coffeedrinker
Verified buyer
02/12/26
Challenging
Only 50% through the course. I am enjoying the course, but finding it challenging. Hope to complete and progress my guitar playing.
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles
Energize Your Fingerstyle Chops with this Acoustic Learning Path Core Course
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About this course
Welcome to Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles for intermediate to late Intermediate students of Acoustic guitar.
This Acoustic Learning Path core course is presented by 4 top TrueFire educators: Tommy Emmanuel, Peppino D’Agostino, Muriel Anderson, and Brooks Robertson.
The Fingerstyle Principles curriculum is comprised of select Acoustic guitar lessons from the educators’ existing TrueFire course libraries.
Fingerstyle guitar technique takes full advantage of the instrument’s polyphonic qualities, which is one of the main reasons it's so popular across so many styles of music. You’ll find fingerstyle techniques in blues, rock, jazz, country, classical, folk, singer-songwriter, and dozens of other genres and subgenres. While specific fingerstyle techniques will vary across musical styles, they all call for finger and thumb independance so that you can play a bass line, a rhythm part, and a melody line simultaneously. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the requisite skills to take your fingerstyle technique to the next level.
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles is organized into 3 sections. In the first section, Tommy Emmanuel presents an extraordinarily effective method for learning how to play fingerstyle from the ground up. In Section 2, Brooks Robertson enhances your basic skills with additional fingerstyle principles and techniques. In the third and final section, Muriel Anderson and Peppino D’Agostino present 5 performance studies to prime your repertoire and put your fingerstyle skills to good use.
When you’ve completed the lessons here in Fingerstyle Principles, you’ll find more lessons focused on fingerstyle techniques in Fingerstyle Approaches, also a Play Acoustic Guitar 5 core course.
All of the key examples are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you’ll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
This Acoustic Learning Path core course is presented by 4 top TrueFire educators: Tommy Emmanuel, Peppino D’Agostino, Muriel Anderson, and Brooks Robertson.
The Fingerstyle Principles curriculum is comprised of select Acoustic guitar lessons from the educators’ existing TrueFire course libraries.
Fingerstyle guitar technique takes full advantage of the instrument’s polyphonic qualities, which is one of the main reasons it's so popular across so many styles of music. You’ll find fingerstyle techniques in blues, rock, jazz, country, classical, folk, singer-songwriter, and dozens of other genres and subgenres. While specific fingerstyle techniques will vary across musical styles, they all call for finger and thumb independance so that you can play a bass line, a rhythm part, and a melody line simultaneously. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the requisite skills to take your fingerstyle technique to the next level.
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles is organized into 3 sections. In the first section, Tommy Emmanuel presents an extraordinarily effective method for learning how to play fingerstyle from the ground up. In Section 2, Brooks Robertson enhances your basic skills with additional fingerstyle principles and techniques. In the third and final section, Muriel Anderson and Peppino D’Agostino present 5 performance studies to prime your repertoire and put your fingerstyle skills to good use.
When you’ve completed the lessons here in Fingerstyle Principles, you’ll find more lessons focused on fingerstyle techniques in Fingerstyle Approaches, also a Play Acoustic Guitar 5 core course.
All of the key examples are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you’ll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators.
Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
What you'll learn
- Create melodic chord embellishments
- Adapt learned techniques
- Develop flexible right-hand fingerpicking technique
- Improve picking technique efficiency
- Learn performance studies
Release date: 09/14/2016 • 3h 29m runtime
Sample lessons
Fingerstyle Foundations
SECTION 1: Overview
Types of Guitars
Overview
The Thumbpick
Overview
String Tuning & Guages
Overview
What's included
67 lessons • 25 charts
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles
Welcome to Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles for intermediate to late Intermediate students of Acoustic guitar.
This Acoustic Learning Path core course is presented by 4 top TrueFire educators: Tommy Emmanuel, Peppino D'Agostino, Muriel Anderson, and Brooks Robertson.
The Fingerstyle Principles curriculum is comprised of select Acoustic guitar lessons from the educators' existing TrueFire course libraries.
