GUITAR
MAKE ANY CHORD PROGRESSION SOUND BEAUTIFUL WITH FINGERPICKING | David Harsh
What if we could make four simple chords sound more elegant by using fingerpicking instead of strumming? Even if your guitar is a starter instrument, these concepts will sound way richer than strumming. I recommend going through the accompanying video for maximum results.
A STARTING CHORD PROGRESSION We need chords to verify what our picking hand is doing, so let’ s start with four easy, greatsounding ones: G5, Dsus4, E minor 7, and C2. Your ring and pinky fingers never move. Strummed chords hide transition errors more easily than fingerpicked chords, so get to know these like words in your vocabulary.
Diagram 1
is“ i” for índice, middle is“ m” for medio, and ring is“ a” for anular. The thumb is strong, so it owns the three bass strings: 6, 5, and 4. The index owns string 3, the middle owns string 2, and the ring owns string 1. These are more like guidelines than rules, but they build independence, so you don’ t have to look at your hand.
Now we can arpeggiate, or break up, the chords. G5 uses strings 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1: p, p, i, m, a. Dsus4 uses strings 4 through 1: p, i, m, a. E minor 7 uses all six: p, p, p, i, m, a. C2 skips strings 6 and 4, so we play 5, 3, 2, and 1: p, i, m, a.
Once each finger is assigned to specific strings, we don’ t have to wonder, and we can move from chord to chord seamlessly. I recommend you take a moment to try all four chords. Follow the color-coded strings to light your way.
A SIMPLE 4-STRING PATTERN Next, use p, i, m, and a just once per chord. The thumb moves from string 6 to 4 to 6 to 5, while the index, middle, and ring stay on strings 3, 2, and 1. That means omitting one note in G5 and two in E minor 7. I’ ll provide notation and tablature with 8th notes, two chords per measure. You may notice I keep a full E minor 7 fretted even though I don’ t play strings 5 and 4. Try this exercise in 4 / 4 time.( Diagram 2)
Divide and conquer if you need to: practice just the thumb bass notes, then just the top three strings, then combine them. Hear how much more movement we get compared to strumming?
Remember, we’ re not playing more complicated chords. We’ re creating movement inside the chords.
Here’ s what some folks miss: fingerpicking doesn’ t require new chords. If you know a handful of open chords, you’ ve already done a lot of the work. We’ re simply changing what the picking hand does. Strings are numbered 1 through 6. For the picking hand, I love the Spanish system: thumb is“ p” for pulgar, index
Diagram 2
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