Learning how to play separate bass thumb and finger melody

[mitchfit]

a good practice trick i show to people who want to learn finger picking.

tune guitar to "open D". [largest diameter string, called #6 for clarity]. 6-D, 5-A, 4-D, 3-F#, 2-A, 1-D]

www.howtotuneaguitar.org/tuning/open-d/

play 3-5-4-6-4-6-4 with your thumb until repeatability is attained. this will be recognized by most as the
olde "over there" tune. same will aid in avoiding the ABJECT* boredom that will follow before you become
proficient at thumb co-ordination.

then learn to play 6-1-4-2 with 1 and 2 being picked by pointing finger, and McCartney's so called "bad
finger" until you are bored stupid by that. now you have learned the rhythm of counter playing with thumb
and fingers.

then blend the two exercises, alternating strings 1 and 2 between the thumb line of "over there".

then they are on their own. they will invest the time, or not. to be honest, it's a rather cold "i ain't
yo-mamma" approach, but i can't create the will to practice for them.

once they get the last blending drill wired, switching back to fretted chords [in any tuning] and amazing
themselves with their newly ~earned~ ability comes easy. as does morphing their string picked awareness
into new songs that they aren't VERY tired of hearing.

also, you may wanna switch from thumb to fingers [or not] for the middle strings later on, if the lick
calls for it. or even expand into using more fingers for some tunes. sky's the limit here, improvise
until you have found YOUR style.

$0.02,
mitchfit

* A-B-J-E-C-T, another alternate tuning. [just joking]

[blueshome]

"I must say, however, that when I hear someone play a familiar tune - the best example off the top of my head would be William Brown's "Mississippi Blues" hahaha - I can immediately tell if they learned it from the Lomax recording...or from a Stefan Grossman video. How did that SONG ever morph into an instrumental, anyway?"

Because Stefan doesn't sing too good! As Roy Bookbinder says, "Stefan didn't tell me there were words" (although in truth his70's Delta blues book does quote the words).
I think the problem was that very few people had access to the LOC recording so knew no better.

It's not just this generation that wants instant gratification, I remember giving up trying to learn guitar in the 60's along with a lot of my friends and also knowing those who gave up learning piano too.
We are really luckyy to have all of the resources we do and should make the most of them. They won't make you a "better" player but will give you access to all lot more styles and solve problems about playing technique, but without putting the hours in it won't happen. A human teacher is still best though, as long as they understand the music you are trying to play.

[Deleted]

You don't necessarily need the guitar to get the hand patterns going.
Try this - put your hand over a desk and (for example) tap this pattern on the desk:
thumb / fore / thumb / middle / thumb / fore / thumb / middle - over and over, til you you can do it really fast for as long as you want to. You can do it perfectly really slowly already I bet.
Do it driving to work on the steering wheel, or on the bus / train seat etc (the bonus of this is that the general public will think you are an important musician practicing for tonights concerto).
Muscle memory....
TT

[Matt]

I think Zak has a point in a lot of ways. I know that I would be far better at musical instruments if I played every day, but I do end up watching TV or browsing a lot more. I always have a host of good excuses, but ultimately there are more distractions today, and we do lead busy lives. I'd love to blame studying for a PhD, but that never stopped Brian May did it?

I am at peace with it because while I don't practice enough and will never be great, I don't give up, progress at a snail's pace is still progress, and I really enjoy what I do get round to doing. I usually learn in rapid bursts, I'll get a Saturday or weekend to myself and play for 6 hours or more a day, or I'll drop down to the student folk night and play with other people (which I rarely get the chance to).

Harriet: don't ever play guitar hero, it will drive any guitar player mad (the strings on the screen correspond to frets on the controller, it's madness).

[Quarterquay]

I think Blueshome has a point too. There were always people giving up.. The distractions might have changed but there were always distractions.I was pretty damn good pinball player myself. New technologies are useful I think.Make the most of what you've got. Whilst there's no substitute for a practice, practice, practice, and a good teacher face to face if possible, it's not always possible and sometimes a well made instructional video is very useful. You can stop them and replay them over and over,not unlike replaying over and over or slowing down vinyl on a deck once upon a time and hey you can see their fingers move too on youtube,always handy!

