Steady Improvement in Finger Picking

[Bill_Brown]

That’s a “Really Truly” nice small win @MikeGaurnier 👏👏 I too have been trying to work on finger picking since joining TAC, 11 months ago. In fact, I’d never done any finger picking before TAC. It’s a style of playing that I admire, but have had difficulty with execution to the point that I tend to shy away from it. I still have difficulty with using the thumb for alternating base while trying to get the other fingers to hit the right strings in the correct order with proper timing – I do much better with a flat pick. However, with last week’s (new) challenges and this week’s challenges all focusing on finger style playing, I found today’s lesson came together nicely for me – once I got the picking pattern down. Then I thought that just playing 2 chords for the entire piece was a little boring, so I started looking at other chords in the Em/G major scale to see if I could add to this, using that picking pattern – not just marking the challenge complete like I’d done in the past with other finger style lessons. So, yes, I’m seeing real progress in my journey with TAC, with thanks to this community and TAC members like you Mike, who help inspire others to get over their hurdles while outside of their comfort zone, and overcome.

[N-lightMike]

Thank you @Bill_Brown for reading my post and commenting. I appreciate that you are a very regular contributor to the forum. Thanks for that also.

So, I just wanted to say 2 things as I read your comment.

1st) I learned that we need to break things down to a really simple level at the beginning. Tony has a finger style warm up where you just hit the base strings with your thumb and you don’t use your fingers at all. In fact, the one I’m thinking of you hit all 3 base strings in different order so you really get used to being able to hit the correct string with your thumb. I believe you can find it in the Fingerpicking Jumpstart course found in the Skills Courses. After that, you can start adding your fingers in very simple patterns. First, do pinches. You can pinch with one of your fingers or all 3 along with the thumb. But do thumb, pinch, thumb pinch; then try thumb, pinch, pinch, thumb. There are actually 4 variations of just alternating the pinch; 1.x,3,x; x,2,x,4; x,2,3,x;1,x,x,4. (The “x” can represent the pinch or the thumb, you’ll still arrive at the same 4 patterns.) Then, there is the staggered finger pluck (Tony calls it the staggered pinch since there doesn’t seem to be an “official” name.) There is another warm up that does that using 2 base strings. Thumb, index, thumb, middle, where the thumb is hitting 2 different strings. Of course, that’s not true alternating thumb as you only have half a measure if those are 1/8th notes. True alternating thumb, the thumb strikes a base string for every 1/4 beat and the thumb hits all 3 base strings. The order depends on which string the root note of the chord is on. 5,4,6,4 or 6,4,5,4 are the 2 most common ones. But that is usually not carved in stone, but just a place to start to train your thumb to be automatic.

2) Don’t confuse the “mark complete” button with your desire to continue working on a particular lesson. That’s where our “intentional” practice comes in. It really works to actually write down what you want to work on every day. Now a days, I just hit “mark complete” at the beginning of my practice session because I have forgotten to mark it complete so many times after I practice. If I sign in and open the page, it’s because I’m about to spend a few minutes, or more, on the lesson. So, why not just hit complete. Now, I can get down to work on the lesson. But, I should already have warmed up using that weeks warm up or the one I am currently focusing on to increase some particular skill. Before or after the current lesson, I can go to any previous lesson that I want to do again and again to really get it into my muscle memory.

I hope this helps.

MG 😀

[Cherie]

Hi, Mike,

What a wonderful “Win!”

Thank you for sharing.

Happy finger picking,

Cherie

[N-lightMike]

Thank you so much @Cherie , I do appreciate your encouragement.

MG 😀

[Cherie]

You’re welcome, Mike!

You are always an encouragement, and thank you again!

😀

Happy picking!

Cherie

[stevieblues]

Great win MikeGaurnier! 🏆 finger picking is a challenge for me. I usually stop and grab a pick. I guess I need to develop my muscle memory. I hope you make progress in your finger picking. Keep on playing!

[N-lightMike]

Thanks so much @stevieblues . There’s nothing wrong in giving up and going for a pick. When I try to use a pick, I give up and go for my finger picking, or finger strumming. There’s no right or wrong. There’s only what we want to do and how we want to do it. We make different choices and that’s why there’s so much cool and varied music. Guess what? I love flat picking. A lot of different styles. So I’m glad that some people are into it. But when I try flat picking, that’s just not what I want to do.

Anyway, thanks for your encouragement.

MG 😀

[Guitargeezer-Jack]

Nice progress win Mike!

[N-lightMike]

Thanks Jack. When you read someone’s quandary about TAC being worth it because they can’t see the benefits they have received, you realize why it’s so important to actively look for these little successes and then post them under Small Wins. It also chnages our overall outlook for the better. I want to associate good feelings with playing guitar, not frustration.

(More song fodder. 😅)

MG 😀

[Cadgirl]

Good focus, I like to finger pick. Strumming stumps me at times. Seems with finger picking you hit the melody note in the playing so you don’t get lost in the song. Maybe it’s just me? But, I get lost sometimes with the strumming up, up, down, up, up. ha ha ha. Now…. I am practicing with Wagon Wheel strum. So maybe it will all make sense one day. In the mean time, welcome to finger picking! You’ll be adding your own solos in no time. 🙂

[N-lightMike]

Thank you so much, @Cadgirl . I do know what you mean about hitting the melody notes as you finger pick. Those notes are there in the strum, but they just don’t stand out and it can be most difficult to hear them.

I also know what you mean about the up, up, down, up, up strumming. I have been practicing learning new strum patterns. I still strum with my fingers and not a flat pick, but it does seem to help my over all sense of timing to work on my strumming.

Anyway, thank you so much for you encouragement. I appreciate your participation in the forums.

MG 😀

[Cadgirl]

Oh, you’ll get the strumming. Since doing the daily challenges i’m much better at strumming (better , not good). I didn’t get it at before TAC.

[N-lightMike]

I totally agree, @Cadgirl . The TAC dailies have made me better at strumming also. I feel all us TAC members have been blessed in our guitar journey because we found this site and joined.

MG 😀

[Cadgirl]

I have skipped a lot of days and I just started getting back into it. I am redoing the fretboard wizard. That is something that is so worth the money.

[N-lightMike]

👍 I love Fretboard Wizard.

MG 😀

[bugmeist]

So happy to hear that I’m not the only learning (and struggling) with fingerpicking. I must admit that I’ve largely ignored making 90 day goals especially with fingerpicking and bar chords. I did set those as a goal to improve in 2021 as I was pretty darn sure 90 days wouldn’t do it. I was right but I am improving on both techniques and really haven’t felt any ‘pressure’ to achieve the goal in 90 days. Way to go @MikeGaurnier and @Bill_Brown.

[N-lightMike]

Yeah, it turns out finger picking is a really long term thing. It seems to take so long, yet at the same time the improvement is steady… in really tiny increments. 😂

Thanks for the encouragement @bugmeist . You should come to the VOMs more often Robert. I haven’t seen you in a while. I hope you have joined justmusicgeeks.com. That’s where we are posting the information for the VOMs now. The themes and the links. And the forum there is much like the old TAC forum. There’s a lot of information sharing among all the guitar geeks there. Anyway, I hope to see you.

MG 😀

[bugmeist]

I’ve missed the VOMs but Summer (the long days) has me outside most of the time. Now that days are dark early you’ll probably see me more. I actually didn’t know about “justmusicgeeks”. I’m out in BC visiting my son but I’ll check that out when I get home. Thanks.

[N-lightMike]

👍