Fingerpicking

It wasn't me!

Anyone got some songs to suggest for relatively simple acoustic fingerpicking pieces? Ones that will both help me improve and be nice songs to sit around and play. I can manage stuff along the lines of Opeth's Benighted without too much bother, so anything along that line and perhaps even a little upwards of that would be good. Thanks.

Music4life

Nothing near Opeth but the Beatles -Blackbird is a classic:D

Rustar

Easier stuff might be
Steve Howe's "Mood For A Day"
Simon & Garfunkel's "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her"
Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain"
Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity"
The Police's "Message In A Bottle"
Led Zep's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "Over The Hills And Far Away"
Neil Young's "Down By The River"


On the tougher side,
Jethro Tull's "Sossity - You're a Woman"
Steve Howe's "The Clap"
Led Zep's "The Rain Song" (warning - alternate tuning)
Extreme's "More Than Words"
Jimi's "Little Wing"

I'll bet a lot of Steeleye Span and Clannad tunes would sound great de-electrified.

davejones

If you learn the "claw" technique you'll be sorted with finger picking, its what Paul Simon usually plays and most other good pickers.
Takes a bit of practice all the same.

MagicMarker

Reminds me of Liar Liar...

Nothing else matters is a good one...

Classical Gas - Mason Williams is a lot of fun to play

Also the whole of Eric Clapton unplugged should keep you entertained for a good while.

davejones

MagicMarker wrote: »

Reminds me of Liar Liar...

Nothing else matters is a good one...

Classical Gas - Mason Williams is a lot of fun to play

Also the whole of Eric Clapton unplugged should keep you entertained for a good while.

What reminds you of Liar Liar..
You wound'nt be fit to restring my guitar.

Only a joke.

leninbenjamin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gv4va8Y8lg

this is a great video to learn from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR63Y5LIQDI

this is another great example with Leo Kottke thrown into the mix as well. you may not like the genre but if you can finger pick bluegrass imo you can just about pick anything.

mississipe john hurt has another style of finger picking i like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-KeCO7E1Tc

It wasn't me!

Thanks for the recommendations lads. I'll get busy with some of this tomorrow.

Rustar

leninbenjamin wrote:

this is a great video to learn from.

The Doc! He makes it look deceptively simple, but lemme tell ya, it ain't.

Travis picking is a whole 'nother world. I'd definitely put that in the 'advanced' category.

murphaph

Try these lessons. I've just begun trying to fingerpick and even though I'm rubbish at it it's a wonderfully different sound/experience to strumming everything-like the guitar is singing. Definitely gonna keep it up.

leninbenjamin

Rustar wrote: »

Travis picking is a whole 'nother world. I'd definitely put that in the 'advanced' category.

i dunno.... it's not as hard as it sounds imo. it's just all about getting that finger independence going, but once you can get that thumb moving without thinking it just all falls into place...

I'm also a firm believer of just diving head first into things. just take it real slow... one of the first finger picking songs i would have learned was Song for George. did that for the junior cert. took me months to learn it but it was well worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrtGQ_0-m0

padraig71

Who is that guy? The tune is nice, but the mullet is horrific.

leninbenjamin

padraig71 wrote: »

Who is that guy? The tune is nice, but the mullet is horrific.

Eric Johnson... yeah.... the mullet gave me nightmares when i first saw it.