Get some inside tips from these 6 free guitar lessons from Muriel Anderson’s 1-2-3 Fingerstyle Guitar course. This course is designed for intermediate to advanced flat-pick players who are ready to throw down that pick for a while to finally get a handle on fingerstyle. You’ll find the left-hand side of things very familiar and accessible. You’ll dive right into developing that finger/thumb independence on the right-hand and Muriel’s got the educational goods to get you up, running and fingerpicking faster than you can imagine. Guaranteed.
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #2: Accompaniment Patterns: 3
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The third pattern adds a melody note with the ring finger, together with the thumb. This is a great introduction to playing instrumentals, where you will be adding different melody notes as you are playing the alternating bass.
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #3: The Pinky: 2 C Chord
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Doing the same pinky exercise over a C chord gives a different sound. You can do this with a simple alternating bass, or alternating the third finger of the left hand back and forth between the 5th and 6th strings.
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #4: Arpeggios with Fingerpicking Patterns: 1
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The pattern used in the song “Deep River Blues” uses two backwards rolls, adding bass strings. It uses the “E7 shape” of the three seventh chords we covered just earlier.
Pluck strings: 6 & 1 together, 2, 4 & 3 together, 1, 6, 2, 4 & 3 together. You will give the first beat of each measure a little more emphasis, creating a nice country lilt.
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #5: Walk-ups & Walkdowns: 1
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The most famous “walk up” is the one used in the classic song “Alice’s Restaurant.” That is simply harmonizing a bass run walking from G to C.
This is a move that is used all the time in fingerstyle guitar, so learn this one!
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #6: G Turnarounds: 1
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The circle of 5ths can be used in any key to create a turn-around. Making each one a 7th chord leads to the next 7th chord until you get to your target chord.
Try different fingerings and positions of the chords. (See the book “All Chords in All Positions” for theory and exercises on finding chords in different positions.)
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #7: Cool Licks: 3
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You can hear this country picking riff in Jerry Reed’s tune “The Claw.” It has the character of honky tonk piano, although a little more complicated to play on the guitar.
Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson #8: More Potato Gun Rag: 1
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Here is the second part of Potato Gun Rag, using some of the same licks you’ll find in “Nine Pound Hammer.”
Like these fingerstyle guitar lessons? Download Muriel Anderson’s 1-2-3 Fingerstyle Guitar for much more including tab, notation, and jam tracks!