Hey guys welcome back! Today I want to show you five simple Spanish phrases that you can play over a guitar backing track! This is the Ep.9 of my Fingerstyle Solo program that focuses on playing melodies and solos over backing tracks.
Practicing and playing over a backing track is a very important and useful exercise that will help you improve your timing, musicality, technique, plucking and rhythm.
In this lesson I really tried to play the five melodies in the easiest way possible so that everyone can give it a try, beginners included.
There are two backing-track available with and without click (metronome). If this is the first time you are playing over a backing track, start by using the one with the click.
About this lesson
Key: E minor
Chord Progression: C | Am | Em
Scale Used: E minor scale in different positions
Three Tips: Always start with the backing track recorded with the click. Connect the phrases slowly. Listen to the phrases even when you are not practicing, it will help you memorize them better.
Hey guys, welcome to another fingerpicking lesson. Today I want to show you a very simple step to create beautiful basic chords on acoustic guitar.
If you are bored of playing always the same basic chords this lesson will definitely show you how to simple spice up basic chords such as C major, D major, G major, E minor, A minor etc
This simple trick can be used on any basic chords and in any key but in this lesson we will only be looking at two keys: C major and G major.
All the info you need in the video lesson!
You can access the tab as well as video with tab on screen on my Patreon page.
Hey guys, I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I want to start this week with an awesome fingerpicking lesson in which I am going to show you how to write beautiful guitar parts in five steps.
First things first, thank you so much to one of my Patron Martin for suggesting this beautiful chord progression (which I am definitely going to use for different videos). I think the intro in this song is truly captivating. Thank you for sharing Martin!
Now, there are five steps that I usually follow when I try to write beautiful guitar parts. These five steps represent the basic structure for my guitar lessons and songwriting and I make sure I follow it all the time.
Obviously, you can use these five steps as a starting point before coming up with your own structure. Depending on your technique and musical background five steps could be too many or too little so don’t be scared to organize things in a different way.
The first step to write beautiful guitar parts is to establish the chord progression. Chords are the most important aspect of a composition so I always start with that.
In this fingerpicking lesson the chord progression is really simple: C | Am | Em. The C and A minor chord last for two counts only while the E minor is four counts.
Once I decide which chord progression I am working on I quickly check if I can benefit from open strings, basic chords and simple melodies around the chords. Notice that even though the chord progression starts with the C major chord, we are actually playing in E minor key so the chords and scale refer to the E minor key.
After practicing the basic chords for few minutes I then try to find a picking pattern that works with the chords. For this lesson we will be focusing on a pretty simple fingerpicking pattern based on three strings only.
The step 1 should always be as simple as possible. If you start with a complex part you will have no space left to develop the chords and melody as you progress through the different steps.
Step 2 – The Three Notes Rule
Once you have established your chord progression, picking pattern and rhythmic pattern you can then more on to the step two which is called “The Three Notes Rule”.
The goal here is to spice up the chords with only two or three additional notes and maybe a very simple melody. In this beautiful guitar part we will be adding a bass line as well as a simple melody on the E minor chord.
Notice that in order to fit the bass line the fingerpicking pattern has to be changed. Being able to make quick adjustments as you more on to the next steps is crucial because we can’t really add new parts without modifying what we already have.
Step 3 – Melodic Approach
The Step 3 is one of my favorite. So far we’ve established the chord progression and added a picking pattern to it. Then we spiced up the chords with a simple bass line and melody. Now we can finally start developing melodically.
A melody is progression of notes played individually. A melody can only sound beautiful if there is a valid accompaniment supporting each note, therefore we can’t can’t really play a melody without chords.
The awesome thing about fingerpicking guitar is that we can combine chords and melody together.
In this particular lesson we are going to simplify the chords so that we only play the root note (bass note). Once you learn where the root note of each chord is played you can then add a melody around the chords.
One of benefit of playing in E minor is that the majority of the chords have the root note on the open strings. The root note for the A minor chord can be played on the 5th open string. The E minor chord has the root note on the 6th open.
