Fingerstyle Guitar: Can You Do It?

object lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8LQ1UQO8k

Just came across a discussion this and can't figure out what to make of it: https://www.classicalguitarcorner.com/an-argument-against-memorization/

As someone who cannot read music, after reading that, I now feel even more like a total hack when I pick up a guitar. Cheers.

I dream of being good enough to consider myself a hack.

I've never been to the Banff Centre, actually.

The ever-challenging thing is remembering these classical etudes: which left hand and right hand finger is doing what. Do much better if I figure out what the harmony is and use that to keep track of where I am supposed to be.

Guess I just going to follow Sund4r's advice on the other thread and put the metronome on super slow and then inch it up when possible.

Inch worm
Inch worm
Measuring the marigolds

That's generally good but esp with classical, it can also sometimes help to remember to avoid 'broken record' practising. I'm trying to make sure I apply 'deliberate practice' as described here: https://lifehacker.com/5939374/a-better-way-to-practice . It can make a big difference. It helps to focus on a little bit (e.g. a phrase) at a time, identify specific problem areas, then target those (by slowing down, IDing the block, then inching up after fixing it).

Well, I did for quite a bit until I got fatigued and I stopped :) Thanks for the article. I read the Ericsson book mentioned there and recommend it. I believe Ericsson uses the term "Purposeful Practice."

I used to talk about this stuff at lunch with a guy who plays the cello who would discuss it in terms very similar to those in that article. He also had a really good story about how one Hungarian pianist practiced, György something, Sándor, maybe, but I have to see if I can remember how it went.

I can play "Bron-yr-aur' in glorious CACGCE

cool.

Sund4r, debating whether to email you a link to this piece I am trying to learn and ask whether you have played it or have opinions about the fingering.

Feel free. I can try to get to it on the weekend.

Sent

Must confess I have never been able to sight-read - indeed can't read at all - after decades of periodic attempts of varying seriousness.

That said, I started with a nylon-stringed classical guitar, mainly because my mother had one around the house. She was an old folkie type, and I guess in the 60s it was pretty common to learn guitar that way. Nylon is kinder to fingers. I think I worked clumsily through some books of fingerstyle tab. Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Clapton, Gilberto.

I still play fingerstyle on my mother's old guitar sometimes. Occasionally I will do something fingerstyley on steel-stringed acoustic. I tend to like guitars with wider nuts, because the spacing accommodates fingerstyle playing better.

But I've never quite gotten the hang of fingerstyle on electric. It's so quiet compared to picking, and accommodating that drop in volume is difficult if I want to do both inside a given song, or even within a given gig.

For a long time I had this weird stubborn thing about not picking with my ring finger, only using the thumb index and middle. Lately I've finally reincorporated the ring finger again and it really opens up a lot of possibilities, not sure what I was on about.

RIP Tony Acosta of Luthier Music: http://classicalguitarmagazine.com/luthier-music-founder-string-maker-tony-acosta-passes-away-at-77/

I posted this upthread but it got ate by the code, just a local braddah doing an excellent arrangement of "Maori Brown Eyes" (cheating a little with the thumb pick):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLeqnEDF7jU

This is still one of my go-to's when I get a chance to play.

Cool.

This guitarist named Jake Reichbart has posted over 400 videos of fingerstyle arrangements of various well-known tunes, watched a few and they are reasonably well done.

I love finger style guitar but infinitely prefer the old strings, mahogany-top, small-bodied sound over the bright, chiming sound that so many finger style players employ

Yeah, know what you mean

I just like Nick Drake is all and early Bruce Cockburn too and although I appreciate a Pierre Bensusan et al I like the intimacy of a parlour guitar or a nylon string!

has there been anyone inspired by michael hedges's innovations that wasn't completely boring and soulless? aerial boundaries moves me but it seems like the only thing people took from him was the surface level slapping and tapping

Why are they still called nylon string guitars when the bottom three are metal and the top three are some kind of polymer?

I thought nylon was a polymer, no?

Yeah, but I think they often use fluorocarbon instead. Sorry, should have been more specific.

https://www.gearank.com/guides/nylon-classical-guitar-strings

Most of those still seem to use nylon for the treble strings? I thought the basses are usually made of a nylon core wound with metal. Interestingly, though, Savarez Alliance are probably my favourite and they do seem to use some kind of carbon fibre for the trebles.

Unrelated but I recently switched to guy-based strings on my violin and it sounds amazing (but I have to tune it up a lot more— apparently the strings last linger tho?)

*gut *longer

Wrt fingerstyle, a local know-it-all told me to anchor my pinky instead of “floating” and I cannot, and I also don’t think it’s necessary? Idk.

With fingerstyle guitar?? That is bad advice.

Afaik, classical guitar teachers have been advising against anchoring the little finger of the right hand on the body of the guitar at least since I was an undergraduate. It reduces flexibility and introduces unnecessary strain. I'm more forgiving of it than many, esp considering that many great guitarists of the past did it or something like it, and might occasionally slip into doing it myself (although usually when using a pick). If you need an anchor, just resting the fingers on the strings you are not using works great. If you're looking for pointers on technique, I'll recommend Tennant's Pumping Nylon again.

I can't think of a situation where I'd anchor my pinky on the guitar's body when fingerpicking tbh.

leo kottke's RSI is the argument against anchoring, but I still find it helpful when ploughing through v rhythmic picking-pattern grooves

There are certainly people who do it but it is definitely not a practice that someone needs to be told to do if they have no inclination towards it.

Parkening playing a fast rhythmic picking pattern with no anchor: https://youtu.be/5YdPvM_xZg4

Close-up around 0:25

it's a q of what's easiest/realistic rather than humanly possible

i don't & have never felt the need to.

Fgti finds it easier not to anchor! I'm saying that is not only fine, but probably better. xp

If you want to anchor anything maybe it should be the thumb, like a bass player might

Not if the bass player doesn't want tendonitis.

I've never heard of a fingerpicker anchoring the thumb on the body of the guitar? Ergonomics aside, any fingerpicking style I can think of requires the thumb to be available to play bass lines.
xp

I was more thinking of resting the thumb on a bass string in between bass notes when possible

(xp)
C’mon, lots of bass players anchor. I almost never do so maybe I shouldn’t comment.

Love any story about Christopher Parkening.

Resting the thumb or fingers on unused strings between notes, when there is time, is what I do.

It also helps to mute those strings when they should not ring.

i anchor my pinky sometimes, and always understood it to be a bad habit. I also fret the bass string with my thumb, thanks jimi.

It also helps to mute those strings when they should not ring.

Although didn’t notice G making D ring nearly as strong, or the A making the E.

I use too many tunings. I only have maybe forty guitar-based songs but thirteen tunings all told :(