You might, for example, alternate between bright fingernail tones and warmer notes played with your finger pads. That way, you can alter the exact point at which your fingertip strikes the string. It may pay to experiment with different wrist angles as you play. This lets your picking-hand fingers remain a bit straighter, possibly striking the strings with greater force. Photo 2 shows a similar position, but with a bent wrist. Thumb and fingers point in different directions, so you can see a little triangle of light between the thumb and index finger.
Viewed from above, the forearm, wrist, and hand are aligned in parallel.
Photo 1 shows a typical classical guitar position. So instead of endorsing a particular method, I’ll just share some options. By that reasoning, Django, Wes, and Jimi never should have become great players, since none employed conventional technique. I despise guitar teachers and guitar books that claim you’ll never get anywhere unless you follow the instructor’s recommended techniques. The smaller picking fingers are weaker by nature, so you probably need to apply extra force until consistent volume becomes intuitive.īefore trying a few more examples, let’s discuss picking-hand technique. Pay close attention to the relative volume of each string. Try to play as legato (smoothly) as possible, with no audible gap between chord changes. I perform all these examples twice through, but consider repeating them ten or 20 times. You’ll challenge both hands, and probably come up with cool musical ideas while doing so.Ĭheck out Ex. But if you’re taking the time to practice these, why not give both hands a workout? I suggest changing the fretting-hand chords every time you practice these. While the picking-hand tasks get increasingly complex over the course of Opus 1, the fretting hand’s role doesn’t vary much. (The 6th string and picking-hand ring finger appear in subsequent exercises.) Click here for Ex. Like the other exercises in this lesson, it employs only the top five strings, and only the thumb, index, and middle fingers of the picking hand. 1 shows the very first exercise in notation and tab. (It sounds fake in that special MIDI way, but at least you can verify the notes and rhythms.) If these links are dead when you read this, just search for “guiliani 120 right hand studies” or “tab guiliani 120 right hand studies.”Įx. The latter includes a MIDI playback mechanism, so you can hear each example. Meanwhile, there’s a tab version at this site. It usually appears in standard notation, but it’s also been converted to tab. But if you find this approach useful, you can tackle the other 117 studies in similar ways. We’ll only look at the first three exercises. No matter how polished your fingerpicking, you’ll encounter challenges here. Each of the exercises employs the same two-measure C–G7 progression, performed with right-hand patterns of escalating complexity. Giuliani’s most enduring creation is his Opus 1, better known as the 120 Right-Hand Studies.
(Sorry, classical guitarists-we ain’t talking Mozart here.) (Giuliani, who also played cello, may have performed in the debut performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.) He wrote a great deal of light and unremarkable music. His career commenced in his native Italy, but flourished in Vienna, then the epicenter of classical music innovation. Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829) was the most renowned guitarist of his time.
We’ll also compare and contrast various picking-hand positions. But I offer suggestions for making these exercises more musically relevant and less … well, boring. I start with 200-year-old exercises from Italian classical guitar virtuoso Mauro Giuliani. There’s something here for every level.Īdmittedly, these aren’t new ideas. It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out with fingerstyle, or simply want to hone your existing technique. This column is for pickstyle players hoping to improve their fingerstyle skills.
#HOW TO FINGERSTYLE GUITAR PDF#
Click here to download a printable PDF of this lesson's notation.
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