Fingerpicking Lessons for the Acoustic Guitar (Part II)

Building on the first part of the finger picking lessons, this adds a fretted chord to add more musicality and show how finger-picking with chords can be used to provide a pleasant accompaniment for an instrumental or song.

Before we delve into the exercises to chords that we will be using are the E7 and A7. These provide a bluesy folk feel and are seen as an important part of the acoustic guitarists tool box.

The following images show how the two chords are layed out on the fret-board.

For those new to chord charts they are a map of how to place your fingers on the fret-board to create the chord shape. The vertical lines represent the strings and the horizontal lines represent the frets. The dots represent where you place your fingers and numbers represent the finger you use e.g. 1 is your index, 2 your middle and so on. Before the exercises, try the chord and strum either with your pick or them to see if each string rings out to create the chord.

Exercise 1

In order to play this exercise play the E string with your thumb, G string with your index finger, B string with your middle finger, E string with your ring finger. The first 2 bars of picking are played with the E7 chord and then change over to the A7 chord. Listen to each string ringing out.  If there is any buzzing  or muting sounds look at your fretting hand to see if it is covering any strings and ensure your fingers are reasonably close to the fret with enough pressure applied.

Exercise 2
Similar to the exercise above, however, we are alternating the thumb so it plays different bass strings e.g. The low E string then the low A string.

Exercise 3
The next exercise is in 3 time. To help with timing you can count each note as either 1 and 2 and 3 and or 1 2 3 4 5 6. Extending on from the first 2 exercises the fingers pick up and down on the treble strings of G, B and E. The thumb plucks the lowest string of each chord.

Exercise 4

The final exercise builds on from exercise 3, The only difference is that you will need to alternate the thumb so it plays different bass strings of each chord. Once again count 1 and 2 and 3 and or 1 2 3 4 5 6 to get the timing.