Because this is the first time we are using the melodic approach I like to keep the melody relatively simple.
Step 4 – Diversify Chords
We shouldn’t really play the same chords over an over again. One of the practice I love the most involves experimenting with different chord shape.
In this lesson I am going to play the chord progression in a different position of the neck so that I can benefit form open strings and over-ringing.
If you are a beginner, you should experiment with one chord at a time before trying more difficult once.
Diversify chords is one of the best practice to write beautiful guitar parts.
Step 5 – Clear Ending
The one thing that your audience remember will always be the beginning and ending of your performance.
One of the thing I do a lot is to change at least one chord from the chord progression so that the listener feels that something different is about to happen. In this example I am changing the A minor chord with a Dadd9 chord. This chord sounds really conclusive and does the job beautifully.
This is indeed the most conclusive chord progression I know 🙂 C | Dadd9 | Em
Hey guys, welcome to another lesson from the Technique lab program Module 7 where we are going to combine arpeggios and scales.
In this lesson we are going to spice up the arpeggios learned in Module 6 so make sure you learn the module six before trying this lesson. The goal is to combine the arpeggios learned in module six with a simple scale in C major.
About this Lesson
Key: C major
Technique: Learn how to combine arpeggios with scales.
Chord Progression: C | Am | G | F
How to Practice: Make sure you nail the module 6 then start this module and practice one arpeggio and scale at a time. Another important aspect of this lesson is the alternate fingering approach so make sure you keep alternating while playing the scales and arpeggios.
Hey guys, welcome to another fingerpicking guitar lesson. Today I want to show you this four strings fingerpicking pattern played with three fingers only. In fact, we are going to pluck the strings with the thumb, index and middle finger only leaving out the ring.
The answer is simple “We are going to play two strings with the thumb”.
This is a trick that I use a lot especially when I want to add more rhythm to what I play. Bouncing with the thumb on two strings really change the rhythmic feel of what you are playing. We could play the same picking pattern with the ring finger but trust me, it wouldn’t sound the same (at least rhythmically).
Enjoy the lesson then and let me know if you like it 🙂
Tab and video lesson with tab on screen on my Patreon page.
In this lesson we are going to completely ignore the ring finger.
Now, I come from classical guitar so I am used to use the ring finger all the time and when I first tried this new approach with the thumb it wasn’t feeling natural at all. The thing is, once you are used to plucking the strings with the ring, your brain will automatically assign this finger to the strings when necessary.
Today though we are going to explore a different plucking pattern which will definitely open up new rhythmic possibilities.
The plucking pattern goes as follow: Thumb, thumb, middle, index, thumb and index(P P m i P i ).
Chord Progression
Another think you should learn before you start practicing this piece of music is the chord progression.
One of the main characteristic of this fingerpicking lesson is that each chord has different voicing. For example, the first G major chord starts as G major than changes into C/G and back to G major. This transitions are necessary if you want to give more dynamic to the chords.
The chord progression goes as follows:
Section 1: G – G/B – G – G – G/B – G D/F#
Em – Em6 – Em – Em – Em6 – Em D
C – Em – D
Phrases Between Chords
One of the most challenging aspect of this lesson is the phrases between chords. You will have to spend a little bit of time working on each phrase before you move on to the next one. Those phrases add a lot of musicality to each chord and they are really beautiful to play.
About Fingerpicking Technique
Fingerpicking guitar or fingerstyle guitar in a unique way of playing guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingernails as opposed to the strumming or solo guitar where you play the strings with a pick.
One of the most amazing thing about fingerpicking guitar is that we can combine chords, melodies, rhythm and other elements such has hammer on, pull of, slide and tapping in everything we play. Most of the time you will play a melody with the chords and bass combined simultaneously. There are also many examples of guitar players only playing chords or just playing a melody using the fingerstyle technique.
There are also other techniques such as tapping and percussive guitar but honestly I am not a huge fan of this type of playing.
There is a lot of material that you can watch to learn more about the fingerpicking technique on YouTube.
