TGmickles
Verified buyer
04/10/26
A great course to fuel creativity
This is a great course. Christie’s teaching style is easy to follow. This course focuses on allowing the student to be creative. I go back to this course often for inspiration.
Creative Fingerstyle Guitar for Songwriters
24 Creative Approaches for Accompaniment & Songwriting on Guitar
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About this course
Songwriters often find themselves stuck in a creative rut playing the same old chords and patterns. How do you free yourself from traditional forms? How do you break out of the box? How can you expand your palette of musical ideas? For all those answers and mega doses of inspiration, dig deep into Christie Lenée’s Creative Fingerstyle Guitar for Songwriters.
Combining guitar virtuosity, lyrical storytelling, and a passion for positivity, Christie Lenée leaves her audiences feeling inspired. “She's got unparalleled skill on the guitar, songs that go straight to the heart, plus an immediate and deep connection with the audience. She wowed everybody!”
2017 International Fingerstyle Guitar Champion Christie Lenée views the guitar as an entire spectrum of musical possibilities. Rooted from the simplicity of seeing the guitar first as a tool for self-expression, she says that one of the greatest skills to develop as a musician is to be able to "play what you hear" and speak music as a language. "To feel relaxed, fluid and connected to the instrument is like breathing... and THAT is when the magic happens."
Christie's masterful guitar work and profound instrumental compositions are well described as 'Michael Hedges meets Joni Mitchell and Dave Matthews.’ She is also a passionate educator and we’re very excited to welcome Christie to the family with her first TrueFire course, Creative Fingerstyle Guitar for Songwriters.
Christie will share creative insights about the guitar beginning at fundamentals of holding the instrument, how to play completely relaxed with minimal effort, and how to translate musical expressions through our hands. Other concepts include songwriting and composition approaches, opening up the guitar neck, right-hand fingerpicking patterns with creative examples, open tunings and variations, using harmonics and low drones, creating memorable guitar riffs, and an intro to rhythmic guitar slapping and tapping.
”Throughout the course I’ll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We’ll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions.”
Christie organized the course in a series of studies. In the first and second study, she’ll show you a handful of melodic applications for harmonizing major scales with new grooves and patterns. In the third study, you’ll learn how to apply chromatic movement, low drones, and harmonics on a melodic ballad in drop-D. The next study, in the key of C, explores new concepts including open string pull-offs, slides, and upper position chord voicings.
The fifth and sixth studies focus on altering bass notes, coloring chords, adding harmonics and right-hand slaps with a funky groove. The seventh and final study introduces DADGAD tuning, right-hand percussion, left-hand finger tapping and upper voice melodies.
"One of the most inspiring things about the guitar is its endless potential for creating interesting sonic landscapes. Songwriters often find themselves stuck in a creative rut playing the same old chords and patterns. I've designed this course to help you break out of the box and expand your palette of musical ideas. Throughout the course, I'll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We'll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions."
As you work through all of the studies, Christie shares 24 fresh and creative approaches for accompaniment and songwriting on guitar: Major Scale Exploration, Harmonize a Scale Melodically, Incorporate a Picking Pattern, Groove & Melody Interplay, Play with Picking Pattern, Forget What You Know, Play with Chromatic Movement, Drone Notes & Scale-Based Melodies, Harmonics for Melody Ideas, Rhythmic Percussive Slap, Embellish Progressions with Slides, Try Playing with Higher Voicings, Exploring Open String Colors, Percussive Picking, Change Bass Notes Mid Pattern, Try Relative Minor in a Progression, Re-voice Your Chords with Harmonics, Cascading Harmonics, Try an Open Tuning, Moving Bass Lines to Build Songs, Melody in the Top Voice, Adding Dynamic Textures in Middle Voice, Guitar Percussion & Tapping, and DADGAD tuning.
All of the performance studies come with standard notation, tablature, and a detailed breakdown. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos down so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar, and let’s bust out of our ruts with Christie Lenée!
Combining guitar virtuosity, lyrical storytelling, and a passion for positivity, Christie Lenée leaves her audiences feeling inspired. “She's got unparalleled skill on the guitar, songs that go straight to the heart, plus an immediate and deep connection with the audience. She wowed everybody!”
2017 International Fingerstyle Guitar Champion Christie Lenée views the guitar as an entire spectrum of musical possibilities. Rooted from the simplicity of seeing the guitar first as a tool for self-expression, she says that one of the greatest skills to develop as a musician is to be able to "play what you hear" and speak music as a language. "To feel relaxed, fluid and connected to the instrument is like breathing... and THAT is when the magic happens."
Christie's masterful guitar work and profound instrumental compositions are well described as 'Michael Hedges meets Joni Mitchell and Dave Matthews.’ She is also a passionate educator and we’re very excited to welcome Christie to the family with her first TrueFire course, Creative Fingerstyle Guitar for Songwriters.
Christie will share creative insights about the guitar beginning at fundamentals of holding the instrument, how to play completely relaxed with minimal effort, and how to translate musical expressions through our hands. Other concepts include songwriting and composition approaches, opening up the guitar neck, right-hand fingerpicking patterns with creative examples, open tunings and variations, using harmonics and low drones, creating memorable guitar riffs, and an intro to rhythmic guitar slapping and tapping.
”Throughout the course I’ll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We’ll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions.”
Christie organized the course in a series of studies. In the first and second study, she’ll show you a handful of melodic applications for harmonizing major scales with new grooves and patterns. In the third study, you’ll learn how to apply chromatic movement, low drones, and harmonics on a melodic ballad in drop-D. The next study, in the key of C, explores new concepts including open string pull-offs, slides, and upper position chord voicings.
