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A close look at finger picking.
Here is one pass through the chord progression that Dylan used for his classic 'Don't think Twice', and I've used a picking pattern similar to the one he played. It's a thumb + two finger pattern, where the thumb keeps thumping out a bass line on the the three bass strings while the index and middle fingers keep plucking away at the same two treble strings in exactly the same pattern. It's a well-worn folk finger picking pattern that you can apply to many many tunes.
I played it in the key of E, but did so by playing it in C with a capo on the fourth fret. I did that just in case you do want to sing the tune in the original key. Just a quick reminder of why capos are so useful: It's probable that Bob wrote this in the key of C, because C is a great key for this kind of picking. But, his vocal range was better suited to the key of E, so he simply clamped a capo on the fourth fret (four semitones above C is E) and played the same picking-friendly chord shapes as he did in the key of C. Capos are very useful tools for guitarists, don't let anyone tell you it's 'cheating'.
The chord progression uses just one 'outside' chord, a 'majorized' II. Other than that, they're all related chords. Here si the progression in Roman numerals, for those who are interested in that kind of thing:
| I - - - | V - - - | vi - - - | - - - - | IV - - - | - - - - | I - - - | V - - - |
| I - - - | V - - - | vi - - - | - - - - | II - - - | II - - - | V - - - | - - - - |
| I - - - | - - - - | I7 - - - | - - - - | IV - - - | - - - - | II - - - | - - - - |
| I - - - | V - - - | vi - - - | IV - - - | I - - - | V - - - | I - - - | - - - - |
Here is the progression in the key of E in case a piano player wants to play along. The chords for the key of C are in the tab.
| E - - - | B - - - | C#m - - - | - - - - | A - - - | - - - - | E - - - | B - - - |
| E - - - | B - - - | C#m - - - | - - - - | F#7 - - - | F#7 - - - | B - - - | B7 - - - |
| E - - - | - - - - | E7 - - - | - - - - | A - - - | - - - - | F#7 - - - | - - - - |
| E - - - | B - - - | C#7 - - - | A - - - | E - - - | B - - - | E - - - | - - - - |
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The movies in the paid downloadable versions come in Windows Media Video format with all the Start-Stop-Pause-RW-FF buttons. Click on the movie to find out what you'll get when you buy this lesson. |
The second movie shows a few bars of the picking at half speed to make it easier to see what's going on. The picking pattern: it's all eight notes, the thumb alternating with the other two fingers from start to finish. I've color coded the first line of the tab to make it easier to see the interplay. The two fingers never alter their pattern, but the thumb is not consistent. It adapts to the different chords, usually picking the root first, but not always. I arranged the bass line to be a specific melody of its own. There are no hard fast rules though. While it all looks quite complicated in the tab/notation, the reality is that it all revolves around the chord shapes indicated above the tab, so concentrate on holding those shapes down and the rest should follow. There are a couple of little details to look out for: that G note under the Am chord ... that's the note that turns it into a 7th; there's a little run up to the 7th during the G chord at bars
15 and
16 that involves a hammer on.
I use my thumb to grab that F bass note during the F chords. It's considered a no-no by most classical teachers, and I know for a fact that overusing the technique can lead to painful knuckles, but in this kind of folk picking it's quite common. You can of course simply play that F chord as a barre chord.
As always, hitting the right notes at the right time is the first challenge. Once you've got that down, the next challenge is to get it all flowing in a musical way, to inject the 'feel', the 'expression'. I could have worked on that aspect a little more myself. I had a listen to Bob's original, and while there are quite a few flubbed notes and timing discrepancies, it's absolutely oozing with musicality. Perfection does not equate to great feel!
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