|
Easy Fingerpicking
|
|
Unlock the flowing rhythm of Coldplay's "Clocks" with one simple pattern
|
Now for the biggest challenge: switching between chords. To change chords cleanly without losing the rhythm, you’ll need to move your left-hand fingers to the next chord before your right-hand fingers pluck the first note. It’s not easy—try Example 8, which switches between D and Am.
  Example 8
Example 8, Played Slowly
If you’re having trouble, here’s a little trick. Keeping the right-hand rhythm going is the most important thing, so it’s actually OK (and quite common) to pick an open string between chord changes. Basically, this means you’ll “let go” of the first chord a little early. Check out Example 9: the last note of every measure is an open third string. As you pick it, release your left hand and use that half second to get your left-hand fingers in place for the next chord. You may notice that the open string is a different note than you’d normally play for the D or Am chord, but never fear: it sounds just fine.
Example 9
Example 9, Played Slowly
Once you’ve mastered the D–Am switch, try changing between Am and Em (Example 10) and between Em and D (Example 11). In Em, that last picked note is an open string anyway, so those switches should be a little easier.
Example 10
Example 10, Played Slowly
Example 11
Example 11, Played Slowly
With that cool chord-changing shortcut as fodder for thought, you may wonder: why bother making the full chord shapes at all when you’re only picking some of the fretted notes? The answer is that you might as well, since it will set you up for some cool fingerpicking patterns (including one more in this article) that do use more of those fretted notes.
|
|
|
|
Previous Page |
1
2
3
4
5
| Next page
|
|
|
|
|
