Online or in-person fingerstyle guitar lessons
If you’re past simple strumming and picking, you might try online or in-person fingerstyle guitar lessons. Any tune you want to play can be done picking the melody and accompaniment right out of the chord shapes with finger style guitar! It sounds like it might be difficult but if you start slowly with a clear idea about what you want your playing to sound like, you’ll catch on pretty quickly. Below is a video made for a student of a fingerstyle approach to John Denver’s “Country Roads”
About fingerstyle playing
Fingerstyle guitar is a technique where the guitar strings are plucked directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks, instead of strumming with a pick. Myself, I primarily use only two fingers – thumb and index finger- but there are many ways to play fingerstyle. Fingerstyle is used in lots of different styles of music and uses different techniques than most players use, mostly for the picking hand. Fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. The terms “fingerstyle” and “fingerpicking” also applied to other string instruments such as the banjo or ukulele. BTW: if you’re interested in fingerstyle ukulele lessons, I’m your guy!
Music arranged for fingerstyle playing might include chords, arpeggios, artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off notes with the fretting hand. Also could include using the body of the guitar percussively (by tapping rhythms on the body), and many other techniques.
Often, the guitarist will play the melody notes with the melody’s accompanying chords and the bass line simultaneously, which can make for some beautiful and complex music. Some fingerpicking guitarists also intersperse percussive tapping along (Tommy Emanuel!) with the melody, chords and bass line. Fingerstyle is a standard technique on the classical or nylon string guitar, but is considered more of a specialized technique on steel string guitars.
Fingerpicking is less common on electric guitar than acoustic or classical but it is certainly do-able. The timbre of fingerpicked notes is described as resulting in a more piano-like sound; I have heard it sound like also a flute other wind instrument. The possibilities with fingerstyle guitar are simply limitless.
If you’d like to try fingerstyle technique, reach out. Based on our conversation, we’ll choose a tune and tailor your lessons specifically to your interests and playing level! Contact me
How does this work exactly?
You’re probably interested in playing a particular song. I’ll break it down into manageable sections* and we tackle it one piece at a time – at a comfortable speed for you. During the online lesson I’ll help you figure out any parts you’re having trouble with. Split screen video show both hands and my face, so you can hear and see just what I’m doing. I will record any video you might find helpful and post it up to YouTube after the lesson.
bonus: chord namer! Name any guitar chord with this easy-to-use tool
* how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
Do I need to own a guitar?
Yes. But if you want to use the initial video chat to talk about what kind of instrument you should get, that’s fine! I can show you any of the guitars or ukuleles in my studio. You can hear them played, and we can talk about what might be a good fit for you.
Prepare
To prepare for online lessons, please make sure your guitar is tuned and you are in a quiet place. Have your cell phone handy in case the internet connection is weak, in case we need to continue with the audio part of the lesson.
What about rescheduling a lesson?
Please give me at least 24 hours notice if you have to reschedule and we’ll try to find another time/day that week, hopefully as close to your scheduled lesson as possible. I understand that emergencies come up, but without proper notice, you’ll have to pay for your missed lesson.
How often are the remote guitar lessons?
That is entirely up to you, but most guitar students like to schedule a remote guitar lesson weekly. That way it isn’t too long between one and the next.
What else do I need besides a guitar?
You should invest in a tuner. I like Snark brand tuners myself because they attache to the guitar headstock but there are any number of tuner styles that work fine. The Snark costs about $11. Google “guitar tuner” on Amazon. You should also have access to a metronome. That is super helpful (and super annoying sometimes). Both the tuner and the metronome are available as apps for your phone though, and that’s fine too.
Can I take break from my lessons and pick back up later?
Yes of course! If you want to take off a few weeks, or take the summer off to try something different, no worries. I’ll be here when you’re ready to start back up.