50 Fingerpicking Licks You MUST Know

Asking fingerstyle virtuoso, prolific composer and top recording artist Pete Huttlinger to open up his playbook and share his favorite moves is like asking David Copperfield to reveal his favorite illusions. Both are widely-acclaimed as masters in their respective fields, and both have dedicated a lifetime of study and practice to perfect their art.

The difference is that we really don’t want to know how Copperfireld’s illusions work — it would spoil everything. On the other hand, we’ll take all the fretboard magic that Huttlinger is willing to reveal and still be amazed every time he performs.

So, we politely asked, Pete enthusiastically said ‘yes’ and all is revealed here in this stellar and very generous collection of 50 Fingerpickin’ Licks You MUST Know.

Pete’s cherry-picked collection covers a lot of ground from uptempo country and bluegrass moves to a series of country/blues endings, from walking bass lines to banjo style rolls, a few ways to play over the 6, 2, 5 1 progression, some cool jazz chordage, a yard full of blazing chicken pickin’ moves, a few delicious slow blues moves, call and answer licks, harmonized descending bass lines, Bossa Nova rhythmic patterns and an array of “awesome double stops” that Pete says are “worth the price of admission alone.”

Pete also shows us those tasty, jaw-dropping, ‘how does he do that’ signature moves that everyone always asks him about. Pete will lift the hood on the Merle Travis and Chet Atkins Cascade-inspired licks that he plays in Cannonball Rag, the ending of Go Tell It On The Mountain, the intro and the bridge from Brown Bomber, the ending to The Santa Rita Connection, the “controlled madness” from the intro of Oklahoma Twilight, the ending to The Small Stuff and few other best kept Huttlinger secrets.

All of the licks are first performed over a rhythm track so that you can hear and practice them at tempo, in a musical context. Each performance is then followed by a detailed breakdown of the lick and the techniques being employed to perform it. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you get all of the rhythm tracks used in the performances to practice with on your own.

Abracadabra — all is revealed!