Fingerstyle guitar technique takes full advantage of the instrument's polyphonic qualities, which is one of the main reasons it's so popular across so many styles of music. You'll find fingerstyle techniques in blues, rock, jazz, country, classical, folk, singer-songwriter, and dozens of other genres and subgenres. While specific fingerstyle techniques will vary across musical styles, they all call for finger and thumb independance so that you can play a bass line, a rhythm part, and a melody line simultaneously. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the requisite skills to take your fingerstyle technique to the next level.
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles is organized into 3 sections. In the first section, Tommy Emmanuel presents an extraordinarily effective method for learning how to play fingerstyle from the ground up. In Section 2, Brooks Robertson enhances your basic skills with additional fingerstyle principles and techniques. In the third and final section, Muriel Anderson and Peppino D'Agostino present 5 performance studies to prime your repertoire and put your fingerstyle skills to good use.
When you've completed the lessons here in Fingerstyle Principles, you'll find more lessons focused on fingerstyle techniques in Fingerstyle Approaches, also a Play Acoustic Guitar 5 core course.
All of the key examples are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You'll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you'll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators. Grab your guitar and let's get started!
This Acoustic Learning Path core course is presented by 4 top TrueFire educators: Tommy Emmanuel, Peppino D'Agostino, Muriel Anderson, and Brooks Robertson.
The Fingerstyle Principles curriculum is comprised of select Acoustic guitar lessons from the educators' existing TrueFire course libraries.
Fingerstyle guitar technique takes full advantage of the instrument's polyphonic qualities, which is one of the main reasons it's so popular across so many styles of music. You'll find fingerstyle techniques in blues, rock, jazz, country, classical, folk, singer-songwriter, and dozens of other genres and subgenres. While specific fingerstyle techniques will vary across musical styles, they all call for finger and thumb independance so that you can play a bass line, a rhythm part, and a melody line simultaneously. The video guitar lessons in this core course will equip you with the requisite skills to take your fingerstyle technique to the next level.
Play Acoustic Guitar 5: Fingerstyle Principles is organized into 3 sections. In the first section, Tommy Emmanuel presents an extraordinarily effective method for learning how to play fingerstyle from the ground up. In Section 2, Brooks Robertson enhances your basic skills with additional fingerstyle principles and techniques. In the third and final section, Muriel Anderson and Peppino D'Agostino present 5 performance studies to prime your repertoire and put your fingerstyle skills to good use.
When you've completed the lessons here in Fingerstyle Principles, you'll find more lessons focused on fingerstyle techniques in Fingerstyle Approaches, also a Play Acoustic Guitar 5 core course.
All of the key examples are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You'll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Take as much time as you need to work through each video guitar lesson before moving on to the next lesson. If you want to dig deeper or wider into any of the topics covered in this core course, check out the recommended supplementary courses in your learning path where you'll find more examples, techniques and insight from top TrueFire educators. Grab your guitar and let's get started!
Fingerstyle Foundations
In this section, Tommy Emmanuel presents an extraordinarily effective method for learning how to play fingerstyle from the ground up. Tommy discusses and demonstrates key techniques including thumbpicks, tunings, types of fingerstyle, finger and thumb independance, palm mutes, syncopated chords and arpeggios, melody and other foundational techniques. Tommy also guides you through several etudes for you to practice with.
TIP! A great way to stay excited about practicing something is if it starts to actually sound like the lesson. This is accomplished by getting down the technique, working it up to speed and so on. BUT, it is also important to try and get as close as you can to the sound and the tone of the instructor's guitar. They have been dialing in their tone for years so it makes sense to try and emulate what they are doing. Take your time and tweak on your amp - listen to what their guitar sounds like and get yours as close to that as you can. This will actually make your playing sound better to your ear and give you more confidence!
TIP! A great way to stay excited about practicing something is if it starts to actually sound like the lesson. This is accomplished by getting down the technique, working it up to speed and so on. BUT, it is also important to try and get as close as you can to the sound and the tone of the instructor's guitar. They have been dialing in their tone for years so it makes sense to try and emulate what they are doing. Take your time and tweak on your amp - listen to what their guitar sounds like and get yours as close to that as you can. This will actually make your playing sound better to your ear and give you more confidence!
Types of Guitars
Types of Guitars - Overview is a video guitar lesson presented by Tommy Emmanuel and is sourced from Fingerstyle Milestones.
