String Love Guitar Lessons

Now we’re starting to get someplace interesting!

First came the basics of Travis-style thumb technique.

Next, we looked at basic ways of incorporating the index and middle fingers into the Travis-style alternating bass. However, in that lesson, we were focusing on using either the index or middle finger rather than incorporating both fingers in the same accompaniment pattern.

Today, then, let’s begin working some basic Travis-style patterns that call on both the index and middle finger to play in between the steady alternating Travis bass.

Here is a video to illustrate the patterns we’re going to be looking at today:

Make sense?

I’m going to refer to these two patterns as:

1) PIPM

1 ———————————————————————————————–
2 ——————M——————-M——————M———————M———
3 ——–I———–———I———–———I———–-———I———–-———–
4 ————-P——————-P——————-P——————–P—————-
5 –P—————————————-P————————————————–
6 ———————–P—————————————–P—————————-

and

2) PMPI

1 ————————————————————————————————
2 ——-M——–-———-M——————-M———–——–M————————-
3 ——————-I———————I——————-I————————I———
4 ————-P——————-P——————-P——————–P—————-
5 –P—————————————-P————————————————–
6 ———————-–P—————————————–P—————————-

(remember: P refers to the thumb, I refers to the index finger and M refers to the middle finger)

For now, always keep your index finger on the 3rd string while your middle finger remains on the 2nd string.

When you play the first pattern (PIPM), the index finger plays after the first bass note, and the middle finger plays after the second. This creates a tight 4-note pattern with two alternating bass notes against two treble notes.

The key here is to make sure your treble notes ring out exactly in between the two bass notes. This pattern won’t sound right if your timing is off. To figure out how to get the timing right-on, use a metronome. Work slowly at first by putting the metronome to 60 beats per minute. Try playing one note per click, and once you have the feel for each of the notes occupying its proper amount of space, you can increase the speed.

As is usually the case with practicing at slow speeds, this pattern won’t really sound like music until you get it moving at a certain clip (say, 80 beats per minute playing 1/8th notes…). However, the slow, patient practice you put in to master the fundamentals of the PIPM pattern will absolutely carry you forward far faster than simply stumbling over yourself trying to play fast without actually being able to.

For the second pattern (PMPI), you simply switch the order you played your middle and index fingers. Otherwise, the same keys apply: go slowly, pay close attention to the rhythm and use a metronome.

Some Important Details Regarding these Patterns

If you want to increase the effectiveness of these patterns, practice them at very high volume. Force yourself to push for loudness, particularly if you are prone to playing quietly. The more power you have at your disposal as you play these patterns, the more you’ll be able to use them for powerful musical effect.

As you’re just beginning, really work on having good movement in all your fingers. Refer to my previous lessons if you’re not sure what good finger movement feels like.

To recap: the thumb should remain relatively firm and straight as it plays through its notes. Don’t let it float all over the place. Instead, move it powerfully and efficiently from one note to the next and back again. Pull from high up in the thumb toward the palm where you have a lot of power.

For the index and middle fingers, take care not to claw at the strings with most of the movement coming from the knuckle closest to the fingertip. Instead, use a waving motion with both fingers pulling from the middle knuckle and the knuckle closest to the palm.

Pay attention to the sound you get as you play these patterns. Strive for clean, crisp and powerful notes. Developing these things takes time, but every bit of attention and focus you can bring in at the beginning will absolutely pay off hugely for you down the road.

Between the video and these instructions, I hope that sets you up for success with these Travis-style patterns. As always, let me know what you think in the comments and I’ll do everything I can to help you master these foundations of fingerstyle guitar.

Once you’ve become familiar with the alternating thumb bass for Travis-style guitar, it’s time to add in your index and middle fingers. This beginning Travis-style guitar lesson covers this next step in learning to play this popular fingerpicking style.

We’re going to ease into this. Until you develop the feel for how Travis-style works, it can be daunting and difficult.

So let’s approach it all easy-like by, first, just including the index finger in between the thumb strokes.

Check out this video for a live explanation:

Got that? Your index finger always hangs out on the 3rd string for this exercise, and all you do is play the index finger in between every single thumb bass note.

If you follow those directions, you’ll be playing the following tab (P is the guitar-nerd abbreviation for thumb):

1 ———————————————————————————————–
2 ————————————————————————————————
3 ——–I———-I———I———-I———I———–I———I———–I———–
4 ————-P——————-P——————-P——————–P—————-
5 –P—————————————-P————————————————–
6 ———————–P—————————————–P—————————-

We don’t want to leave the middle finger out of the fun, though.

So check out this video to see the same exercise played using the middle finger instead of the index finger:

And here’s the tab of how to perform the exercise just demonstrated in that video:

1 ————————————————————————————————
2 ——-M——–M——-M———M——-M———M——–M———M———-
3 ————————————————————————————————
4 ————-P——————-P——————-P——————–P—————-
5 –P—————————————-P————————————————–
6 ———————–P—————————————–P—————————-

We’re just getting started, but already there’s plenty to master here before you dive into the deeper waters of Travis-style guitar.

