Flamin' Harry Rock n' Roll University
Professional Music Instruction by Flamin' Harry Mc Gonigal
Flamin' Harry Rock n' Roll University
Professional Music Instruction by Flamin' Harry Mc Gonigal
Free Lesson
Let's start off with hand notation. In
my style of finger picking I use all the fingers of the right
hand. The thumb is of course the thumb or T. The next finger is
noted as the first finger or No. 1. The next finger is your second
or No. 2. The next or ring finger is your third or No. 3. And
last the pinky or the little finger is your fourth or No. 4.
The strings on the guitar are numbered from 1 to 6 starting on
the high E string.(That's the skinny one.) In the following lessons
I will describe hand positions by stating the fret, the string
and the finger. More than one note played at a time will be notated
in ( ).
The same finger notation will hold true for the left hand. I also
use all fingers and thumb of the left hand. This gives us ten
fingers to play music with.
BASIC HAND POSITION
Right Hand- the pinky or 4th finger will be used for support on
the guitar top.
Left Hand - The thumb will be centered on the back of the guitar
neck. The wrist will be bent enabling fingers to have complete
access to the fretboard.
To play the chords use (T123)(Right Hand) for one beat.(This is also referred to as a PINCH. The Thumb stricks downward while the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers pull inward towards the palm.) This is used instead of strumming. Now you can practice these chords four beats on each one. Notice the Thumb of the right hand is always playing the root of the chord. Next try playing the chords one note at a time. T,1,2,3 on each chord. Each note is one beat.
That's it for this lesson. Keep pickin' and soon I'll have another lesson up with some cool photos to help. FH.
These are geared toward players with an electric guitar and some basic knowledge of the instrument. (Although you can do very well on an acoustic guitar!) In future pages we will have some basic lessons also. Keep on pickin'!
Let's play some slide guitar! It's not really hard but it is different. First to get started use another guitar and put on heavier strings and raise up the action. Go out and buy a few different slides. They all sound different. Find your fav. Experiment. Make one out of a bottleneck or cut some copper tubing.(more on how to do this later.) Next decide which finger is comfortable for ya. VERY IMPORTANT: When you fret, don't push down too hard. Just enough to make a clear sound. Also, position the slide directly over the metal fret for correct pitch. Not in the middle like your finger. To get started retune your guitar to open E. That way when ya strum open you will play a full E chord. Fifth fret will be A, Seventh fret will be B and so on.
Now go ahead and have some fun. Experiment! Play open then slide up to the 12th fret. Use the fingers of the left hand above the slide to mute the extra string noise. Try some 12 bar blues in E. More on Slide guitar next week. RFH
