Blitzing Fingerstyle Session 7: Different genres

What we’ll be covering in this Series

This nine course Series is a comprehensive dive into the wonderful world of fingerstyle guitar. Fingerstyle offers so many options when playing songs by yourself, accompanying someone else, performing a solo fingerstyle piece or playing in a group/band.

We have split the Series into three Levels with each Level comprising three sessions i.e. nine sessions in total for the complete Series. We’re also planning to provide optional Q&A check-ups between the Levels to see how players are getting on.

These live, interactive sessions cover a syllabus of subjects but we can also sidetrack to any relevant subjects raised by the group during a session.

We’ll explore the core techniques you’ll need to master for the style as well as useful knowledge to help apply them and cement everything with bespoke exercises to build into your practice as well as some reference songs to add to your repertoire.

The materials for each session will include: prep sheet, comprehensive lesson PDF, any relevant MP3s and access to a video recording of the complete live sessions. So even if you can’t make a particular session you’ll have more than enough for home practice. Some details for the later sessions will be firmed up over the next few weeks; but the outline is currently as follows:

Any courses that have already been run are show in GREY.

This particular session is shown in BLUE below.

LEVEL 1  THE BASICS

Session 1 – Fundamentals and fingerpicking open chords  (17^th Sept 2025) 

1. Posture, hand techniques, finger assignment 1234, pima)
2. Arpeggiating basic chords and how to change between them cleanly and smoothly
3. Song: Here, there and everywhere (Part 1 Rhythm)
4. Daily practice exercise(s): old masters and bespoke

Session 2 – Playing a melody and taking away the guess work (24^th Sep 2025)

1. Free stroke, rest stroke and alternating the picking fingers along with legato techniques
2. Playing through essential scale patterns and learning how to transpose
3. For the fretting hand: minimal movement, focus on finger choices and placement, thinking ahead
4. Daily practical exercise(s): chromatic scale, major scale in a closed position. We will adapt the scales so that you play them in a variety of ways, groups of 3rds, rhythmic variety, etc.
5. Song: Here There And Everywhere (part 2 Melody)

Session 3 – Putting it all together: keeping it simple and cool (1^st Oct 2025)

1. Basic thumb independence with ima variations. A daily exercise to get the fingers working
2. Melody arpeggio piece: Spanish Romance (section A – simple barres)
3. Adding the melody into your chord arpeggios to create a solo instrumental version of Here There And Everywhere (part 3 )
4. Home practice song. What can you do with three chords: A BORDERS WALTZ – A.J Moore. Celtic Folk (beginner to low intermediate. MP3 of A Borders Waltz provided)

Q&A check-up on the previous Level’s session  (8^th Oct 25). This is optional and depends on the number of players attending.

LEVEL 2 – CLASSIC FINGERPICKING STYLES

Session 4 – Travis Picking  (22^nd Oct 2025)

1. Thumb independence revisited – Travis picking.
2. Daily practice exercise(s): three patterns, block triads and individual notes, alternating fingers
3. Song: Freight Train

Session 5 – Acoustic Blues (29^th Oct 22nd 2025)

1. Quick revision of a 12 bar form, dominant chords and their inversions
2. Daily practice exercise(s) to include the following – a) The shuffle rhythm using the thumb and palm muting. B) Partial chord shapes and CAGED triads around the neck to create the harmony as well as pick out the melody C) The walking bass line adding in simple percussive slaps
3.  Song: Adaption of Before you accuse me covering the above ideas

Session 6 – Putting it all together: getting Groovy  (5^th Nov 2025)

1. Percussive elements revisited – break down the bar like a drummer and rebuild your parts so that the picking hand is doing two or three things at once
2. Mix in double stops, slides, palm muting and syncopated rhythms
3. Play some iconic acoustic songs that highlight the above techniques
4. Daily practice exercise(s): scales as double stops
5. Song: TBA

Q&A check-up on the previous Level’s sessions (12^th Nov 2025). This is optional and depends on the number of players attending.

LEVEL 3 – BECOMING THE PRO!

Levels 1 & 2 were all about techniques, know-how and approach with lots of exercises; we now explore songs in different rhythms and feels.

THIS SESSION:

Session 7 – A focus on Bossa Nova and Samba fingerstyles (26^th Nov 2025)

In this session we will explore the fundamentals of two of the most loved grooves in guitar playing, the Bossa Nova and the Samba. Originating from South America, Bossa Nova is a calmer, more modern subgenera of the classic Samba. Samba is a lively, percussion heavy Brazilian music style with roots in Afro-Brazilian traditions, often associated with energetic dancing and Carnival celebrations. Bossa Nova emerged in the late 1950’s and was prevalent throughout the cafe scene blending in samba rhythms with Jazz harmonies, emphasising a smoother, softer sound with instruments like the acoustic guitar, piano and double bass.

For those of you who have done classical guitar or even studied basic Jazz, you will likely have come across these styles. For those who have not, this will be an enlightening evening where we can delve into some great rhythmic and chordal exercises and then put them into practice using some well known songs.