But it's like anything,if you don't put in the hours no amount of watching someone else play on youtube or even live in your living room is going to help you master whatever it is you're trying to achieve if you don't practice.

I do struggle with finger picking. Like you Harriet I learned some when I was a teenager and then didn't pick the guitar up much for years. But that early experience has helped. It went in somewhere and stayed.
I have nerve damage in my right hand and to add to that I'm a lefty who plays right handed (I ended up with a right handed guitar when I was a kid because I was too shy to insist on what I wanted in the guitar shop and a right handed guitar is what I came out with)

However because I'm not a natural right hand picker I've made a point of training my right hand and using it for everything I'd normally have used my left for just to improve my guitar playing.Everything from chopping vegetables to brushing my teeth to using a a computer mouse. I even write with it sometimes just to refine my motor control. It works,I'll never be a finger picking good virtuoso bur I'm thrown sometimes by how much I've improved over the past three years since I took up slide, and with the bonus that my control over my nerve damage has improved to. So all the suggestions above for improving finger picking,with or without a guitar and regardless of which is your dominant hand make perfect sense. The more we practice the stronger and more developed the neural pathways become. It's been shown that professional musicians have greater extended neural pathways for their hands mapped out in their brains,which can only come from extended practice.

The most important thing though is to enjoy playing so what ever works to get you there I reckon.

[anolanbfg]

Lots of great advice in here- thanks very much everyone.

The best way I've always found is to sit down with the original track and some good headphones and really listen but in the case of Bluegrass style, this is a complete 360 for me in terms of how I usually play and I''ll need anything I can get to help. I can pick out bass lines fairly easily but the melody, picking and getting everything working together is a bit of a mystery, I am literally at a loss of where to start. I've never run across anyone who can play this way.

These suggestions are really helpful, I will be giving them a try! I just have to be patient and practice as much as I can.

[washboardchris]

Hi, what Doc is playing is a far cry from bluegrass guitar,he was a great fan of Merle Travis & what he is playing on the vid is what is known as Travis picking(picking with thumb and one finger rather than thumb and two & damping with the heel of the hand)two finger picking gives a different pulse too the rhythm. hope this helps

[mitchfit]

^^^
it is also worth noting that he could "flat pick" like an engine valve rocker arm on meth.

mitchfit

[Matt]

I will never tire of Doc Watson. Anyone who hasn't, check out the 'Legacy' album by Doc Watson and David Holt. It's on (the much reviled ;-) ) Spotify if you want to try before you buy, but it's definitely something worth owning.

[obrienp]

Hi Alan,

Just to add to all the advice you have had; you might want to consider Michael Roach's DVD "An Introduction to Country Blues Guitar". It is all about finger picking patterns. I think Michael is also going to be teaching at the Bromsgrove Blues Weekend, if you can make that. Michael may not be the flashest guitarist but his alternating bass is rock steady and he is a good teacher.

I can't say I have completely mastered the technique by any means (I have a lot to learn) but I can manage some relatively simple stuff. A couple of years ago when I went to my first Blues weekend, I was so frustrated with myself for not being able to manage even the most simple patterns, that I felt like giving up guitar altogether. Two years later it is beginning to develop and a bit like driving a car, I find it hard to remember what it was like not being able to do it. Just keep on practising and it will come to you but it can be a frustrating journey.

A few things I found helpful: 1/ Don't be too hard on yourself: if you have a practice session where it is all going wrong don't force it. Stop and play something that you have already mastered (in whatever style). It makes you feel OK about yourself again. Try again another day;
2/ Stick to stuff you really want to be able to play: it's a great incentive. Trying to learn something you really don't like too much is torture. For me it was Spike Driver Blues: it's meant to be one of the starter finger picking numbers. It doesn't do anything for me and I got really depressed trying to learn it. Such a relief when I gave up and tried something else (apparently more complicated) but I really wanted to play and got it pretty quickly.
3/ Sometimes break throughs come when you haven't touched the guitar for a couple of days. You sit down for a session trying the number you were struggling with the other day, even at half speed and it just comes flowing out at full tempo. It's a great feeling!

That was a really long-winded way of saying, however difficult it may seem at the moment, you really will master it. All you need to do is keep trying and it will come to you in time.

Good luck with it. Slide on,
Pat