Hey guys, I hope you are having a fantastic day. Welcome to another fingerpicking guitar lesson where I am going to show you four chords on guitar that sound awesome. This is a lesson for intermediate guitar players who want to learn new chords as well as three awesome fingerpicking patterns!
You can get the tab and the video with tab on screen on my Patreon page.
Chords are one of the most important aspect in music. Simply put, a chord is a bunch on notes played together. We can decide to strum or apreggiate the chord depending on the genre or song we are going to play.
The most basic chord in music is called triad, a chord based on the root note, third and fifth degree of the scale.
Unlike the piano, the guitar has the same notes on different strings. For this reason, we can double notes in chords and play for example two root notes or two thirds or two fifths which will result in an increase of sound. Playing double notes will also change the chord tone (or timbre).
The basic chords are the most simple chords on guitar. They are played within the first three frets of the fretboard and and contain at least one open string. If you are a beginner, these are the chords you should start with.
Chords in this Lessons
In this fingerstyle lesson we are going to learn four different chords.
Em9, Cmaj79, Gadd9 and Dadd9.
The add9 chords are among the most beautiful sounding chords on guitar however they are definitely more difficult than the basic chords on guitar for many different reasons.
They are more stretchy.
Not easy to memorize.
It will take a while to get used to the sound.
They are played on different set of strings.
If this is the first time you play these type of chords on guitar you should start step by step and learn one chord at a time.
The fingerpicking pattern is another challenging element you’ll find in this lesson. Today I am going to show you three different fingerpicking patterns that you can apply on the chord progression.
The Fingerpicking Pattern
Although fingerstyle guitar can be quite complex, a lot of music can be played with repetitive fingerpicking patterns.
In this lesson I am going to show you three different fingerpicking patterns that you can apply on this chord progression.
Pattern 1: P i m i a m i P i m i a m
Pattern 2: P i m i a m i P i m i a m i P i
Pattern 3: P i m i a
The patterns can be applied on the same chord progression and it shows how you can make the chords sound more rhythmic depending on which pattern you are playing.
Welcome to the last episode for the Fingerpicking Guitar in 7 Days Program. In today’s lesson we are going to combine all the technique we learned during this mini program and play them over the most famous melody on guitar.
The song is called Asturias and it is indeed one of the most popular motive on classical and acoustic guitar.
REALLY IMPORTANT: We are not learning Asturias guys. We are using the song as a sample in which we will be applying all the techniques from the mini course. In a way I find this approach even more exciting than learning the song because we can really play the melody as we wanted!
About this lesson
Key: E minor
Sections: There are five different sections:
Section 1: We will start by playing the melody with the thumb (From DAY 6 Three Thumb Rules).
Section 2: Let’s add the alternate fingering technique (From DAY 1 Alternate Fingering).
Hey guys, I hope you are having a fantastic weekend. I just posted the DAY 6 for the Fingerpicking Guitar in 7 Days mini program.
In this lesson I want to talk to you about the plucking thumb and how to pluck the strings correctly following the three plucking thumb rules I always use.
Have fun!
About this lesson
Key: G major
Chord Progression: Section one G – Am – C – G, section two Em – C – G – D – G
Technique: Plucking with the thumb using the three thumb rules.
Hey guys I hope you are having a fantastic Saturday. Welcome to the Day 5 of Fingerpicking guitar in 7 days mini program.
Today I want to combine together different elements that we learned throughout this program so far such as fingerpicking pattern and chord-melody approach.
We are going to use a beautiful Spanish chord progression in A minor to build this fantastic exercise which is divided into three different sections.
About this lesson
Key: A minor
Chord Progression: Am – G – F – E.
Technique: Fingerpicking pattern, chord melody, alternate fingering and rhythmic pattern.
How to Practice: This exercise is divided into three different sections.
A simple intro played with triads.
A middle section where we are going to combine melody and chords.
A rhythmic section played using the rumba style rhythm.
Take things step by step guys and learn one section at a time.
