Lesson #2 - DD: basic fingerstyle and E Chord on different frets

The first lesson was not posted. Here is the second. The first was given by Dave Spider, also from my church. He played a final "farewell, be back next year" song and that's how the subject got onto guitars, and that's how the lesson happened. He played a much improved edition of I'm Gonna Live Forever, which is an awesome song. See the much less improved YouTube clip here, please notify me once the link is dead. Check Guitar Update #2 for more info on Mr. Spider.



Onto the second lesson. In it I learned some basic fingerstyle and was assigned the task of learning the chords E Major and C Major and taught a neat trick with E Major.


On March 26th, I brought my guitar with me to Wednesday Bible study (the days we will be practicing on every other week) even though I wasn't sure Mr. dataDyne would bring his or even if he was coming. We forgot to set it up the previous Sunday. Mr. dataDyne pulled up and yelled, "Did you bring your guitar?" I held it up triumphantly. He brought his, which is named Pikachu, if memory serves. It is a Takamine Santa Fe model ESF48C or TSF48C or one which looks identical, specifically the blue fret inlays.


We went into the church building. We arrived half an hour early so that we could practice. He handed me his guitar, and I handed him mine. We ended up practicing on each others' guitars. His sounds...like it has more bass than mine. Almost duller, but in a good way. The action (height of the strings off of the frets, which makes it easier or harder to play because you have to push down harder) is lower, too. As you know, if it's too low, you will experience fret buzz more often.

First, I showed him the chords I knew. D, A, and G. Delactation, Antigalactic, and Galactometer. I'll skip the parts where we played useless melodies that we were making up, and skip to what I had to take home to practice.




First, there's this extremely easy exercise in fingerstyle guitar (or fingerpicking as I seem stuck on calling it). See the tab, below. If you don't know how to read tab, go check out this simple tutorial which taught me to read it: How To Read Guitar Tab from About.com: Guitar.

First part:
e|----3----------3----------3----------3--------------|
B|--------3----------3----------3----------3----------|
G|----------0----------0----------0----------0--------|
D|----------------------------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------------|
E|----3----------3----------3----------3--------------|

Second part:
e|----3----------3----------3----------3--------------|
B|--------3----------3----------3----------3----------|
G|----------0----------0----------0----------0--------|
D|----------------------------------------------------|
A|----3----------3----------3----------3--------------|
E|----------------------------------------------------|

And you simply alternate between them, add a note here and there if you want, etc. Oh, and here's a great tip: keep your pinkie finger planted on your pickguard. It will help stabilize your hand. Try it with the pinkie, then without. For advanced ("psycho") fingerstyle (the kind that involves your earlobes) it would be too restricting, but for beginner, it's great. Here is the fingering he showed me:

First part:
e|----3-| ring finger
B|----3-| pinkie finger
G|------|
D|------|
A|----2-| index finger
E|----3-| middle finger

Second part:
e|----3-| ring finger
B|----3-| pinkie finger
G|------|
D|----2-| index finger
A|----3-| middle finger
E|------|

This unnecessary fingering is used for three reasons. One, it is Mr. dataDyne's favorite chord. Two, you use all your fingers, namely your pinkie. And three, you get to practice moving two fingers one string higher or lower in concert- in this case, you move both the index and middle fingers down from the 5th and 6th strings to the 4th and 5th strings and then back up. This is a very necessary ability to develop and it's actually quite a good routine for a beginner.

The fingering itself, despite being easy and simplistic, is difficult to perfect. Great care has to be taken so that the 1st string does not drown out the 5th/6th string on the initial pluck. He isn't a teacher, but this was a great exercise. I'd definitely recommend it for newbies when combined with the specific fingering.


Here's the audio of me playing it. Notice how often either the 1st or 6th strings drown each other out, and this was the best of 6 tries. I am unsure of exactly what entity I crumpled up at the end, but it was getting on my nerves.









Second, he taught me the E Major chord, and showed me that it does really well when moved to the fifth, seventh, and ninth frets. You should grasp what I mean, but if you can't, it's like this:

e|---0--0--0--0--|
B|---0--0--0--0--|
G|---1--4--6--8--|
D|---2--5--7--9--|
A|---2--5--7--9--|
E|---0--0--0--0--|

It's great fun. It makes you feel like you actually can play! Yeah, right! You SUCK! And you can't play.


In ending, he assigned me two new chords to learn; great, I have homework now. They are...C Major and E Major. He did not write me tab, but since I'm computer literate, he probably knew I'd go to my preferred "chord library," About.com: Guitar's Guitar Chord Library. He's a real "dig a hole, fill it in" type teacher. It's now been two weeks since the lesson, and I have the chords memorized, but switching is still tough. Tomorrow...I learn about switching. I think.



Anyway, I remember those two new chords quickly and easily by the words Emulge and Colostrum. So I have Delactation, Antigalactic, Galactometer, Emulge, and Colostrum to help me remember the chords D, A, G, E, and C.




...what?!