LESSON MATERIALS

Two pages of exercises showing a variety of Bossa and Samba patterns that you can weave into your own playing. The third page shows you how to create your own piece from these patterns by weaving in a melody.

Please be confident with your barre chords especially Dm7, Em7b5 and A7(b13). 

BOSSA NOVA SONGS

1. Girl from Ipanema – Carlos Jobim – We will focus on the chordal accompaniment.
2. Blue Bossa – We will focus on playing the melody and then adding the chords to create a solo instrumental version. It’s important to understand how to piece your arrangements together so we will discuss the fact that the melody notes often sit within the chord shape. It’s all about keeping the Bossa feel while pulling out the melody notes with the picking fingers. 

Session 8 – How to accompany a singer/solo guitarist (3^rd Dec 2025)

Out of all instruments it is probably the piano and guitar that most often accompany a solo singer. And out of those instruments it is the guitar that comes up top trump in terms of its complete flexibility of being used in any location, with or without amplification.

The best accompanists know exactly how to showcase the singer. We do this by arranging our parts to weave around the singer, to add dynamic and harmonic variety, or to piece together all the integral parts of the original track into a duo situation. In this scenario it is often important for the guitarist to be holding down not only the chordal groove but also adding in the bass guitar melody and even having solo sections where the vocalist gets a break.

We will focus on three songs in this session

1. BILLIE JEAN – This song is nothing without the famous bass guitar line and the stab chord voicing. Without both it simply doesn’t work. You can play it finger style or with a plectrum. We will show you how to piece it together.
2. MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME – This song has to contain one of the most famous walking bass lines of all time. But like Billie Jean, we also need the chord voicings or our song won’t work. So it’s our job as the accompanist to build our parts around this. You’ll need to think carefully about how you voice the chord so that it moves with the walking bass.
3. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW – Sometimes your job is to simply create something beautiful. In this piece we will look at how I arranged the chordal accompaniment to weave around the vocal of soprano Laura Wright. I use arpeggiated patterns and the whole length of the neck to create variety and thickness to the sound. The choice of notes adds interplay between the vocal melody and ourselves, sometimes using call and answer, sometimes creating a secondary vocal harmony.Doing too much can often not allow the vocal space, doing too little can feel empty. It’s really important to use your ears and listen.

Session 9 – Putting it all together: becoming the solo player (10^th Dec 2025)

Song options (TBA):

1. Wonderful tonight ?
2. Summertime ?
3. Ain’t no sunshine ?

Each course is nominally 1 hour long (usually they overrun!).  So the Complete Series means 9+ hours of interactive tuition, lesson PDFs, and relevant MP3 backing tracks and access to the 9+ hours of video recordings.

Who’s this session suitable for?

The Series is ideal for players who want to:

• start fingerpicking
• correct/tweak existing fingerpicking skills
• take fingerpicking to totally new levels

As a guide here are the basics:

You should be familiar with:

• Fretboard knowledge – basics (E and A strings but all strings should be the target)
• Reading TAB Yes (including basic rhythm)
• Chords – Open (and ideally basic barres)
• Ability to change between chords

Things you won’t need to know (but you should definitely not ignore them):

• Theory – although it’s so useful to understand the essentials as it makes learning things much faster and better when playing with others
• Reading music – this is something to strive for as a long-term project
• Scales – if you read TAB then then learning the scales will naturally come as part of doing the exercises. (It would be great if you know: chromatic, major and at least one pentatonic pattern)

Materials

Each session has its own set of materials:

• Lesson PDF
• Any relevant MP3s used in a session
• Access to a video recording of the complete live sessions

So even if you can’t make a particular session you’ll have more than enough for home practice.

And don’t forget about the optional Q&A checkpoints in between the Levels.

Attending the sessions

By default, you’ll start every session with complete anonymity i.e. with your mic muted and your camera switched off. You have total control of these at your end.

You can ask questions at any time:

• Using the online Chat facility
• Simply unmuting your mic
• Switching on your camer and unmuting your mic

It’s all very friendly and there isn’t such a thing as a daft question – they usually lead to deep, interesting streams of very relevant stuff!

Live recordings

We make video recordings of the live sessions so that you have them available for review and use in home practice. If you don’t want to be on the video keep your camera switched off. These videos are really handy because you see/hear the types of problems/issues other players have and how the tutor adapts advice to suit the individual (it’s not just a YouTube video!).

Buying a place

There are four buying options:

• Level 1 Sessions 1, 2 & 3  (£45)
• Level 2 Sessions 4, 5 & 6 (£45)
• Level 3 Sessions 7, 8 & 9 (£45)
• The Complete Series        (£135)

IMPORTANT

If you’ve missed a course you can still purchase it as part of the Levels or the Complete Series.

Please avoid booking in on the day of a course. This is because this ensures that you’ll get the Joining Instructions in time, which also gives you early access to the Lesson PDF.

BUT this shouldn’t put you off booking in as you’ll receive the full materials including the video of the complete live session.

Can’t make a session(s)? -If you want to come along but can’t make the sessions just book in and you’ll receive the full materials.

Start slowly – if you decide to book just one Level but then become interested in other Levels or even the complete Series, just buy them on the website.