Fingerstyle Fast-Track (for the impatient)
The tablature
The tablature represents the strings of the guitar. The strings
are oriented as if you held the fingerboard in front of you horizontally
with the nut to the left. The 6th string (low E) is on the bottom
and the 1st string (high E) is on the top.
The numbers on the lines represent the fret where the note is
played. A "1" on the 2nd string, for example,
means to go to the 2nd string (the B) and finger a note on the
first fret. Actually, you place your finger
just behind the first fret to play the note (a C in this case).
By convention, the nut is fret "0" and the first real
fret is number 1.
There are no time values to the notes in most tablature. For most
of the arrangement (and all of the exercises), the bass is a regular
4/4 with one bass note pear beat. Notes on the lower three strings
(the E, A, and D), therefore, can be assumed to be played with
the thumb in a regular one-note-per-beat pattern. This is the
"Piedmont" or alternating bass style. Conversely, notes
on the top three strings are normally played with the middle and/or
index finger. Which finger you use is up to you but it's a good
practice to position these two fingers such that the middle finger
is one string higher than the index finger. This allows you to
play notes on adjacent strings without too much movement. For
faster passages, I try to avoid consective notes played with the
same finger; it's difficult to maintain a good rhythm. Of course,
Blind Blake and Merle Travis played everything with one finger
but I don't pretend to know how they did it, much less try to
emulate that method.
Where there's some irregularity in the tempo, I note the time
values for notes under the TAB. The convention is that a half
note has an "h" under it, quarter notes a "q",
and eight notes an "e". For triplets, the notes are
bracketed under the TAB with a "[ 3 ]".
Special techniques such as "hammering on", "pulling off", slides and bends or in the TAB explanation
These exercises are patterns that cover most of what you'll encounter
playing real songs. The early ones (up through about exercise
10) are sufficient for simple accompaniment; the later ones will
be required to play complete melodies for real songs. If you'd
like to try a fast-track method, I
can start you with two basic picking patterns that will stand
you in good stead for simple accompaniment work.
These exercises are also available in MusEdit format.