Hello thrill seekers! We are going to be talking about many things today. First of all I want to talk about your guitar, and what kind of guitar you play. A lot of people think that playing fingerstyle they have to have a certain kind of guitar. That's not true. The best guitar for you is the one that you love playing. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter where it was made, what it costs, what name is on it. If you like playing it, that is what is important. I'm playing a steel string acoustic guitar. This is a Maton guitar. I like this particular guitar because it suits me. The neck is nice and fine, it has a good feel to it. The reason I'm bringing guitars up is because a lot of the stuff that I play, and that fingerstyle players play, we sometimes bring our thumb over the top. So if you're playing nylon string or a classical guitar, they have a much wider neck. So unless you've got fairly big hands you're going to struggle to get your thumb over the top. So what I'm hoping to show you in this course is alternative ways of being able to play the things that I would normally play with my thumb, but with your finger, to bar it across. So that's going to be important for you to know that. If you haven't bought a guitar yet and you're just getting started don't spend a fortune on a guitar. Just get a decent guitar. Something that's a well-proven brand like Fender, Yamaha, Ibanez, Maton, Martin, Gibson, any of those, they are all good. They will all do the job for you. It's your choice whether you go steel string or nylon string. The reason I don't play nylon string too much is that I don't play with my nails. This is something that is your choice as well. You can either choose to grow your nails and play like so many fingerstyle player do. They either use their nails or they use the acrylic nails. I play with calluses that I've developed on the tips of my fingers. You could do that as well. Some people play with finger picks instead of nails. So there are a lot of choices out there.
Hello thrill seekers! We are going to be talking about many things today. First of all I want to talk about your guitar, and what kind of guitar you play. A lot of people think that playing fingerstyle they have to have a certain kind of guitar. That's not true. The best guitar for you is the one that you love playing. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter where it was made, what it costs, what name is on it. If you like playing it, that is what is important. I'm playing a steel string acoustic guitar. This is a Maton guitar. I like this particular guitar because it suits me. The neck is nice and fine, it has a good feel to it. The reason I'm bringing guitars up is because a lot of the stuff that I play, and that fingerstyle players play, we sometimes bring our thumb over the top. So if you're playing nylon string or a classical guitar, they have a much wider neck. So unless you've got fairly big hands you're going to struggle to get your thumb over the top. So what I'm hoping to show you in this course is alternative ways of being able to play the things that I would normally play with my thumb, but with your finger, to bar it across. So that's going to be important for you to know that. If you haven't bought a guitar yet and you're just getting started don't spend a fortune on a guitar. Just get a decent guitar. Something that's a well-proven brand like Fender, Yamaha, Ibanez, Maton, Martin, Gibson, any of those, they are all good. They will all do the job for you. It's your choice whether you go steel string or nylon string. The reason I don't play nylon string too much is that I don't play with my nails. This is something that is your choice as well. You can either choose to grow your nails and play like so many fingerstyle player do. They either use their nails or they use the acrylic nails. I play with calluses that I've developed on the tips of my fingers. You could do that as well. Some people play with finger picks instead of nails. So there are a lot of choices out there.
The Thumbpick
The Thumbpick - Overview is a video guitar lesson presented by Tommy Emmanuel and is sourced from Fingerstyle Milestones.
I'd like to talk about thumbpicks and how to use them and the different kinds. The thumbpicks that I like are the Jim Dunlop thumbpicks. I also have other thumbpicks that are made by Jim Dunlop that have my signature on them. I like this plastic, strong, thick thumbpick. There are a lot of different kinds of thumbpicks and you have to find what works for you. Make sure that it's not too loose, that it sits nice and tight, yet doesn't give you the blue finger. If a thumbpick is too tight, it will cut off the circulation and the end of your thumb will go cold and sometimes they go blue. I think that's why Jerry Reed wrote the song Blue Finger because he was wearing a thumbpick that was too tight. You've got the Fred Kelly picks, which are softer. They don't suit me, but a lot of people use them. The Jim Dunlop are the ones that I like the most. These work for me. They shouldn't be too long and they should just sit nicely. There's also a lot to be said for playing without a thumbpick. Quite a lot of the songs that I play, I take the thumbpick off and just use the flesh of my thumb. The reason I do that is because it gives it a softer, gentler sound. In the Robert Johnson blues style or Eric Clapton - you can see that he doesn't use a thumbpick. What he does is gets his thumb under the string and pops it out and give it that funky kind of edge. So that's another way of using your thumb. That's what I wanted to tell you about thumbpicks, experiment, go to music shops and try twenty different thumbpicks until you feel it is sitting good. Sit and play some songs and get it to where you feel where you can rely on that thumbpick to be sounding good and sitting in the right spot. So it's up to you. Some people have small hands. My wife has very small hands. She wants to play fingerstyle the same as I do. In order to find her a thumbpick that's small enough - she just found this thumbpick in a store and then put a little electrcal tape on it to make it tighter. So if you find most thumbpicks are too big for you, find one that is close and then put a little bit of tape on it and make it tight on your finger. It's a way of being clever and inventive to help you play better and play your music better, so that's a good idea.