The fifth and sixth studies focus on altering bass notes, coloring chords, adding harmonics and right-hand slaps with a funky groove. The seventh and final study introduces DADGAD tuning, right-hand percussion, left-hand finger tapping and upper voice melodies.
"One of the most inspiring things about the guitar is its endless potential for creating interesting sonic landscapes. Songwriters often find themselves stuck in a creative rut playing the same old chords and patterns. I've designed this course to help you break out of the box and expand your palette of musical ideas. Throughout the course, I'll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We'll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions."
As you work through all of the studies, Christie shares 24 fresh and creative approaches for accompaniment and songwriting on guitar: Major Scale Exploration, Harmonize a Scale Melodically, Incorporate a Picking Pattern, Groove & Melody Interplay, Play with Picking Pattern, Forget What You Know, Play with Chromatic Movement, Drone Notes & Scale-Based Melodies, Harmonics for Melody Ideas, Rhythmic Percussive Slap, Embellish Progressions with Slides, Try Playing with Higher Voicings, Exploring Open String Colors, Percussive Picking, Change Bass Notes Mid Pattern, Try Relative Minor in a Progression, Re-voice Your Chords with Harmonics, Cascading Harmonics, Try an Open Tuning, Moving Bass Lines to Build Songs, Melody in the Top Voice, Adding Dynamic Textures in Middle Voice, Guitar Percussion & Tapping, and DADGAD tuning.
All of the performance studies come with standard notation, tablature, and a detailed breakdown. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos down so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar, and let’s bust out of our ruts with Christie Lenée!
What you'll learn
- Apply 2-5 progressions and chord substitutions in the key of C
- Create melodic lines from chord shapes rather than playing full chords
- Apply P I M fingerpicking pattern to partial chord voicings
- Combine harmonic and fretted techniques in a progression
- Incorporate pull-offs and grace notes into fingerstyle chord progressions
Release date: 06/25/2018 • 1h 57m runtime
Sample lessons
Major Scale Exploration
Demonstration
Forget What You Know
Demonstration
Rhythmic Percussive Slap
Demonstration
Change Bass Notes Mid Pattern
Demonstration
What's included
42 lessons • 7 charts
Creative Fingerstyle Guitar for Songwriters
One of the most inspiring things about the guitar is it's endless potential for creating interesting sonic landscapes. Songwriters often find themselves stuck in a creative rut playing the same old chords and patterns. I've designed this course to help you break out of the box and expand your palette of musical ideas.
Throughout the course, I'll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We'll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions. Let's dig in!
Throughout the course, I'll show you more than 20 creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. We'll apply those concepts across seven performance studies that integrate melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas. You can learn them note for note, from top to bottom, or just pull out a few pieces to inspire your own compositions. Let's dig in!
Major Scale Exploration
What better way to spend your day than playing your guitar?! The best way to get better at this instrument is to find a creative and fun way to spend your practice time. Even something as basic as the major scale can be an inspiring workout if you find a way to structure your practice in a way that sounds musical. Try these approaches and then come up with some of your own fun ways to make interesting song ideas out of your practice time.
Harmonize a Scale Melodically
The next thing to try is what I call "chord scales" or harmonizing a scale. It's another really musical way to get some inspiring ideas out of practice time. For this example, I'm using the third interval to harmonize the major scale and exploring ways to use finger picked patterns and drone notes for more musical practice time as well. I'll also show you some tips for positioning your hand and wrist to get the most out of your practice.
Incorporate a Picking Pattern
PIMA is a system of identifying right hand picking patterns. We'll talk a little bit about that here as well as a few simple patterns that you can apply to any progression you come up with. A lot of creativity can be found in a simple exercise like a right hand picking pattern. Try to work on finding the most efficient way to play patterns with your right hand, so you can make playing your guitar like breathing — and it's always a good routine to start identifying and journaling your favorite patterns using the PIMA labeling system.
Groove & Melody Interplay
Understanding the interplay between groove and melody are part of what make great guitar arrangements, and exploring fun grooves can make simple melodies or progressions come alive with very little effort. Play around with a simple progression using a few new grooves and patterns, and before you know it, you're building a great song idea with might otherwise be a repetitive exercise.
Play with Picking Pattern Timing
Take a harmonic structure, add a meter, and find a picking pattern that sets up the groove - pretty soon you're writing a song. Your picking patterns can play a big role in groove creation. By simply exploring the rhythmic placement of your picking patterns and the way it falls over a particular chord change, you'd be surprised with how much inspiration you can find.
Thirds Groove in E Study
"Speed is just precision." The more time you spend on your rhythm practice, the higher your precision as a player will become. It's important to always look at your right hand picking patterns and look for ways to be cleaner, more efficient, and more precise. In the upcoming performance examples, I'll be giving you some great workouts for improving your right hand fingerstyle precision, but these exercises are just examples for you to build from. You should be taking the concepts here and applying them to some of your own progressions and grooves. That's how you find yourself turning practice time into songwriting time.
+ 35 more lessons
Reviews
17 results
Chinmay1729
Verified buyer
09/11/25
Great course!
This is an amazing course. I am enjoying every moment of it.
Shako
Verified buyer
12/21/24
Great bang for you buck!
This really helps to actually gain nteresting skills. As a source of inspiration as well as being able to get some beautiful music under your fingers to play.
cinessa
Verified buyer
11/14/24
Not Blot done yet but but love her teachings and her style! Awesome!!
jhpicklo
Verified buyer
09/16/24
Very helpful techniques and tips. The material is presented in way that’s easy to follow.
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