Comments on: Learn to Play the Guitar in Two Weeks, day 10: Fingerpicking I

By: Wade

Wade — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:50:44 +0000

I’ve enjoyed your site for going on two years–I’ve spent hours in the Dylan section, and one of the great Eureka! moments of my life was finding out (from you) that Dylan uses the open-D on most of “Blood on the Tracks.” That changed my life. I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years, but until two years ago still considered open tunings too exotic. Now I’m in them all the time. Fascinating stuff here.

Regarding nails, I have a pretty credible fingerpicking technique, but I’ve been hampered by my inability to grow nails (I bite them off; not to the quick, but too short to be of use) and my inability to use fingerpicks, which feel like orthopedic devices on my hand. If I’m amped, no big deal, but otherwise the volume is just too low to be satisfying when you’re playing in public (as I seldom do, but still.) THEN, somebody suggested fake nails. I thought maybe he was joking, but I took him up on it, went down to my friendly neighborhood nail salon, and found the second thing that changed my guitar-playing life. The volume and attack you can get with a set of fake acrylic nails is tremendous. The downside is, well, you’re a guy with fake nails, and when you strum it’s hard to avoid some noisy knocking of the nails against the guitar, but it’s definitely worth checking out for anybody hampered by natural nail issues.

By: Billy

Billy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:23:00 +0000

Awesome web mate. I struggle with fingerpicking, can you please but the finger positions next to the tab for the lessons page. That would make it easier.

By: Mike Grasso

Mike Grasso — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:49:35 +0000

Forever grateful for yr sendback Mr Ostrem. The site means so much to me. 4ever appreciated. Thanks from me and all my ancestors & descendents! You know how to rock, tab, and apparently operate Linux!

Young, but Daily Growing- Mike Grasso

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:32:59 +0000

Well, I'm glad to have been able to be of some help. I'm tempted to quote a so-called great man who once said: "Don't follow leaders" and then add to that "If you let someone change your life, you'd better be damn sure they know what they're doing", be they songwriters or site admins. To your question: of course there is hope! Pick one of the simpler patterns from day 10 or 11, and play it over and over again. Start with the thumb alone, play

  E                      
  :   .   .   .          
|-----------------|  
|-----------------|  
|-----------------|
|-----2-------2---|
|-----------------|  
|-0-------0-------|

until your thumb bleeds Then add the index finger:

  E                      
  :   .   .   .          
|-----------------|  
|-----------------|  
|-------1---------|
|-----2-------2---|
|-----------------|  
|-0-------0-------|

and play that for another hour or so. Then the long finger:

  E                      
  :   .   .   .          
|-----------------|  
|-----------0-----|  
|-------1---------|
|-----2-------2---|
|-----------------|  
|-0-------0-------|

and by the time you are done with that, you're either dead from a finger infection, or you have the foundation of a fingerpicking technique. :) I think I've mentioned it a time or two, but I'll gladly repeat it: that thumb movement is the A and O of fingerpicking -- the rest falls in place almost by itself -- with a little practice, of course.

By: Mike Grasso

Mike Grasso — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:04:59 +0000

Hey there Mr. Ostreum. I wanted to thank you here on your blog and tell you how much you have improved my life. I was a lost soul before I discovered this site. Now I’m obsessed with Dylan and I spend all of my free time on this site LOL I can play a lot of the Dylan songs (I have a few recordings if you’d ever care to listen..I’d be very grateful) but mostly what I’;m concerned with these days is, despite my being able to play don’t think twice and all those other great ones, I can’t fingerpick it properly. Do you think there is any hope for me? I’m 20 years old and have been playing with just strums for a long while now, and my strumming hand almost feels a bit weak these days from all the strummign I’ve done. Just wondering what an older, more experienced guitarist thinks of this .Thanks! – forevr ocking out to The Dylan ..Mike Grasso Again thanks for your site Mr. Ostreum its really changde my entire life and even if you dont answer this question you ARE THE MAN!

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:55:16 +0000

Can’t wait for the second lesson on fingerpicking!

By: dz

dz — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:59:17 +0000

Thanks — I’ll keep working on it.

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:09:20 +0000

If you mean during the Em9 parts (beginning of verse, etc.), I'll have to say no: there is no open 4th string drone there. There is however an open 4th string at the end of the Em9 stretch, in the transition to D7, as you can see in the tab to Girl at Dylanchords. I agree that it can be difficult to hear these things from the plain recording, and that resonances and different tone combination can in fact create the impression that tones are there which aren't. To that end, I can recommend a piece of software called Transcribe, which lets you slow down, isolate certain channels or tone areas -- highly useful in situations like this.

By: dz

dz — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:12:44 +0000

Oh, emend that question — now I think it’s the fourth string I hear, but open, not on fourth fret (from capo). What do you think?

By: dz

dz — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:02:40 +0000

Thanks again for the great lessons. I have a related question I hope I can ask here. I’m being driven crazy by “Girl of the North Country”. I’ve been following your tab, but I could swear I hear him hitting the fifth string (the one you’re holding on the fifth fret above the capo) in kind of a drone, I think on the offbeats. Do you hear this? Would you be able to give any more detail/hints on how to play what he’s playing on that song?
Many thanks!

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:28:20 +0000

I disagree. First of all, the fatigue that lies behind my comment comes from the insane amount of blogspam and trackbacks and visits from fake sites I have in my logs. This motorbike site is not doing it in a particularly silly way — they are doing it in exactly the same way as most other similar sites. It may of course be that they are doing someone a huge favour by having trackbacks all over the place, to the benefit of those who don’t know how to get hold of sandpaper. Perhaps. But it seems to me that for most of these sites, it’s just a matter of boosting the SEO factor and gathering hits and incoming links.
Besides, Stallman isn’t trying to stuff anything down anyone’s throat against their knowledge, willingness and best interest. He has integrity, but that’s a different matter.
Just wait for my next post… :)

By: heiner

heiner — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:45:48 +0000

Nah, why are you so harsh on them? They are trying to deliver stuff people are interested in. And they are trying to live on that. Maybe they do it in a silly way. But they definitely don’t try harder to shove stuff down people’s throat than Stallman is…

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:10:21 +0000

This one is too funny to delete… It is also a reminder of what a crazy place the internet has become, where content is not a means of communication but a potential for revenue. Disgusting, that’s what it is. (I’ve changed the url so that they won’t get any search engine points from me. That’s how mean I am)

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Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:30:24 +0000

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