I'd like to talk about thumbpicks and how to use them and the different kinds. The thumbpicks that I like are the Jim Dunlop thumbpicks. I also have other thumbpicks that are made by Jim Dunlop that have my signature on them. I like this plastic, strong, thick thumbpick. There are a lot of different kinds of thumbpicks and you have to find what works for you. Make sure that it's not too loose, that it sits nice and tight, yet doesn't give you the blue finger. If a thumbpick is too tight, it will cut off the circulation and the end of your thumb will go cold and sometimes they go blue. I think that's why Jerry Reed wrote the song Blue Finger because he was wearing a thumbpick that was too tight. You've got the Fred Kelly picks, which are softer. They don't suit me, but a lot of people use them. The Jim Dunlop are the ones that I like the most. These work for me. They shouldn't be too long and they should just sit nicely. There's also a lot to be said for playing without a thumbpick. Quite a lot of the songs that I play, I take the thumbpick off and just use the flesh of my thumb. The reason I do that is because it gives it a softer, gentler sound. In the Robert Johnson blues style or Eric Clapton - you can see that he doesn't use a thumbpick. What he does is gets his thumb under the string and pops it out and give it that funky kind of edge. So that's another way of using your thumb. That's what I wanted to tell you about thumbpicks, experiment, go to music shops and try twenty different thumbpicks until you feel it is sitting good. Sit and play some songs and get it to where you feel where you can rely on that thumbpick to be sounding good and sitting in the right spot. So it's up to you. Some people have small hands. My wife has very small hands. She wants to play fingerstyle the same as I do. In order to find her a thumbpick that's small enough - she just found this thumbpick in a store and then put a little electrcal tape on it to make it tighter. So if you find most thumbpicks are too big for you, find one that is close and then put a little bit of tape on it and make it tight on your finger. It's a way of being clever and inventive to help you play better and play your music better, so that's a good idea.
String Tuning & Guages
String Tuning & Guages - Overview is a video guitar lesson presented by Tommy Emmanuel and is sourced from Fingerstyle Milestones.
I get asked a lot about the tunings that I use. Most of my songs are in normal guitar tuning. A lot of people associate fingerstyle guitar with open tunings. It's true, there are a lot of players who play in unusual tunings. Like a drop C tuning, or a DADGAD tuning, or an open G. The guitar sounds wonderful tuned in these open tunings. I don't play many songs in open tunings. I have a couple of songs. some songs that I've written because of the actual tuning. I guess the most unusual tuing that I use is normal guitar tuning and then the A string is down to G, and the E string is down to D, then the rest of it is normal. When you play it open, technically it's a G 6th tuning with a D base. I got that tuning from Chet Atkins. I wrote songs like The Tall Fiddler, The Cowboy's Dream, The Mystery - I wrote those songs in that tuning becasue I love that tuning. As far as strings go, I use uncoated strings because my hands don't sweat. If you have sweat or clammy hands you need to wash your hands more. You can buy coated strings and they will last a lot longer if you're the type of person that sweats battery acid. Too many hamburgers! The gauges of these strings, they are a light gauge, Martin strings. They are 12 to 54. That is right in the middle. The guitar is nice and comfortable, the action is nice and comfortable and the strings have just enough bite-back for me to enjoy playing it and for me being able to dig in. A lot of people start out with lighter strings, like 11-52. That's fine. You just have to know that you're not going to get the volume and the punch out of your guitar, but you will when you use a slightly heavier string. Some of my other guitars I use medium gauge strings which is 13-56. I keep an eye on the neck, you have to have the neck nice and straight. When the neck is straight there's not as much pressure to push the strings down, not as much hard work to get the clarity. Make sure your guitar is set up nicely with good strings on it, you've got your thumbpick, you've got the right attitude, you're all ready to go.
