Fingerstyle is a fantastic technique for all guitarists as it’s relevant to most genres and styles. It can span basic picking patterns for song accompaniment to full, self-contained fingerstyle performance pieces. We’ll start by looking at core techniques and knowledge and gradually build up to some great songs and their cool sounds and feels.
Fingerstyle spans all genres. It can be used for rhythmic picking, fabulous harmonic accompaniment or as a fully fledged self-contained solo performance piece; we’ll be covering all three and everything in between.
We’ll be focusing on a number of aspects that we’ve covered over the previous months in our online series Blitzing Your Fingerstyle as well as other general techniques. This day course will focus on the lower level playing from that series and will therefore suit those who have some playing experience but may be relatively new to the world of finger style guitar. To get a head start we advise looking at levels 1 -2 from our Blitzing Your Fingerstyle series. (You can still buy the series).
We’ll start with the basics: set-up, dos and don’ts, plucking strings, finger nails, picking hand placement and orientation and plucking options, etc. We then delve into simultaneously playing a rhythmic/alternating bass line, bringing in partial chords and simple melody on top and maybe adding in some percussive elements.
For solo fingerstyle we have a number of aspects to cover: thumb independence to build an alternating and walking bass line, how to move between chords while staying in time (sometimes using modified fingerings), fretting hand techniques to avoid dead or buzzing notes, how to practise the techniques, making the whole thing seem serene and flowing, dynamics and whole host of other things.
You’ll receive plenty of materials to take home, and even if some of these have been covered on our online series, there’s nothing like being there with the tutor to fix those niggling issues.
We encourage players of an high beginner level to mid intermediate, both acoustic and electric; it’s definitely not for a raw Beginner but that’s not to say that those at the start of their journey or even further on won’t gain something from the day.
The fee is all-inclusive:
Please bring your own packed lunch
As this course caters to a small number of players it means we can be more focused and players can get more attention than on our larger hotel based courses.
As we are working in a residential environment it’s advised to just bring an acoustic guitar. There is no need to bring amps and electric guitars. If you would prefer an electric then please let us know when making the booking and we can discuss the option with you.
We advise driving as that is the easiest way. However if you decide to come by public transport, the closest mainline station is Purley.
If coming by car then there are two junctions off the M25 you could use, junction 6 which is the A22 and junction 7 which is the A23.
Parking is free on all surrounding roads. We request that you try not to park on the tutors small private road as parking is limited even for residents.
Unlike our online sessions these are small group Day-Only courses at the tutors home so can only accommodate limited numbers – book early to avoid disappointment.
If you wish to stay locally then suggestions for hotels, B&B etc can be supplied.