues has eluded me so far. It's been really hard trying to get this information even from an in-person teacher, let alone advanced friends with only so much patience to teach. THANK YOU for posting these amazingly helpful lessons. I go to a Blues jam in the Washington DC area almost every week. This is going to make a huge difference to me. I've got a new guitar teacher!!!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: alex s
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 05:40 PM

Great stuff, Will. Very generous and VERY useful.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Girl Friday
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 06:21 PM

Thanks Will. I downloaded it for Trevor.

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 06:29 PM

Thanks to all of you folks for the very kind words. I'm glad that the work is paying off in practical ways. :-)

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: GUEST,Black Hawk unlogged
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 07:50 PM

Very generous to download this treasure for free. Many charge a fortune for nowhere near the clarity & knowledge here.
Thank you!

Subject: RE: Free guitar fingerpicking booklet
From: olddude
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 08:01 PM

It's a wonderful book Will