I get asked a lot about the tunings that I use. Most of my songs are in normal guitar tuning. A lot of people associate fingerstyle guitar with open tunings. It's true, there are a lot of players who play in unusual tunings. Like a drop C tuning, or a DADGAD tuning, or an open G. The guitar sounds wonderful tuned in these open tunings. I don't play many songs in open tunings. I have a couple of songs. some songs that I've written because of the actual tuning. I guess the most unusual tuing that I use is normal guitar tuning and then the A string is down to G, and the E string is down to D, then the rest of it is normal. When you play it open, technically it's a G 6th tuning with a D base. I got that tuning from Chet Atkins. I wrote songs like The Tall Fiddler, The Cowboy's Dream, The Mystery - I wrote those songs in that tuning becasue I love that tuning. As far as strings go, I use uncoated strings because my hands don't sweat. If you have sweat or clammy hands you need to wash your hands more. You can buy coated strings and they will last a lot longer if you're the type of person that sweats battery acid. Too many hamburgers! The gauges of these strings, they are a light gauge, Martin strings. They are 12 to 54. That is right in the middle. The guitar is nice and comfortable, the action is nice and comfortable and the strings have just enough bite-back for me to enjoy playing it and for me being able to dig in. A lot of people start out with lighter strings, like 11-52. That's fine. You just have to know that you're not going to get the volume and the punch out of your guitar, but you will when you use a slightly heavier string. Some of my other guitars I use medium gauge strings which is 13-56. I keep an eye on the neck, you have to have the neck nice and straight. When the neck is straight there's not as much pressure to push the strings down, not as much hard work to get the clarity. Make sure your guitar is set up nicely with good strings on it, you've got your thumbpick, you've got the right attitude, you're all ready to go.
Types of Fingerstyle
Types of Fingerstyle - Overview is a video guitar lesson presented by Tommy Emmanuel and is sourced from Fingerstyle Milestones.
There are many different kinds of fingerstyle. Classical guitar is a type of fingerstyle. There are jazz players out there like the great Martin Taylor who play in a fingerstyle. You've got the bluegrass approach. You've got folk players. You've got a guy like James Taylor who has a beautiful style. His way of playing is so economical and so suits his way of singing but is really just as complex as any other style. You've got guys like Don McLean who have their own kind of style as well. John Mayer, Eric Clapton, so many great players out there and they all play fingerstyle as well as regular plectrum style guitar. I'm hoping to give you the tools to get started. It's a very physical skill playing fingerstyle. What you've got to understand right from the start is that first of all you've got to go slowly, you've got to meticulously work things out carefully and then practice them up. It's skills that you are learning. When you've practiced these skills enough they start to sound like music, and it's a beautiful thing. This is what we live for. Starting out learning these skills, and then they turn to music. But remember that you are learning skills first. You've got to stick at it and keep at it until those skills turn to music. The different styles that you'll experience are styles where the guitar player is playing everything himself, and there's no singing. Then you've got other styles there is a singer and he's backing himself, that's another style as well. Then you've got the Jerry Reed funky rhythms using amazing technique stuff that I'd be happy to show you. So fingerstyle is very complex and yet when you break it down you can understand it and that's what we're hoping to do with you. para. Let me give you some examples of some different kinds of fingerstyle. You've got the Merle Travis almost Honky Tonk sounding where the thumb is playing really what the left hand on the piano plays. Then you bring the melody in. Then you've got the Chet Atkins style where everything is neat and in its place. You've got the folk style. You've got the style where you play the rhythm with your fingers and the bass with your thumb. You've got a more funky style. And you've got a more classical type style. So you've got all different styles of fingerstyle. All of it is good fun and all of it is challenging and all of it is good music.
