Now we have to work on some patterns to apply and work out what strings to play for what chord...

Video Lesson

Ditch the pick

The Thumb will always play the bass note. It can play other notes later of course, but for these patterns the thumb will always play the bass note of the chord. Now you do remember the notes in your chords way back when we looked at notes in the open position right? :)

The two patterns in 4:4 (4 beats in a bar) are:

4:4 T121 3212

4:4 T123 2123

And one more, which is in 6:8. Now we have not looked at that timing yet, but you can think of it like a half a bar (2 beats) with each beat divided into 3 (triplets). Many people (including me when I was learning) use it to play The House Of The Rising Sun, but the original uses a slightly different rhythm and is played with a pick!

6:8 T12 321

Make up your own!
In a bar of 4:4 there are 8 x 8th notes (1+2+3+4+). Now if you put a bass note on beat 1, then you can make up any other pattern you like for the other fingers. It will usually sound better if the pattern is the same each bar, but sometimes it sounds cool just to make them all up as you go!

Try right now to make up your own 8 note fingerstyle pattern and then play it. It's easy and lots of fun, and will teach yourself heaps of new cool patterns!

It might seem sometimes that you have more fingers pressing down notes in the chord than you really need. But leave them there because if you accidentally hit the wrong string (which is kinda common) then at least it will be a good note! Holding down the whole chord is a great habit to get into, sure later on when you are a fingerstyle expert you might not hold them all down all the time, but until then, it will keep you sounding cool!

Next up we are going to re-visit the 12 Bar Blues in BC-194 • 12 Bar Blues Variations

HELP!!!!

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