I'm Useless....

[EuroAussie]

Good advice from all, keep working...then work some more.

 

After years of trying to grow or manufacture nails I'm also in the no-nails camp. Now I prefer the sound when I play without nails, if they start getting too long I clip 'em.

 

But I like the sound of others who use nails. I saw Harvey Reid at a festival a couple weeks ago and he used acrylics. Sounded great.

 

I agree with Sal, I started fingerpicking exactly a year ago and at the beginning it was a massive challenge, my fingers were unco-ordinated, stubling over each other. But I just repeated basic fingerpicking exercises and pattterns, over and over and like Sal mentioned, things started to fall into place. After about 4 months I performed my first fingerpicking piece at one of our gigs .... It was nervewrecking, but I got through it, here it is ... effort after 6 months.

 

The key is to pick songs which have a repeating, simple pattern, and Landslide is a great example, give it a go !

 

If I can do it, you can also mate.

 

[Rambler]

... without fingernails its like.. muted?? :(

 

Doesnt need to be muted. Just dig in. Check br Alvin Hart here (music @1:55 or so)...

[Towzend]

Thanks for all of you's help guys, some good advice from all of you.. i'm gonna grow

some (short) nails and realy get down to it!

 

One last question.. when i master a picking patten thats sealed in my brain & fingers, say travis picking

for eg, then i go on to learn another patten, wont it be much harder to do? (because my brain is trained so hard with the travis?)

if you get what i mean!

 

Once again thanks guys..

[E-minor7]

i'm gonna growsome (short) nails and realy get down to it!

 

Sounds good - enjoy the ride.

 

.. when i master a picking patten thats sealed in my brain & fingers, say travis picking for eg, then i go on to learn another patten, wont it be much harder to do? (because my brain is trained so hard with the travis?)

if you get what i mean!

 

Time will show - impossible to predict. Unlike the amount of pleasure you will notice once you get around that G-D-Em-Bm etc. . .

 

Look forward to hear a decent version of Don't Think Twice.

[Jerry K]

Well, there are different kinds of picking. Pattern picking, like T123 T123 is essentialy fractured chords. You play the chord with left hand and right hand breaks it up according to various patterns. Instead of strumming all the notes at once, they are played by thumb and fingers as a sequence. The next step up is alternating bass. (I suppose Travis picking is a subset of that, depending on how you define Travis). Now instead of breaking up the chord by pattern, we get the thumb playing oompah, oompah (or oompah umpah, and other variations) and the fingers can still play patterns, but more fun is have the fingers play melodies and counter melodies.

 

Right now you are set to do some muscle and coordination development. I don't know if you drive a manual transmission, but it's kind of like learning that. In the beginning you are consciously thinking let off gas and throw in clutch, shift gear from first to second, press gas while easing off clutch, etc. After you learn you are not thinking of that at all. It's automatic. And you are no longer bound by a fixed pattern; you can shift between any two gears and do all the permutations without thinking.

[mike tango]

Try listening to Mississippi John Hurt. great place to start fingerpicking.

[livemusic]

I have complained numerous times on forums that I wish I could grow nails. But, there are plenty of artists that play like me, flesh only.

 

As for learning, there are some free lessons on youtube, I found one recently by accident and it was good.

[onewilyfool]

At fingerstyle guitar.. everyone else can do it why cant i..

for a start i bite my fingernails, and when i grow them there so weak, oh yeah, ive tried the false glue on ones

and they feel like lumps of wood on the end of my fingers? i cant get on with the plasic or metal 'push on' things either?

 

What can i do? grow my nails and dab poison on them to stop me biting em !

There's so many of Petes stuff that i want to play where he uses fingerstyle, and me strumming it just dont cut it!!

"I'm One" "Drowned" ect..

 

Can anyone help me!! where do i start? can you recommend a good fingerstyle course i can get to help me?

 

Thanks in advance...

Towz.....here's one to start with...."House of the Rising Sun" a repetitive arpeggio that everyone knows.....has a simple bass run, and simple finger style. Get ONE song under your belt, from start to finish, words, finger picking. Practice the heck out of it, and you will master it. A real trap to fall into when learning to finger pick, is to learn the BEGINNINGS of 20 songs, but not even one song from start to finish. After you master one, the rest will fall into place! Good luck!