There are many different kinds of fingerstyle. Classical guitar is a type of fingerstyle. There are jazz players out there like the great Martin Taylor who play in a fingerstyle. You've got the bluegrass approach. You've got folk players. You've got a guy like James Taylor who has a beautiful style. His way of playing is so economical and so suits his way of singing but is really just as complex as any other style. You've got guys like Don McLean who have their own kind of style as well. John Mayer, Eric Clapton, so many great players out there and they all play fingerstyle as well as regular plectrum style guitar. I'm hoping to give you the tools to get started. It's a very physical skill playing fingerstyle. What you've got to understand right from the start is that first of all you've got to go slowly, you've got to meticulously work things out carefully and then practice them up. It's skills that you are learning. When you've practiced these skills enough they start to sound like music, and it's a beautiful thing. This is what we live for. Starting out learning these skills, and then they turn to music. But remember that you are learning skills first. You've got to stick at it and keep at it until those skills turn to music. The different styles that you'll experience are styles where the guitar player is playing everything himself, and there's no singing. Then you've got other styles there is a singer and he's backing himself, that's another style as well. Then you've got the Jerry Reed funky rhythms using amazing technique stuff that I'd be happy to show you. So fingerstyle is very complex and yet when you break it down you can understand it and that's what we're hoping to do with you. para. Let me give you some examples of some different kinds of fingerstyle. You've got the Merle Travis almost Honky Tonk sounding where the thumb is playing really what the left hand on the piano plays. Then you bring the melody in. Then you've got the Chet Atkins style where everything is neat and in its place. You've got the folk style. You've got the style where you play the rhythm with your fingers and the bass with your thumb. You've got a more funky style. And you've got a more classical type style. So you've got all different styles of fingerstyle. All of it is good fun and all of it is challenging and all of it is good music.
Hand Size
Hand Size - Overview is a video guitar lesson presented by Tommy Emmanuel and is sourced from Fingerstyle Milestones.
A lot of people come to me and say that they can't play that type of song because I don't have big hands like yours, or that they don't have guitar player hands. I don't buy any of that. I'll tell you why. Because there are people in this world who have tiny little hands, like little children. I've seen so many young children, six, seven eight years old, who are playing guitar and pulling off these things and reaching the stuff that adults have come to me and said they can't play because they don't have big hands. I tell them that it's no excuse. Small hands means more you have to be more determined. What happens with your hands is that if you keep trying it you will get it. And your hands will shape to what you need them to do. When someone tells me they can't get their thumb over I tell them to find another way of doing it. Don't let anything stop you. Don't let the fact that you have small hands stand in your way. I've always had fairly big hands even when I was a little boy. I guess I was lucky in that respect. However there are people around who can play a lot more complicated stuff than me and their hands are a lot smaller. It's really a matter of how determined you are and how committed you are to getting the job done.
A lot of people come to me and say that they can't play that type of song because I don't have big hands like yours, or that they don't have guitar player hands. I don't buy any of that. I'll tell you why. Because there are people in this world who have tiny little hands, like little children. I've seen so many young children, six, seven eight years old, who are playing guitar and pulling off these things and reaching the stuff that adults have come to me and said they can't play because they don't have big hands. I tell them that it's no excuse. Small hands means more you have to be more determined. What happens with your hands is that if you keep trying it you will get it. And your hands will shape to what you need them to do. When someone tells me they can't get their thumb over I tell them to find another way of doing it. Don't let anything stop you. Don't let the fact that you have small hands stand in your way. I've always had fairly big hands even when I was a little boy. I guess I was lucky in that respect. However there are people around who can play a lot more complicated stuff than me and their hands are a lot smaller. It's really a matter of how determined you are and how committed you are to getting the job done.
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Reviews
7 results
shaneg_64b7b4e1a2745
Verified buyer
01/31/26
Deep, broad and varied
Amazingly deep, broad and varied series of lessons, yet really easy to understand the concepts. Has got me practicing so much more. Very inspiring to have Tommy Emmanuelle as your personal guitar teacher. Oh, the other tutors are also great!
tomac
Verified buyer
10/20/21
Good practice on my learning path
geelinus
Verified buyer
06/12/21
Solid video!
Useful material presented in an easily digested manner
mynoname
Verified buyer
05/17/21
Very useful tips
Many useful tips for fingerstyle players The technique lessons are really good to get your fingers learning and prepared. This course is one of the best places to start your fingerstyle journey.
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