[bamagirl]

I've been playing for about a month now. I played the piano for a few years, so have been able to learn the notes easily. I am now wanting to learn finger picking, and am having a hard time finding any illustrations that have the notes on them. I'm going to browse the forum... right now the beginner lessons I have tried sound like... well... a train wreck. And I'm picking up any hymnal, whatever, and sight reading it great. Is it necessary to learn to read TAB for finger picking?

Thanks in advance for any light that you can shed on this!

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by bamagirl

I've been playing for about a month now. I played the piano for a few years, so have been able to learn the notes easily. I am now wanting to learn finger picking, and am having a hard time finding any illustrations that have the notes on them. I'm going to browse the forum... right now the beginner lessons I have tried sound like... well... a train wreck. And I'm picking up any hymnal, whatever, and sight reading it great. Is it necessary to learn to read TAB for finger picking?

Thanks in advance for any light that you can shed on this!

Howdy. I believe that at the bottom of each of Kirks lessons is an expandable thumbnail of the tunes in standard. I tend to use the tabs for finger placement and the standard for timing. My standard reading isn't good enough to comment on learning finger style by reading standard alone, but since people playing stringed instruments in orchestras have been relying on standard sheet music for centuries, I can't see why not. Let us know what you discover.

[snowmoon]

Originally Posted by bamagirl

right now the beginner lessons I have tried sound like... well... a train wreck. And I'm picking up any hymnal, whatever, and sight reading it great. Is it necessary to learn to read TAB for finger picking?

I've been called worse Like all things in life practice makes perfect. Hopefuly by now you at least have your calouses so it doesn't hurt so bad anymore.

No, if you are just doing chord picking you can probably get away without TAB but it is the format of choice for guitar musicians for the tricky stuff.

Cheers

[coldethyl]

Hi there bamagirl

Welcome! Don't worry too much about where your'e at now with the guitar. In time you will progress, as you no doubt found when you first started out on the piano. But since you DO know how to play piano, half your battle is already won.

Keep it up!

[737blues]

Hello Bamagirl welcome. Reading music of any sort is not a requirement for guitar but since it's a skill you already have, why not use it? TAB is very easy to read and is all about guitars as opposed to pianoforte. You don't really have to learn it as it's pretty much self explanatory, but it does have it's limitations if you don't know the piece.

[si16]

Welcome along Bamagirl.

[6string]

Welcome to the site Bamagirl

[Misty2u]

Hi there bamagirl
Welcome to the forum

[Matty22]

G'day Bamagirl welcome aboard

[bamagirl]

Thank you all for the welcome! And also for the encouragement 737blues! TAB does seem like Greek to me though. Maybe after awhile it will be second nature. I have seen the thumbnails at the bottom of the lessons but didn't open them; I just thought they were pdf's of the TAB form. That is GREAT to know.

[bamagirl]

Thanks a million times over!!! I did find the image, and it is so much easier to play!! I find myself a bit distracted by the top TAB but at the same time am actually referencing it on some of the low E string notes that I'm not as comfortable with. It occured to me that with it being there I'm actually getting more comfortable with it over the times I play the piece. So it started as a distraction but I think it's sinking in, being there above what I'm comfortable reading.

I'm loving finger picking so much more than I have been enjoying playing with a pick. Although I also enjoy the satisfaction of sitting down with the pick and playing the main melody in most things pretty much by sight. So while I'm learning and it's slow as can be on the finger picking, I still am using a pick sometimes just to hear actual music come out of the instrument!

One thing my teacher taught me from the beginning (and it was such great advice) was to practice playing while not looking at the guitar. Because later (like now, I'm loving that I can do this) when I want to play something I've not played before, it would be hard if I had to keep looking at my hands and the placement near the frets. So I have spent hours and hours, just going up and down the scale, closing my eyes and visualizing the notes as they are on the piano keyboard. Then she (the teacher) was amazed when after two lessons I told her to ask me to play any note, name a note. And I did it while looking right at her!! That was such great advice.

So now I'm just spending time with my right hand, training my fingers on the placement on the different strings. Over and over, just trying to do it while not looking at the instrument. Right now I have to look at it once to get my left hand at the right place to fret, then I'm good. If I can train that right hand with the thumb on the top three, and the fingering as has been instructed here on the bottom three then I think I will have a much easier time trying to just pick up the instrument and sight read the way I've been able to do with the pick. It's more challenging because of being able to play several notes at once. But I'm going super slow, and if it sounds wrong I'm stopping and doing that one note or chord over and over and over, amen, until I have it. It's hard to finger more than one note on the frets. Somehow I often press another string with it, and it takes a bit of time to get the fingering right there. Then I'm good to go, and I just do that chord a million times. Then I take my hands off the guitar, put them back into place without looking and see if I can do the chord. If I can't then I keep at it until I can. Hands away from the guitar, then back on and BAM I want to hit the chord. I am probably being harder on myself than is necessary but it made a world of difference with the pick and I know it will with this too. Because if I ever want to just pick up a piece and play it, I don't want to have to practice it all day to get it right.

I definately have found a home in this forum, and can see that I've FINALLY found a place on the internet where I can make sense out of finger picking. Thanks so much for putting this together and all the work you have done to create these lessons.

[allthumbs]

With the kind of dedication to playing your showing, success is a given. Glad you have found a home here.

[Hilch]

welcomes