 

[Towzend]

Towz.....here's one to start with...."House of the Rising Sun" a repetitive arpeggio that everyone knows.....has a simple bass run, and simple finger style. Get ONE song under your belt, from start to finish, words, finger picking. Practice the heck out of it, and you will master it. A real trap to fall into when learning to finger pick, is to learn the BEGINNINGS of 20 songs, but not even one song from start to finish. After you master one, the rest will fall into place! Good luck!

 

 

Thanks OWF.. That sure does make sense, also a song ive nown for a very long time.. i will give it a go..

[cars'n'guitars]

Also if you can read music,

I reccommend the complete carcassi guitar method..

Slowly work your way through it, starts off quite basic but gets very difficult.

I'm using it at the moment with the help of my teacher and it's great, helps a lot with learning to control each picking finger individually..

[Towzend]

Also if you can read music,

I reccommend the complete carcassi guitar method..

Slowly work your way through it, starts off quite basic but gets very difficult.

I'm using it at the moment with the help of my teacher and it's great, helps a lot with learning to control each picking finger individually..

 

 

Thanks.. but i'd be up to page 2 for a long time..

[kebob]

Towzend: stay the course, you will get it eventually. Like another poster said, the light will just click on one day and you will be thrilled with the new door of opportunities It happened for me like this: I started with simple thumb/one finger pattern, then added thumb/two fingers, etc. Then, it just "clicked" -- and once it clicks you can start to easily add variations of different patterns. It's about training your fingers to work independently -- once they learn to move independently from each other, it's easier to switch to more patterns. You may find your fingers are more comfotable in certain paterns, but it's much easier to learn the harder patterns once your fingers are able to work independently.

 

Start slow and easy, keep at it. You will get there. Don't give yourself a deadline -- it will happen when it happens.

 

Best of luck.

 

Oh, and you don't need nails, in fact, I prefer short nails -- do what is right for you -- your own style.

[Towzend]

Towzend: stay the course, you will get it eventually. Like another poster said, the light will just click on one day and you will be thrilled with the new door of opportunities It happened for me like this: I started with simple thumb/one finger pattern, then added thumb/two fingers, etc. Then, it just "clicked" -- and once it clicks you can start to easily add variations of different patterns. It's about training your fingers to work independently -- once they learn to move independently from each other, it's easier to switch to more patterns. You may find your fingers are more comfotable in certain paterns, but it's much easier to learn the harder patterns once your fingers are able to work independently.

 

Start slow and easy, keep at it. You will get there. Don't give yourself a deadline -- it will happen when it happens.

 

Best of luck.

 

Oh, and you don't need nails, in fact, I prefer short nails -- do what is right for you -- your own style.

 

 

Thank you Kebob.. your words are very encouraging and informative which is exactly what i need..

 

Towzend

[BlackWater]

My nails are brittle,when they get just the right length,I go and break them,and the cycle starts all over again, during the interim period, I flatpick, or finger pick with 'flesh' but it doesn't really hack it for me, I like the attack that nails give me, I've got a box,just full of every damn thumpick, fingerpick, ever made, I cannot get on with them,I've even tried false nails,but the hassle getting them off, without pulling off my own nails,is just too much,( yes,I know you gotta use the remover- fluid) trouble is with my own nails,is when I get them long enough, they really get in the way when strumming with a flatpick a' la' Peter Townsend- Pinball Wizard or Won't Get Fooled Again -so, there you go, we all have our little foibles......

[Debonnaire]

Just piping in to empathize. I am using Ken Pearlman's fingerstyle guitar book to learn. I try to play nothing but exercises and songs from the book for one hour each day. Previously I had been more of a cowboy-chord player/singer. And not a very good one. I maintain discipline now by only strumming/singing on uke and forcing myself to only play fingerstyle on guitar.

 

About two months in and I can sort of play Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight at 3/4 speed. It is so hard, it's like math.

 

One thing I found interesting reading this thread, is that I don't really use my nails, as I have to keep them shortish for martial arts. I use the fleshy pads of my fingers.

[MissouriPicker]

First of all, if you bite your nail, you obviously need to stop if you want to use them for fingerpicking, OR, you can play just with the pads of your fingers. That works too. Not as much volume, but it works. If you want to use your nails you'll get more volume and a different tone, but what you want depends totally on you. For those who want to use their nails, use Hard As Nails Nail Hardener. Put it on every couple weeks and you can fingerpick barbed wire. I've been using it for years now. You WILL NOT split or tear-up your nails. Just keep them filed to the length you want. The most difficult thing about fingerpicking with your nails is to stop biting them.