Fingerpicking
The thumb plays the bass - strings 4 (D), 5 (A), and 6 (E). The fingers play the treble – strings 1 (e), 2 (B), and 3 (G). The index finger plays the G string, the second finger plays the B string, and the ring finger plays the e string. (Remember, 6 is a big round number, it’s the big round string; 1 is a skinny number, it’s the skinny string.) Before we go on, we need to have a way to write down what we’re going to do with our fingers.
Tabulature, or “tab,” is a way of writing music for guitar that’s easier to read than standard musical notation. Standard notation has a five-line staff, and notes are written on the lines and in the spaces between the lines. This is often confusing to guitar players, because the lines of the staff look like the strings on the guitar neck. But – surprise! – there is no relationship between the lines on the staff and the strings on the guitar.
With tab, you see six lines, and each line does represent a string. Better yet, they are arranged so that they look like they strings as you see them while playing:
1----------------------------------------------------------------------
2----------------------------------------------------------------------
3----------------------------------------------------------------------
4----------------------------------------------------------------------
5----------------------------------------------------------------------
6----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes the line of tab might begin with the note-names of the strings instead of the numbers:
e----------------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------------
And sometimes there won’t be anything at the beginning of the lines at all. But your clue that it’s tab instead of standard notation is that there are numbers on the lines.
e------------0---------0---------0-------------0---------0----------0--
B----------0---------0---------0---0---------2---------2----2-------2--
G--------1---------1---------1-------1-----2---------2--------2-----2--
D-------------------------2-----------------------2--------------2--2--
A----------------2-----------------------0--------------------------0--
E--0-------------------------------------------------------------------
You read it left to right. The numbers tell you what fret to play, and the lines tell you what string to play. So in the example above, the very first note is the 6th string, open (and you play that with your right-hand thumb, remember?). Then you play the 3rd string at the first fret (with your right-hand index finger), then the 2nd string open (with the right-hand middle finger), then the 1st string open (with the right-hand ring finger). Then you play the 5th string at the second fret and repeat that “roll” with the index, middle, and ring fingers on the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings. At the very end you see the numbers stacked on top of each other -–that just means you play those all at the same time. (It’s an A chord – just strum it with your thumb.)
Now, there are a couple of important things that tab does NOT tell you: what left-hand fingers to use to press down on the strings at thus-and-such fret number, and what the rhythm is supposed to be. Sometimes tab is printed along with the standard notation, so if you can recognize the note shapes (half-note, quarter note, etc.) you can work out the rhythm. But most of the time you kind of just have to know what the song is supposed to sound like. And you have to work out where the left hand goes, and how it moves, pretty much on your own almost all the time. But that’s where the spider-dance exercise – one finger per fret, remember? – and the standard chord shapes come in. The example above is just an E chord and an A chord.
There’s tons of tab available on the web. Just type the name of a band or artist and the word “tab” in your favorite search engine. OK, back to fingerpicking.
There are three basic fingerpicking patterns: The pinch, the rocking horse, and the roll. With the pinch, the thumb and one or more of the fingers play at the same time.
With the rocking horse, the thumb alternates with one or more fingers.
With the roll, the thumb plays, then the fingers play one after another, then the thumb again, and so forth. Here they are tabbed out using the E and A chords:
e---0----0----0----0----0----0-----------------------------------------
B---0----0----0----0----2----2-----------------------------------------
G---1----1----1----1----2----2-----------------------------------------
D-------------2--------------2-----------------------------------------
A--------2---------2----0----------------------------------------------
E---0------------------------------------------------------------------
e------0-------0---------------------0--------0---------------------0--
B------0-------0---------------------2--------2---------------2--------
G------1-------1-------1------1------2--------2------2-----------------
D-----------------------------------------2---------------2------------
A----------2---------------2------0---------------0--------------0-----
E---0--------------0---------------------------------------------------
e--------0-------0--------0--------0--------0--------0---------0-------
B------0-------0--------0--------0--------2--------2---------2---------
G----1-------1--------1--------1--------2--------2---------2-----------
D-------------------2--------------------------2-----------------------
A----------2-----------------2--------0------------------0-------------
E--0-------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, there are endless variations and combinations of these basic patterns. You can do them forward, backwards, inside out, with one, two, or three fingers, combine them, use left-hand tricks such as hammer, pulls, and bends, etc. etc.. And that’s really where the fun – and the magic – come in! Here’s something to get you started, using the chords G, C and D:
e-----3-----3--------3------------------0-----------2---2--------------
B-----0-----0------0-------1-----1--------1---------3---3--------------
G-----0-----0----0---------0-----0----------0-------2---2--------------
D-----------------------------2-----------------0----------0-----------
A--------2--------------3------------3-----------------0------3-2-0----
E--3----------3------------------------------------------------------3-