BeginnersFingerpickingGuitar Says It All

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Beginners Fingerpicking Guitar Has Some GREAT Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons.

Beginner's Fingerpicking Guitar by Fred Sokolow is a great introduction to basic fingerstyle guitar. It introduces basic guitar fingerpicking and is a good way to learn to play guitar. With this information you'll be ready to move on to Travis picking and the guitar style of Chet Atkins.

I've see Sokolow's name on a lot of instructional material, but I've never viewed any of it before this. I had briefly seen him playing chord melody guitar at the NAMM show several years ago. He's a really good player. That doesn't mean that he'll be a good instructor, though.

I was pleased to see that Sokolow is as good an instructor as he is a guitarist.

BeginnersFingerpickingGuitar isn't for the total beginner. The material on this DVD is a little too advanced if you've never picked up a guitar. But if you do know some basic "cowboy" chords you'll be able to put the info in this DVD to use.

Sokolow shows basic right hand patterns to use as accompaniement. The songs in the first portion of the DVD use just the thumb and 1st finger. The songs that he uses to demonstrate his techniques are Stealin', St. James Infirmary, 9 Pound Hammer, and The Wabash Cannonball.

The Tricky Stuff

With the basics out of the way, Sokolow begins showing songs with different picking patterns and time signatures.

First up is The House of the Rising Son. On this song, he introduces 3/4 time and picking with 3 fingers. Next is Scarbourough Fair using the same 3 finger pattern, but in 6/8 time.

The other 2 songs used on this DVD are The streets of Laredo and Tumbling Tumbleweeds. On both of thes songs there variations in picking patterns and time signatures.

For the very last song, Sokolow re-visits 9 Pound Hammer. In this version he shows how to take the accompaniement and turn it into an instrumental.

Conclusion

BeginnersFingerpickingGuitar is a good introduction to playing fingerstyle accompaniement. While it's not for the total beginner, it is very helpful for beginner level students. It would also be good for more experienced players who want to begin fingerstyle guitar.

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