Fingerpicking Patterns Part 2
This lesson is a branch from Area 3 from the Playbook for Beginners and Beyond main lesson. Visit the main lesson to see my philosophy on the five different areas of learning to play.
Open the lesson
Fingerpicking Patterns Part 1 and you can begin to expand beyond those basic fingerpicking patterns to these complimentary moves.
The first set of tab below is a review of the basic fingerpicking pattern found in the earlier lesson. It's a C chord and only concentrates on playing the inner 4 strings (using the thumb for playing the A and D strings, the index for the G string and the middle for the B string). Practice this pattern first before tackling the second pattern.
The second set of tab describes a common fingerpicking pattern move accomplished in many folk songs (Dust in the Wind, The Boxer, Annie's Song, etc.) This move, really a move from the home chord (I) to the relative minor chord (vi) using the five chord (V) in passing, is used in many, many songs. And it doesn't matter what key. This is the example in the key of C.
Back to the mechanics of this pattern. The only difference between the first tab and the second, besides the actual chord changes, is that the scope of fingerpicking by the thumb has increased one string: it now also takes care of the low E string. The scope of the middle finger has now also increased to include plucking the high E string when called for.
Here are the basic chords used in this pattern.
Spend time with Parts 1 and 2, and then move forward for an interesting chord twist in Part 3 (coming soon). You'll still be using the basic fingerpicking pattern, but the chords will be different.
As usual, I know you're going to have a fun time with these. I sure do! These patterns and similar have become the bread-and-butter of my own acoustic style.
Author's Note: The second set of TAB was changed due to an error. If you visited this page during the last week of October '07 and haven't been back since, refresh the page to see the new TAB.
Steve
