Basic Fingerstyle Exercise (Guitar Lesson BC-184) Guitar for beginners Stage 8
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0:06 - 0:09Hey, how're you doing? Justin here.
In this video today we're -
0:09 - 0:13going to be checking out some really basic
fingerstyle exercises -
0:13 - 0:15for you guys that have never played any fingerstyle before,
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0:15 - 0:18I wanna try and get your fingers moving
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0:18 - 0:19If you are wondering about this funny sheet down here
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0:19 - 0:22it is just to reflect a little bit of light back on my fingers
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0:22 - 0:25so when we do a close up you can see clearly
what I'm doing. -
0:25 - 0:26Before you think
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0:26 - 0:28“what is he doing dragging weird sheets into the screen?”
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0:28 - 0:30That is why it is there.
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0:30 - 0:32So let's have a look at that close up now.
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0:32 - 0:35What I want you to do is I want you to position your fingers
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0:35 - 0:39on the strings so you have got your 3rd finger picking
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0:39 - 0:44the thinnest string, your 2nd finger plucking the 2nd string,
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0:44 - 0:47your 1st finger plucking the 3rd string
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0:47 - 0:50and your thumb plucking the thickest string.
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0:50 - 0:54On your left hand you are holding down a G chord.
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0:54 - 0:59A regular old 1st generation G chord if you like.
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0:59 - 1:01So what we are going to do first is this little exercise.
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1:01 - 1:07We are going to pick now thumb . . . 1, 2, 3 . . . and again:
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1:07 - 1:11thumb . . . 1, 2, 3 . . .
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1:11 - 1:12you will probably have to look at it
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1:12 - 1:13a little bit at this stage.
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1:13 - 1:16Trying to “suss” (work) out where those notes are.
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1:16 - 1:20Just try and do it nice and evenly if you can.
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1:20 - 1:22Now it is really important that you realise
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1:22 - 1:24that you don't have to have long fingernails to do this.
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1:24 - 1:26There are lots of great guitar players that play with
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1:26 - 1:28no fingernails.
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1:28 - 1:30I think Neil Young doesn't play with fingernails.
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1:30 - 1:32Dominic Miller, the fantastic guitar player that plays
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1:32 - 1:36in Sting's band, chopped off all of his fingernails
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1:36 - 1:38and just plays with the flesh on his fingers and he is a
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1:38 - 1:40fantastic fingerstyle guitar player.
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1:40 - 1:43So don't feel like you have to have nails.
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1:43 - 1:47Now I do wear fake nails and I know it looks really gay
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1:47 - 1:49or whatever girly or whatever you think.
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1:49 - 1:51I don't really care because it makes a really good sound
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1:51 - 1:54on the guitar and if I didn't have plastic fingernails on
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1:54 - 1:56then my fingernails wouldn't last long
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1:56 - 1:59enough to actually do any playing at all.
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1:59 - 2:01So I am not recommending that you go and get fake nails
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2:01 - 2:04unless you are really into fingerstyle and you play a lot.
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2:04 - 2:04Right?
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2:04 - 2:06But if you want to grow a little bit of your natural
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2:06 - 2:08fingernail to pluck the string
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2:08 - 2:10it does tend to have a slightly nicer, brighter sound
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2:10 - 2:12to my ear than just playing
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2:12 - 2:14with the fleshy parts of your fingers.
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2:14 - 2:16But it doesn't really matter.
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2:16 - 2:17Just thought I would point that out before
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2:17 - 2:19we get all these haters on the videos going
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2:19 - 2:20“oh my God, you look like a vampire.
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2:20 - 2:22Your fingernails look really weird”.
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2:22 - 2:23Yeah I know they look really weird.
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2:23 - 2:25I can't help it. If I could change it so they
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2:25 - 2:26look more normal I would.
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2:26 - 2:29But anyway, back to our exercises.
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2:29 - 2:32So exercise 1 that we are doing is with our G chord going
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2:32 - 2:39thumb . . . 1, 2, 3 . . . thumb, 1, 2, 3 . . .
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2:39 - 2:43Over and over again . . . nice and simple . . .
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2:43 - 2:45When you get bored of doing that
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2:45 - 2:50I want you to change it and now go thumb . . . 3, 2, 1
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2:50 - 2:59. . . thumb, 3, 2, 1 . . . And do that for a little bit . . .
