Description

There is probably no acoustic guitar style as popular, or as mysterious to novices, as alternate-bass fingerpicking. For many aspiring players the ability to maintain a rock-steady rhythmic pulse with their thumb while picking out off-the-beat melody notes with their fingers represents a “holy grail” of country, folk and blues playing. The beauty of this style is that you are providing both the rhythmic accompaniment and the melody notes, similar to a stride piano player’s left and right hand combinations.After four decades of teaching beginners to play this style, Happy Traum has devised this nearly foolproof method to help you develop the coordination you need to get off to a great start. The challenge for guitarists is in developing an “independent thumb” so that the rhythm, alternating between bass strings, stays constant while the fingers play syncopated melody notes on the high strings.http://www.homespuntapes.com/styles/Folk/folk-guitar-styles/easy-steps-to-guitar-fingerpicking-dvd-1***Note Homespun offers a similar course “The Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method” that focuses on the alternating-bass Travis picking and steady-bass blues styles. This course (Easy Steps) is for someone with a slightly lower skill level, although they are both level 2. The other course is available on this site as well. Enjoy!