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Jump Start Fingerstyle Guitar

A quick, easy, fun and interactive approach for learning how to play fingerstyle guitar

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Jump Start Fingerstyle Guitar
Richard Gilewitz

Richard Gilewitz

Educator

acoustic, fingerstyle

Genres

About this course

Most beginners believe that they need to know how to read music, understand theory, struggle through boring exercises and learn hundreds of chords to play fingerstyle guitar. NOT SO!

Guitar is the most popular instrument on the planet because it's the easiest instrument to learn how to play. Thousands of popular songs can be played with just a few chords and a couple of fingerpicking patterns.

Learn those few chords and fingerpicking patterns, along with the basics of holding and tuning a guitar and you too will be able to play hundreds of your favorite songs. And that's what Jump Start Fingerstyle is all about - a quick, easy, fun and interactive approach for learning how to play fingerstyle guitar.

Jump Start Fingerstyle starts you off with a series of video guitar lessons showing you the finger naming conventions, how to tune up, hold the guitar and position your hands. Next up, you'll start learning the most common chords used in popular music - only 12 of them and they'?'re all easy! Once you've got a grip on the chords, you'll learn how to change chords easily and quickly while playing progressions and songs. Now the fun stuff - fingerpicking patterns! You'll learn the five most useful and popular fingerpicking patterns; the Forward Arpeggio pattern, the Reverse Arpeggio pattern, the Basic Pinch pattern, the Inside Roll pattern and the Forward Roll pattern. That's it! Now grab a songbook or download lyrics and chord sheets of your favorite songs and play your heart out!

What you'll learn

  • Execute the basic inside roll pattern (thumb-middle-thumb-index)
  • Practice smooth chord transitions in real-time
  • Control dynamics by emphasizing individual notes
  • Learn effective practice techniques using looping
  • Develop timing and rhythm skills by playing along with instructor
Release date: 09/12/2011 • 2h 00m runtime
late beginnerbeginneracoustic guitarguitarfingerpickingtechnique
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Sample lessons
How To Read A Chord Chart
How To Read A Chord Chart
Chord Chart Explanation
E Major Chord
E Major Chord
How to play the E chord
C7 Chord
C7 Chord
How to play the C7 chord
A Minor Chord
A Minor Chord
How to play A Minor chord

What's included

61 lessons • 22 charts

Jump Start Fingerstyle Guitar
Hi, I’m Richard Gilewitz. Welcome to my fingerstyle guitar course for beginners! I’ll be teaching you how to hold and tune the guitar, the names used for the fingers of the right and left hands, about a dozen easy-to-play chords and my favorite simple fingerpicking patterns.

You’ll learn by playing along with me, and you’ll also get chord charts and fingerpicking notation. These are provided in two forms -- as tablature and as musical notation.
Finger Naming Conventions
The first step in playing fingerstyle is to learn the universal naming conventions for both the left and right hand fingers. These names are used by all guitarists no matter what languages they speak.

For the fretting hand (which is the left hand for most guitarists), the fingers are named as follows:

Index finger = 1
Middle finger = 2
Ring finger – 3
Pinky = 4

The fingers of the picking hand (the right hand for most guitarists) are named with letters:

Thumb = P
Index = I
Middle= M
Ring = A

To see a chart laying out these universal finger-naming conventions, click the purple box marked CHART. You should see it right below the SHARE tab. This will download a PDF to your computer with all the necessary diagrams for this course. Scroll to the end of the PDF to see the finger name chart.

When reading music for the guitar, you’ll typically see left-hand fingerings written above the musical notation and right-hand fingers below it.
Proper Playing Position
In this lesson, I’ll demonstrate some different seated playing positions, and how to avoid developing bad habits that can lead to injury. It’s all about good posture, relaxing and breathing
Left and Right Hand Position
Let’s learn how to hold a flat pick (plectrum) properly and use it to strum the guitar. Notice how I use the pick to target different strings while I strum.

You can also strum with all the fingers. Keep your right shoulder relaxed and be sure to breathe.

When fretting chords, work on keeping your left wrist level so you don’t cause any strain. And keep your head up so you don’t strain your neck.
The Antatomy of the Guitar
In this lesson, I’m going to take you through all 12 parts of the guitar – from the headstock to the endpin.

We’ll also learn the numeric names for each string. The lowest string (E) is 6 and the highest E string is 1. Here are the notes and numeric names for the guitar strings:

Low E = 6
A = 5
D = 4
G = 3
B = 2
High E = 1
Tuning the Guitar
I’ll show you how to use a tuner to tune your guitar and some string-stretching tricks that help new strings stay in tune. Use delicate motions and move slowly when tuning – that will make it easier.
You can also tune a guitar by ear, which I recommend to develop your ear. I’ll show you how to do that – you can always check each string with your tuner, but this way you don’t rely on the tuner as a crutch, and you develop your ability to hear pitches.
How To Read A Chord Chart
A chord chart is a very clear, simple diagram that shows you exactly how to finger and play a chord. Note that if a string is marked X, you should not play it.

+ 54 more lessons

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Reviews

4 results

tspolitz

Verified buyer

08/26/20

Fantastic start

Intermediate player, bought course for my son who is just starting and brand new to guitar. I never learned "proper" finger style, so I'm working through the course with him. Very accessible course, would recommend.

kgautney

Verified buyer

06/10/20

Good intro

Great place to start understanding fingerstyle guitar. Good explanation of technique and plenty to practice.

janrock5763

Verified buyer

04/21/20

Very Helpful for the beginner

This course was very good for me because I am a guitarist who only plays with a pick. Now I am starting to like Fingerstyle playing.

Tom R.

Verified buyer

11/15/16

I was looking for a course to suggest to my nephew, a novice guitar player, when I discovered Jump Start Fingersyle Guitar. I'm not a beginner, I've played for a long time, but I never learned fingerstyle. This course is perfect for anyone on day one of guitar playing, or a more experienced player wish to learn fingerstyle guitar. This course gave me a great foundation in fingersyle, I'm enjoying practicing the different patterns. Great course, I strongly reccomend it.

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