Fingerstyle exercises

[Solodini]

Hey, guys.

I'm working on my 2nd book, on creative use, application and combination of guitar techniques. I'm at the stage of writing exercises but I'm having a spot of difficulty, in terms of knowing what levels people are at and how difficult to go with the exercises, especially with fingerstyle exercises. With this in mind, can people let me know what they consider to be really difficult fingerstyle pieces for them, from any style, and what is a comfortable level for them to push themselves with?

When I have a better idea of people's needs, I'll post a few exercises and see how you guys find them.

Thanks in advance!

Adam

 

[metaldoggie]

Id love to see a tutorial on bumblefoot's Real....its more hybrid than fingerstyle but its a cool lick.

 

[Solodini]

Does that sit in the realm of something which would really be pushing you or you'd be comfortable but challenged by?

 

[Solodini]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vt63thqdkpkbg5a/Finger picking exercise.pdf
Here's the exercises I've been writing so far. The last few I've not bother to put in picking instructions yet. I will do soon. Let me know if they're undecipherable without.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Thanks Adam!
That's really cool.
I'm not a monster with fingerpicking and it's an area I want to get better at and you already nailed something that I had big troubles to do.

Before trying your exercise I wanted to say that one of the worst thing to learn is plucking 2 strings together then going into a section with multiple notes on a string.

After trying your exercise I say that is nothing compared to play 2 notes on the same string plucking them with the same right hand finger.

I think you have to make some steps to bring people that is used to play with I-M-I-M... or I-M-A-I-M-A... or I-M-A-M-I...to play 2 notes with same finger.

Also...is C the pinky?
I still don't understand if pinky is allowed or not in playing fingerstyle
Just like I didn't understood how much is strict P for 4th-5th-6th strings and I for 3rd, M for 2nd and A for 1st strings.

I think you have to go through some theory and maybe history of playing to explain which right fingering is "canon" and which one is not and explain pros and cons of both.

Keep up the awesome job and thanks!!!

 

[Solodini]

Cheers for the feedback! C is pinky, yeah. Some seem to think using the pinky is entirely wrong and will give your children cancer and rid the world to eternal damnation but if it helps the music be achievable, I say 'go for it'.

I'll maybe do some alternative picking methods for people to try out, based on your feedback. The goal is for people to develop a bunch of facility and be able to make their own choices, so that should help.

There's loads of text, explanations of different methods, pros and cons, advantages for certain uses and such written into the book itself, so it's good that's something you find useful. I'll carry on in the same vein.

Any more feedback is very welcome!

 

[Maniacal]

Very odd bunch of exercises in that PDF...

How often are you going to need a 15/8 finger picking pattern with such a bizarre rhythm?

Surely if you want to get good at finger style patterns you can just get a book that already covers it? There are dozens of great books that cover this already, although not in 15/8.

Also working through the Trinity grade repertoire is pretty much all you need to dominate finger style.

 

[octatoan]

Solodini, I can't check the exercises right now from my phone, but are you including any pieces?

There's a UG thread with recommendations.
As for me, I'd say that Bach's Minuet in G is easy. I'm going through a drop-D tab of Canon in D right now.

You could also include some Tárrega pieces. Làgrima and Étude in Em are both easy and beautiful.

As for difficult pieces... Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Asturias and Yngwie's Sorrow.

 

[Given To Fly]

This is pretty standard in the classical guitar community.
http://www.classicalguitar.org/freemusic/exercises/Giuliani120.pdf

 

[octatoan]

Mmm. ^

 

[Solodini]

Very odd bunch of exercises in that PDF...

How often are you going to need a 15/8 finger picking pattern with such a bizarre rhythm?

Surely if you want to get good at finger style patterns you can just get a book that already covers it? There are dozens of great books that cover this already, although not in 15/8.

Also working through the Trinity grade repertoire is pretty much all you need to dominate finger style.

