Finger Picking


jrsnbk
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jrsnbk
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09/17/2020 6:05 pm

Hi everyone, I've Been using Guitar Tricks for about nine months now, completed the basic levels 1 and 2 and have now branched off into some of the advanced lessons. My question has to do with finger picking. The lessons from Anders and Lisa are both very good. But they differ from one another in that Anders tends to teach more of the PIMA..thumb and three finger technique. While Lisa teaches a double thumb PIM teachnique. Is this more a matter of personal preference? Or; down the road will it have been more helpful to focus on one of these techniques over the other?

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts.

Enjoy!

Jim


# 1
mjgodin
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mjgodin
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09/18/2020 11:33 am

I'm no expert, but have taken both courses and I think it's just a matter of personal style and preference. You'll see similarities as you move forward in both techniques. There are many styles and variations of fingerpicking, but the one thing they all have in common is getting you to use your thumb as base note first. Then Index and Middle and in some cases the Ring finger get assigned to various high strings.

I completed Lisa's program and enjoyed it a little more because she incorporates nice little songs into the lessons that I enjoy playing. She starts you off using a basic four step pattern. Then slowly adds other variations and elements to it. Anders uses a duel inside /outside plucking technique for the base notes, but the rest is similiar to Lisa's so they both get you where you wanna be it's just a different path getting there. Of course there are a many more patterns out there, but once you learn the basic concepts, which both instructors will give you, then it's pretty easy to learn other patterns.

For instance I've just been learning "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac. It's not on the songlist so I had to go to one of the many Youtube sites to learn the pattern and I did. It's a thumb first and then every other string pattern. It took me a while to get, but now it's second nature just like all the others, but without Lisa's / Anders basic fundamentals I would have had a tougher time with it. Later on you'll learn to add "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs" to the techniques and that's where fingerpicking becomes a blast.

Have fun,

Moe


# 2
faith83
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faith83
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09/18/2020 1:11 pm

Thank you, Moe. I just started Anders' acoustic course and was wondering about the difference between Lisa's fingerpicking and Anders'.

Do you have any sense for whether one or the other is better for certain styles of music?


"I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk."

# 3
jrsnbk
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jrsnbk
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09/18/2020 1:40 pm

Thanks Moe...and excellent follow up question Faith. Enjoy the journey. :-)

Jim


# 4
mjgodin
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mjgodin
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09/18/2020 4:21 pm

"Do you have any sense for whether one or the other is better for certain styles of music?"

Ohh thats a tough one to answer. From my experience Lisa's seems more geared to Folk, Celtic or Classic Irish jig style, with traces of some old country mixed in.

Anders teaches a bit more modern style with various intros and outros. Think Chet Atkins or Doyle Dykes. His advanced lessons involve some muting and percussive slaps. You see a lot of that in music now.

Both build on Travis Picking, which is like the holy grail I guess of fingerpicking, but again there are variations involved there as well.

However like I said the foundations are both strong and similar and could be applied to any genre I would think. Also, I believe in each genre track there are styles suited more for that type like Blues, and Country each has some finger picking lessons in them.

The world of fingerpicking is immense thats for sure.

Hope that helps.

Moe


# 5
faith83
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faith83
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09/18/2020 4:49 pm

It does help. Sounds like either would work for me. I'm mostly interested in country folk/alt/Americana (Emmylou Harris, John Denver, Townes Van Zandt), and also actual country (as opposed to what passes for country on the charts right now).

I think JD was a Travis picker, I don't know about the others.

I just started Anders' because I felt like it would be good to have another instructor for awhile, just to learn in a different way. I'll see where that leads. I expect I'll do both eventually, assuming GT doesn't take down Lisa's fingerpicking course like they did her strumming course. (you listening, GT?)


"I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk."

# 6
mjgodin
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mjgodin
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09/18/2020 6:09 pm

I don't think they'll take it down since it seems there is still a lot of demand for it.

It is good to learn from different instructors. I'm still in Acoustic 1 so I don't even know whats coming up later in his fingerpicking lessons. They seem to be broken apart. You have a few lessons in strumming and then fingerpicking and then back to stumming, whereas Lisa's program is contained in itself. You just keep going up to next lesson to learn more techniques. I think they should add fingerpicking as a separate style on the main menu instead of incorporating it into the entire Acoustic Track.

Both instructors are great and you'll learn a lot from them. Have fun.

Moe


# 7
gregmchir
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gregmchir
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09/27/2020 12:08 am

Hi check out this video of Mark Knopfler I choose it because you can really see his hands . He only uses Thumb index and middle fingers https://youtu.be/leZ4T8kt-1o


# 8
Herman10
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Herman10
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09/27/2020 1:05 am

Fanny how I learned finger picking in my young days, style Ralph McTell, streets of London and JD style and also for those still remembering the Britisch band Smokie and some Simon and Garfunkel and that style was then called clawhammer style finger picking and now a days they call it Travis picking which in my young days was referred to as the boom chuck what Anders is talking about, gets confusing when people change names for the same things all the time, but I always liked it because it can easily stand on its own in songs without a band,

just my 5 cents.


# 9
Sasha-B
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Sasha-B
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09/29/2020 9:56 pm

Piedmont Blues Style from the legendary Etta Baker. Influenced many a rock/blues musician. Looks like Mark Knopfler is playing in that style (as far as his finger placement goes). She is one of my idols.

https://youtu.be/psof7aNtzQ0


2021 Iris CH

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# 10
Herman10
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Herman10
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09/29/2020 11:37 pm

if that is the style you like then there are plenty of tabs around, look for Doc Watson on the net.

Herman


# 11

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