Danny Grady: Let's take a look at some beginning fingerpicking. Fingerpicking is exactly what it says it is. You are using your fingers instead of a plectrum to pick the strings and the inherited advantage of that is that you can do strings that aren't next to each other. You can pick them at the same time and theoretically, you could go faster through the strings using your fingers than you could have with a pick. But for our practical application right now, we are just using it because of the way it sounds and the feel that we get from using it here at the beginning stages. So, let's give a listen to the application that we are going to be trying.
So, with our left hand, let's go ahead and get our left hand in the chord and then we'll focus on our right hand. So, the 1st chord that we are going to be trying is A minor. So, your 1st finger is going to go on the 1st fret of the 2nd string, 2nd finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string and 3rd finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. So, that's A minor. So, let's take a look at our right hand which we are going to be focusing all of our attention.
To get yourself a position for fingerpicking, you are going to want to make a fist, just a normal fist and then just relax it slightly and then we are going to assign each of our fingers a string, especially here in the beginning stages. They are going to have a strict finger to string assignments. As you get more advanced into it, and if you get into classical, you are going to find that there are exceptions to the rules but for right now, we are going to stick with our strict assignments.
Giles Martin: Hi! This is Giles Martin, here at Abbey Road Studio 2, talking about Blackbird. Blackbird was recorded for 'The White Album' on Tuesday, 11th June, 1968 in this room here.
Danny Grady: So, I will start out with my 3rd finger here on the 6th string, 3rd fret and with my thumb, I am going to pluck the 6th string.
Giles Martin: It's a cool thing to play as when you are playing it, it will -- you forget that it's actually a song, you think it's a guitar playing.
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