The Guitar Tips Thread for Players (Beatles or otherwise; tutorials, videos, suggestions, techniques) | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Funny Paper said
Sorry, I never heard of the Rosenberg Trio.

 
 

I recommend looking them up.  Really good.

fabfouremily said
Not to say that you’re no good but I know how to play that one, so it must be easy!

Talking of guitar playing, I think my teacher’s back from Thailand by now. Time for sore fingers again!

 

Oh it’s ok, I am very much a beginner.  I’m “getting better all the time” though!  

Thanks for the tip LHL — I looked up the Rosenberg Trio and it’s nice, breezy jazzy stuff, with a hint of Brazilian!

There’s also a common guitar-playing pattern called “Travis picking” which can be done either with a pick or while fingerpicking.  With fingerpicking, you basically hit a bass note, then pluck (or strum with the edges of your fingernails) two or more other strings. 

Often, Travis picking has a 1-2 1-2 kind of rhythm, and the bass notes are usually on the main note of the chord (e.g., D for the D chord) alternating with the 5th note below (e.g., lower A for the D chord).  If you try this with a D chord for a few beats, then go to an A chord for a few beats, then go back to the D chord, you will note a distinctively country sound.

In one of the songbooks put out for the songs of the Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, I saw a parenthetical note for one song, “Use Travis picking style” — then there was an asterisk for a further note at the bottom of the page, which said:

“If you don’t know what Travis picking is, get a job. — G.L. ”

YW, Mr. Kite.

I also wanted to mention that I’ve been playing acoustic guitar for years, and I’ve always preferred fingerpicking to strumming.  It seems most acoustic guitar players strum (McCartney is one of the few who does both, depending on the song).  9 times out of 10 when I walk by some sidewalk musician or somebody at a street fair, I find to my disappointment they are strumming (though there is a logical reason for that — it’s harder for people in a busy public place to hear fingerpicking).

My fingerpicking style has borrowed a lot from James Taylor over the years, though I have mixed it up with personal stylings too. 

I no longer fret (pun intended) over trying to mimic guitar playing I hear on a record, but I remember years ago I would be more obsessed about that — for example, going over like a hundred times James Taylor’s guitar work on his song “Secret O’ Life”.  For several weeks I practiced that until I got it all down (one of the chord changes is really challenging — a barred F#7th 9th where your pinkie has to stretch really far).  These days I’m more relaxed about it and just try to have fun and not be such a perfectionist about copying fingerings.

I’ve played a few open mics over the years, and always have fingerpicked.  Once it was outdoors with lots of ambient sounds and people wandering around and there was a sound man but he told me my playing was just too soft to carry, but he would do his best to amplify it.  At that point, I didn’t have an internal mic attached to the inside of my guitar.  Later I got that and had a little amp; but I didn’t like that wire always stuck inside my guitar, so I removed it.