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2:59 - 3:02When you get bored of that
the next one that I want you to do -
3:02 - 3:06is thumb . . . 1, 2, 3, 2, 1
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3:06 - 3:12. . . thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 . . .
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3:12 - 3:15Just keep going through that trying to get your picking nice
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3:15 - 3:17and even . . . Trying to keep it in time . . . and
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3:17 - 3:22trying to be accurate about the strings that you pick . . .
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3:22 - 3:24Now hopefully you will remember from
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3:24 - 3:26when we were doing the rhythm guitar
where we hit the bass -
3:26 - 3:29note of the chord and then we did a couple of strums
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3:29 - 3:31that most of the chords have their
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3:31 - 3:33bass note on a different string.
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3:33 - 3:37So for both E and G the bass note is on the 6th string.
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3:37 - 3:39So we were just playing a G chord but the finger picking
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3:39 - 3:42would have been exactly the same for an E or an Emin.
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3:42 - 3:46But if we went to say a C chord our thumb would move over
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3:46 - 3:47onto the 5th string.
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3:47 - 3:50So let's just have a close look at that now.
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3:50 - 3:51The thumb is on the 5th string here.
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3:51 - 3:53We are playing a C chord with the left hand
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3:53 - 3:57and we are doing . . . thumb, 1, 2, 3 . . .
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3:57 - 4:00We go through the same exercises again . . .
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4:00 - 4:03And then reversing the top ones.
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4:03 - 4:06So 3, 2, 1 . . . thumb, 3, 2, 1 . . .
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4:06 - 4:09After you have done that for a little while we go up and back
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4:09 - 4:16. . . thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, thumb . . .
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4:16 - 4:18And then even over onto a D chord.
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4:18 - 4:20So if we play D the thumb moves all the way
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4:20 - 4:27onto the 4th string. So . . . thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 . . .
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4:27 - 4:31And then maybe back to G . . .
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4:31 - 4:36Thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 . . . D . . .
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4:36 - 4:41You can see that the string change from the thumb is just
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4:41 - 4:43following the names of the chords.
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4:43 - 4:57If we went to C . . . D . . . G . . . D . . . and back.
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4:57 - 4:59It is a really, really good technique
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4:59 - 5:00and can be really simple.
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5:00 - 5:01You can see already we have started to make music
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5:01 - 5:03out of it just using this . . .
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5:03 - 5:07Thumb, 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 . . . pattern and doing that pattern
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5:07 - 5:10once on whatever chord we felt like. If you keep it consistent
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5:10 - 5:12suddenly it sounds like a song.
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5:12 - 5:13Fingerstyle is a very cool thing.
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5:13 - 5:16When you first start it most people find it a little bit
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5:16 - 5:18awkward and they are picking the wrong strings
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5:18 - 5:22or they miss it or they start picking the wrong group of
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5:22 - 5:25strings that kind of thing. It's dead normal.
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5:25 - 5:28As usual pretty much everything on the guitar it just takes some
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5:28 - 5:30practice. So have a good go at doing that and we are going to
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5:30 - 5:34do a few more fancier exercises with the old fingerstyle next
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5:34 - 5:37time but just as a really good exercise start working that in.
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5:37 - 5:40Getting used to the bass moving around
onto different strings. -
5:40 - 5:42That would be a really really cool start for you.
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5:42 - 5:44So, have fun with that and I will see you
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5:44 - 5:46for another lesson shortly. Bye, bye.
- Title:
- Basic Fingerstyle Exercise (Guitar Lesson BC-184) Guitar for beginners Stage 8
- Description:
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Justin's Completely Free, Beginners Guitar Course Lesson BC-184.
This is Stage 8, Lesson 4.This video introduces you to a very easy exercise to start learning to play fingerstyle guitar.
Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BC-184-FingerstyleExercise.phpThe Justinguitar Beginners Guitar Course, a series of over 100 lessons on guitar for beginners. Text support is on the web site and also in a proper old skool paper book which can be ordered from the web site of your local music store :)
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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- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- JustinGuitar (legacy)
- Project:
- Beginners Course (BC)
- Duration:
- 05:49