There seem to be a bunch of people around here who have difficulty with odd rhythms and such so I figure it's probably good to give them a chance to see application of odd rhythms in different settings. I don't feel the rhythms make things any more difficult mechanically but they at least offer up some possibilities and create some more unusual uses of the fingers to keep the brain busy.

No doubt there's lots of good stuff out there pertaining to fingerstyle playing. I imagine a lot of people from different approaches to guitar might not want to work their way through classical examples as there seem to be lots of people who don't want to invest time in styles outside of what is immediately pertinent to them. There's a bunch of creative exercises for people to apply things to their own music and see possibilities for their own music which uncommon picking approaches could help them to achieve.

As you say, lots of other books cover lots of good stuff but not necessarily within unusual time signatures and rhythms so why not facilitate the people who are into that side of things and help them to delve further? I certainly find it more interesting than spending hours on the same rhythms.

I'll have a look at the Trinity stuff, thanks.

Solodini, I can't check the exercises right now from my phone, but are you including any pieces?

I'm not including any pieces by others. I'll have some etudes and such, though.

There's a UG thread with recommendations.
As for me, I'd say that Bach's Minuet in G is easy. I'm going through a drop-D tab of Canon in D right now.

You could also include some Tárrega pieces. Làgrima and Étude in Em are both easy and beautiful.

As for difficult pieces... Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Asturias and Yngwie's Sorrow.

I'll have a look into those pieces and see what challenges they offer. Thanks for the recommendations.

This is pretty standard in the classical guitar community.
http://www.classicalguitar.org/freemusic/exercises/Giuliani120.pdf

Thanks for the link.

I feel like there's a lot of interesting fingerstyle stuff outside of classical, too: the James Taylors, Tommy Emmanuels, Adrian Leggs of the world. We've seen how John 5, Tosin, Javier, Josh Martin have applied these things but it seems people don't necessarily have an easy time of applying things themselves, or else we wouldn't see so many threads about how to adopt their methods, so I'm trying to bridge the gap between technique and creativity, breaking out of linear methods where necessary and such.

 

[Maniacal]

Good answer, best of luck. Feel free to send stuff my way if you want some feedback.

 

[JustMac]

This is pretty standard in the classical guitar community.
http://www.classicalguitar.org/freemusic/exercises/Giuliani120.pdf

Is it available in tab-form for the guitarded plebs among us?

 

[octatoan]

Is it available in tab-form for the guitarded plebs among us?

I think Pumping Nylon has those. I think.

 

[octatoan]

I feel like there's a lot of interesting fingerstyle stuff outside of classical, too: the James Taylors, Tommy Emmanuels, Adrian Leggs of the world. We've seen how John 5, Tosin, Javier, Josh Martin have applied these things but it seems people don't necessarily have an easy time of applying things themselves, or else we wouldn't see so many threads about how to adopt their methods, so I'm trying to bridge the gap between technique and creativity, breaking out of linear methods where necessary and such.

drool

 

[OmegaSlayer]

If you want an idea about the direction I, as a metalhead, wants to go to and why I want to learn and get proficient with my right hand

The free flow of Estas Tonnè



to the crazyness of Jon Gomm



and groove of Miyavi



I think this dudes have a control of their hands which is incredible

 

[Necris]

I've more or less converted to pure fingerstyle on both electric and acoustic at this point (bass too).

I think the Giuliani Studies should be a more than adequate starting point for those looking to start with fingerstyle, regardless of what genre they will be playing. They will certainly help build finger coordination (independence has never really seemed to be a fitting word to me).
It's a technique builder. No-one should turn their nose up at it because it's "Classical" technique.

The rhythms are basic, yes, but if a person can play those studies consistently and naturally, provided they can read complex time signatures they should have no problem translating what they've learned to a variety of different rhythms and time signatures. They should certainly be able to play any of your exercises with ease.

