Learn Guitar: Zero to Guitar Fingerpicking in 30 days
- 2.5 hours on-demand video
- 1 article
- 34 downloadable resources
- Full lifetime access
- Access on mobile and TV
- Certificate of Completion
Get your team access to 4,000+ top Udemy courses anytime, anywhere.
Try Udemy for Business- Play the most common guitar chords in a fingerpicking style
- Be able to play a bassline with your thumb at the same time as playing a melody with your fingers
- Understand how to break down fingerpicking patterns into the bass/thumb and the melody/fingers and how to practice building up the component parts
- Read tablature and play along to a metronome
- Have a formula for composing your own fingerpicking patterns
- Play in alternate bass, travis picking and clawhammer styles
- Fingerpick
- Students will need to have a guitar.
- Note that you do not need any previous experience with music to take this course.
Learn Guitar: Go from complete beginner to guitar fingerpicking in 30 Days
Hi - my name is Patrick and welcome to my course - guitar fingerpicking in 30 days. I have being fingerpicking guitar for 20 years and I have taught dozens of students to go from never having picked up a guitar before to being really accomplished players.
Have you ever dreamed of playing guitar or even started but then faded away after a while? Do you think it's going to be years of practice before you sound good? Would you be excited if I told you you didn't have to just play boring chords for the first six months - you could actually be fingerpicking within 30 days?
Over the years, I have experimented and realised that there is a way to teach students that seems like starting with what many would believe to be a 'complex' or 'advanced' style - fingerpicking using the thumb and three fingers - is actually the best way for a complete beginner to learn.
There is good reason for this. The traditional method of learning chords and strumming them is relatively easy to do, but actually surprisingly hard to do well. Listen to any beginner strum a set of chords and you see it is hard for the beginner to sound musical after a couple of days. But if you start picking strings individually, then after 4 or 5 days, you can play some really nice pieces. And this is the key: rewarding the student from day one, enabling them to sound musical within the first week. Believe me, I have seen this work time and time again.
When you want to learn the guitar, it matters hugely which course and teacher you pick. The cost of getting this wrong isn't that you lose out on $30-50, it is that the teaching may not stick for you and you may end up with a life where you never learn guitar, rather a life where picking up the guitar is a huge joy and pleasure for you, whether just on your own or playing with other musicians.
For a complete beginner, there is no more effective and no more enjoyable, musical and confidence building way than to start with a couple of chords and a fingerpicking technique.
How is this course structured?
This course is designed to be followed by students in a 30 day period. Of course, some students may go faster and some slower - (if you cover this material in 60 days, you're still doing a great job). The course has five sections
- Getting Started - some basic information, identifying string names, a few chords, reading tablature, using a metronome
- Fingerpicking Basics - the background to how fingerpicking works, the big rule, several fingerpicking patterns
- The Thumb - the key to getting that 'two guitar effect' is for the thumb to do the work of the bass player; alternating bass, walking bass, more fingerpicking patterns
- The Fingers - adding more advanced patterns to the right hand fingers, pinching, different sequence length and writing your own fingerpicking patterns
- Advanced - clear breakdowns of advanced techniques like Travis Picking and Clawhammer
Note that each section has 5-7 individual lessons with a homework exercise after each lesson. At the beginning of the following lesson, I will give tips for anyone stuck with practical ways to get it mastered if you're finding it difficult.
At the end of my course, students will be able to...
- play the most common guitar chords in a fingerpicking style
- understand how to break down fingerpicking patterns into the bass/thumb and the melody/fingers and how to practice building up the component parts
- read tablature and play along to a metronome
- have a formula for composing their own fingerpicking patterns
- play in travis picking and clawhammer styles
What materials will come with this course?
Each lesson has a HD video with three camera angles (full, left hand and right hand) so that you can zone in and see what each hand is doing. Each lesson also comes with a downloadable PDF and the relevant music tablature for each lesson.
Who should take this course?
This course is ideal for complete beginners. You don’t need to know anything about music or guitar playing to start. If you own or can borrow a guitar for thirty days, then you’re all set.
It is also perfect for “failed beginners”. Students who maybe toyed around with a guitar for a few months, maybe even learned a few chords but got bored because it wasn’t musical or rewarding enough and just strumming those few chords never sounded that great. If you don’t mind going slowly at first to get to more than just strumming chords, then this is for you.
Note that you do not need any previous experience with music to take this course.
Who should not?
If you having been playing guitar for years and have already several fingerpicking pieces you can play, this course could be too basic for you.
What will students need before starting the course?
Students will need to have a guitar.
If you want to give this course a try, remember that Udemy backs your purchase with a 30 day full refund option on all courses on Udemy - including this one. So you can always give it a go with absolutely no risk and get picking within the first few lessons or get your money back. This course is the best way to get musical within the first days, like I promised you above.
Enroll now to feel the joy of fingerpicking on your guitar!
Best of luck and I'll see you in the classroom..
Patrick
- This course is ideal for complete beginners. You don’t need to know anything about music or guitar playing to start. If you own or can borrow a guitar for thirty days, then you’re all set.
- It is also perfect for “failed beginners”. Students who maybe toyed around with a guitar for a few months, maybe even learned a few chords but got bored because it wasn’t musical or rewarding enough and just strumming those few chords never sounded that great. If you don’t mind going slowly at first to get to more than just strumming chords, then this is for you.
- If you having been playing guitar for years and have already several medium-difficulty fingerpicking pieces you can play, this course could be too basic for you.
I give you a small introduction about me, why I have been playing guitar for 22 years, why I am so passionate about teaching my students, and hopefully you - and why fingerpicking is hands down the best way to learn guitar
At the end of this video, you will know what materials are covered in the five main sections, what techniques you will learn, how I help you to get back on track if you find particular exercises difficult and why I am so passionate about fingerpicking guitar.
At the end of this lesson, you will know how to:
- Make this course work for you.
- How to get unstuck if you are stuck.
- Where to skip to if you know a few chords
I give you some of the best links on the web if you want to
- Buy a slightly better guitar
- Learn how to string your guitar
- Learn how to tune your guitar
(these things are not taught on this course, but these links make sure you don't get stuck
At the end of the lesson, you will have learned two different Travis Picking patterns you can apply while just fretting the G chord. You will have seen up close using different camera angles what movement the thumb makes to get this Travis Picking pattern working and you will be able to play yourself using Travis Picking.
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- See an Outside-In pattern being played and know why it has this name
- Be able to play the Outside-In pattern over a C chord
- Be able to play the Outside-In pattern over a G chord
- Be able to play the Outside-In pattern consistently while changing chords (C to G)
- Be given a challenging exercise to apply the Outside-In pattern to a choice of your own chords (e.g. A minor)
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
- See the Am to C Inside Out previous exercise broken down and explained
- Play a Travis Picking bass pattern in G and C
- Add a single melody note to these patterns
- Add a second melody note to these patterns
- Alternate fretting of C chord to facilitate Travis picking
After this lesson, you will be able to introduce some pinching into your Travis Picking patterns. As well as being able to play some melody notes at the same time as your bass pattern, you will be able to add notes in between the bass notes in your pattern, which will open up your playing tremendously.