Picked Fingerstyle (Guitar Lesson IM-156) How to play IF Stage 5

Justin's Completely Free, Intermediate Guitar Course Lesson IM-156.
Stage 5, Lesson 6.

In this guitar lesson we're going to check out a very useful type of rhythm playing I call picked fingerstyle - it's kinda easy and sounds great - the basic idea is replicating a fingerstyle sound with a pick. Great fun!

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-156-PickedFingerstyle.php

This is part of Justin's Intermediate Guitar Method, Foundation. A series of lessons available free online!

http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-000-IntermediateMethod.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

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Hello, how're you doing? Justin here.

Welcome to IM-156.

In which we're going to be checking out
how to do "Picked Fingerstyle.'

Now, what I mean by picked fingerstyle

is that you're going to be using your plectrum,

to pick out individual notes,

in a kind of a strummy...

almost fingerstyle kind of way.

And what it's really training you up to do,

is to be accurate with your pick

and therefore be able to
pick out individual notes,

particularly while you're strumming.

So, cause it's a really cool thing
to be able to kind of have a little

. . .

That kind of thing,

I'm strumming, it's still kind of strummy

but i'm able to pick notes out
from my strumming.

Now the best way to learn this,

is to start off with a couple of simple patterns

that teach you to pick individual notes

while maintaining your
down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up pattern

that you would normally use in a bar.

So let's get to a close up,

and have a look at a really,
really common one of these patterns,

we're gonna be using a G chord

so, get your left hand on a G,

the close-up is gonna be on your picking hand.

We've got our left hand on a G chord,

and the little pattern
we're going to be doing here

is going to be:
6th string, 4,

3,

4,

2,

3,

4,

3,

6,

4,

3,

4,

2,

3,

4,

3.

It's really important
that you keep doing your alternate picking

so:
down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up,

down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up.

Now, this one pattern
can teach you a whole lot of stuff,

and it's all because
you're going to get your hand used to moving.

. . .

You can say it's kind of almost,

that looks strummy already,

so if I start strumming

and do kind of start picking out some notes,

. . .

you can see now it's sort of strummy

but now I'm picking out notes,

but the big deal here
is to learn to be accurate first,

and this pattern
is a really good one to learn on.

So:
6th string... 4,

3,

4,

2,

3,

4,

3,

down-up, down-up,

down-up, down-up.

Now, all that would change
when you move chords

is the bass note,
you'd leave all of the rest.

So, if we move say to a C chord,

so left hand is now moving to a C,

the bass note is now
going to be on the 5th string.

So:
down-up, down-up,

down-up, down-up,

down-up, down-up,

down-up, down-up.

You maybe move that to a Gsus
with a B in the bass

. . .

to an A minor 7

. . .

It's a really common pattern

down-up... down-up,

down-up... down-up

We get G

. . .

Now, if we go to a D chord,

we don't really want to be
on those strings,

because... the first note we have to play

is the D string, which is the 4th string,

So it's OK sometimes to move this pattern to here,

to the thinnest four strings.

. . .

And when you move to a C chord,

. . .

you've moved to that
middle group of four strings,

and then back to the top four.

. . .

G

. . .

to D

. . .

maybe go to an A minor

. . .

If we are...

A bass note,
which it'd be the 5th string,

. . .

to an F maybe,

. . .

G

. . .

So the big deal here,

is learning to get this motion,

so it's still,

always down and up.

. . .

If you get confident with that,

have a go at kind of
strumming a little bit more

so just get yourself on the G,

this is always gonna be on beat one,

so, 1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and,

1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and,

1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4,

1, 2, 3, 4,

1, strum, down-up, down-up,

1, strum, down-up, down-up,

. . .

Now I'm doing:

bass,

4,

3,

4,

bass,

2,

3,

4.

. . .

Doesn't matter, it's all just about trying to free up

and getting used to being able to play individual notes,

while you keep that hand moving all the time.

You can feel free
to make up your own patterns here,

as long as this is going to be on beat one,

you can do what you like,

you could go:

and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and,

1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and,

1 and, 2 and, 3

So if you do it now: 5,

2,

4,

3

. . .

By far, the best way for you
to get this technique into your playing,

is to apply it to some songs
that you already know.

It's a really great idea to try and
make up some of your own patterns,

and just really make sure

that you stick up to this
down and up picking- slash- strumming motion,

that's really the key.

Now, some people have trouble

judging the distances between the strings,

so I'm just goning to show you a little exercise

that you may like to do a few times,

if you're struggling with finding
the distances between the strings,

with your picking hand.

So the exercise that I'd recommend,

is leaving your left hand

to cover all of the strings,
so they're all muted and dead.

Then you're gonna pick up on the thinnest string,

down on the 2nd string,

up on the thinnest string again,
and down on the 3rd.

Up on the thinnest string,
down on the 4th,

up on the thinnest string,
down on the 5th,

up on the thinnest,
down on the 6th.

And then back up again: 5th,

4

3,

2,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

Now, very often I find that

if I use my little finger as an anchor point there,

it makes the kind of accuracy a little bit better, so...

you may wanna try that one.

Some people don't like using an anchor,

I think it sounds pretty cool,
works for me.

Now... once you've done that a few times

you may like to try
starting from the other end,

so, you'd go and hit down on the 6th,

up on the 5,

down on 6,

up on 4,

down on 6,

up on 3,

2,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6.

5,

4,

3,

2,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

6.

Normally again, I would play this
with little finger as an anchor.

. . .

I'm sure you'll find
doing that string skipping exercise will help you out,

if you're really struggling
doing your picked fingerstyle.

That said, there's no substitute for really slow practice,

so probably the best thing that you can do,

is to do your picked fingerstyle patterns
that you make up yourself,

or the ones that I've shown you,

and if you're struggling
just do them really, really slowly.

Don't be afraid of watching your pick hand like an owl

just stare, you know?

if you can't do it.

And it's really a speed thing,
if you do it really slowly,

you should be able to do it.

Remember to use your little finger, pinky,
as an anchor, if you want to.

You know, I like to do that,
some people really hate it,

so, I'm going to leave that down to your call,

I think it's a good idea,
and it makes kind of logical sense to me,

that it's kind of works
and functions as a gauge,

and helps you judge the distance
between the different strings,

but like I said, some people
find that a really bad idea

so I'm going to leave that up to you

to find out which one feels good for you.

Again, most importantly,
can't stress it enough,

make sure you apply this idea

to some songs that you know and that you like,

and it'll make you a better guitar player,

it'll incorporate it into your playing,

so comes out sounding natural.

Hope you've enjoy learning that,

and I'll see you for another lesson very soon.

Take care, bye bye.