If someone has an issue with reading complex time signatures learning a few exercises with some odd rhythms won't help them in any meaningful way, whether they learn them pick style or fingerstyle. It's a reading issue and as such they have to learn how to read said rhythms, how to break down an odd time signature and count it.

Also...is C the pinky?
I still don't understand if pinky is allowed or not in playing fingerstyle
Just like I didn't understood how much is strict P for 4th-5th-6th strings and I for 3rd, M for 2nd and A for 1st strings.

I think you have to go through some theory and maybe history of playing to explain which right fingering is "canon" and which one is not and explain pros and cons of both.

Keep up the awesome job and thanks!!!

Note: This is based off of my experience and my playing.

C does represent the pinky, sometimes you use it, sometimes you don't. Generally, outside of Rasgueados, I very rarely use it since my pinky is very short and quite weak compared to my others.

The "Standard" Classical fingerpicking technique is PAMI (Thumb, Ring, Middle, Index), it's generally the pattern you would be taught for tremolo by a Teacher.
The pattern I default to for tremolo is PIMA (Thumb, Index, Middle, Ring); I find it far more natural. I can still play Recuerdos De Alhambra up to speed, so I don't believe I'm suffering from developing my tremolo that way. If I were to do a tremolo with 5 notes, I would do PIMAI rather than PIMAC.
(Standard picking I believe someone would do PAMIA)

Also, 3, 5,7 etc notes per string with a constant 4 finger pattern, like, for example, PIMA (or PAMI) is something that is a good practice tool for coordination.

E-----------------------------------------------A-P-I--------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------P-I-M----------M-A-P---------------------------------------
G----------------------------I-M-A-----------------------------I-M-A-------------------------------
D-------------------M-A-P-----------------------------------------------P-I-M---------------------
A-----------A-P-I------------------------------------------------------------------A-P-I--------------
E--P-I-M----------------------------------------------------------------------------------M-A-P---etc

Users should also look into the proper nail shaping and nail maintainance as it is very important. One of my nails broke off 2 weeks ago while I was moving something and essentially that finger was useless until the nail regrew. The sound between a finger with nails and picking with the flesh of your finger is drastic, so if you lose a fingernail on one finger but not the others everything will start to sound weird (waiting is still better than cutting off the other nails, IMO). If you want to do hybrid picking stuff you need nails if you want the sound to be more consistent with that of a plectrum.

I find the tone without nails is far too muddy to be useful, at least on electric guitar.

 

[Solodini]

Good answer, best of luck. Feel free to send stuff my way if you want some feedback.

Appreciated, thanks.

OmegaSlayer, thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Necris, certainly people's difficulties with odd rhythms relate to the understanding of the rhythms themselves, rather than fingerstyle mechanics. I didn't mean that the two were interchangeable, but that I like to combine the two for completeness, and example of how those rhythms can be applied mechanically. I think people often struggle creatively with odd rhythms as they don't really see how they might flow, so things end up clunky initially and many don't work past that, so think odd rhythms inherently sound clunky and thus bad.
Reading a rhythm is one step, learning to be creative with it is another. Having varied examples can at least give some options.

Certainly, no one SHOULD turn their nose up at something because it's classical but I've encountered people who do reject things because they're not within their target style.

I'm pretty keen in the variation in tone from pick to fingers for hybrid picking, so I suppose it's just down to personal taste.

Thanks for the example regarding 3s, 5s, 7s, too.

 

[octatoan]

Solodini, what else will the book cover? Sweeping? Hybrid picking? Eight finger tapp- faints

 

[OmegaSlayer]

OmegaSlayer, thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

That's obviously pretty advanced stuff and that absolutely doesn't mean I'm not interested in playing classical masterpieces, but I guess most of the less naive electric players wants to go for a more creative approach.

My main gripe is that it's a real shame that some stuff has trade-off.
I mean, like...grow your nails for fingerpicking and you get better attack but you almost kill your tapping.