For now, get these exercises running as smoothly as you can with fantastic tone. Make sure all the notes ring fully when you play them. Then, push for speed.

But remember–speed only counts if all the other pieces of the playing puzzle are in place.

So get out there and get Travis-styling!

Today, let’s take a look at one of the most important–and fantastic!–arpeggios you can play on the guitar.

The PIMAMI arpeggio.

Where the PIMA arpeggio stops, the PIMAMI arpeggio continues. You go from your thumb through the index and middle fingers to the ring finger, and then you bring things back toward the bass by playing the middle and then index fingers once again.

Even though we’re only adding in two extra fingers on top of the PIMA arpeggio we already played, this PIMAMI arpeggio is much, much more challenging from the standpoint of getting the fingers to move smoothly and freely.

It all comes down to that crucial moment when your ring finger plays and your middle and index fingers have to kick back out to get ready to play their notes the second time around.

Check out this video for a full demonstration and explanation:

No matter how many times I tell you to take this slowly and really work on making these movements smooth, relaxed and fluid, you are probably going to underestimate the challenge posed by this PIMAMI arpeggio.

And that’s okay.

The fact is that you can always come back and re-work this arpeggio down the road. And the fact is that you’re going to want to–this arpeggio is a fantastic accompaniment pattern you can use whenever you play music on the guitar (in 3/4 time).

I play the arpeggio practically every day. I use it all over the place. Even at its most simple and straightforward, it sounds fantastic.

So get to it! Use that metronome and work this arpeggio until it become second nature. Your guitar playing will thank you forevermore.

Now that we’ve looked at the key points to keep in mind as you learn the PIMA arpeggio, let’s go more in-depth and apply this arpeggio to a chord progression.

In this lesson, the chord progression we’ll be using is:

C G/B Am G/B C

For this entire progression, your thumb plays the 5th string while your I, M and A fingers play the 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings respectively. They play those same strings the entire time through each of the chord changes.

That G/B chord isn’t as hard as you might at first think. All you do is play your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th string and your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string.

To see this arpeggio in action with explanation for some of the key things to keep in mind as you work it, check out this video:

By far the most important thing here is for you to get used to playing the arpeggio in time right through the chord changes.

A metronome can serve as your best friend for this work.

Set it to a slow speed–like 60 beats per minute–and then play along with it through the PIMA arpeggio.

You may find that, at first, even 60 beats per minute is too fast for you to stay in time AND change the chords. That’s okay. Simply keep the metronome at 60 bpm but play every other click or even every fourth click.

It is FAR better to play slowly but in time than to play quickly but completely out of time.

If you can find a slow speed at which you can perform these movements and have everything sound good, then you can easily speed things up as you practice.

However, if you never take the time to go deep down into the slow speeds where you can actually perform the movements and make everything happen in time, then you will likely grow frustrated and quit trying to learn to play the guitar altogether.

So, as I’ve said a million times before, GO SLOWLY. Take your time. Slowly, slowly work at this and you’ll have it in no time.

Arpeggios are like the building blocks of great fingerstyle guitar playing.

Fingerstylists often jump from arpeggio to arpeggio across a piece. Mastering a wide variety of arpeggios helps you in so many ways as a guitarist. You build your hand’s strength and dexterity. You develop an easy fluency that allows you to enter any musical situation with plenty to say. You get to focus intensely on the micro-movements your fingers make as they play.

And out of all the arpeggios you can play on the guitar, one arpeggio above all others stands as the foundation for everything else you will play: the PIMA Arpeggio.

Check out this video for an introduction to the PIMA Arpeggio–what it is and some important things you need to keep in mind as you work on it:

To summarize the video:

It is absolutely worth taking the time to really master the PIMA Arpeggio since so much of what you’ll do in the future on the guitar rests on this sequence.

Work carefully and slowly, and pay close attention to the way the thumb and fingers move.

One of the key ideas to keep in mind as you learn the PIMA Arpeggio is “Preparations.” Preparations involve placing your fingers back on the strings after they play at the beginning of the next arpeggio sequence.

So, as your thumb returns to its bass string, bring your I, M and A fingers into contact with their respective strings as well.

Preparing is something I’ll hit on again and again. For now, just note that as you return to the top of the arpeggio and get ready to play with your thumb, bring your other fingers to rest on the strings they will play.

Finally, work this arpeggio at a slow speed with a metronome so that there’s no yawning space between the end of the arpeggio (when A plays) and the beginning of the arpeggio (when P starts off the next round).

If you work slowly and methodically with a metronome, you will quickly make the arpeggio sound like a continuous stream of notes, which is exactly what we’re after.