Neil’s Top Fingerpicking Songs Volume 1

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Brain Damage Guitar Lesson - Pink Floyd

  Pink Floyd had been evolving and honing their craft and sound for nearly a decade by the time they released The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973. The chord progression features combinations of chords that clash a bit. It starts with a pair of D to G7 changes and follows with E while keeping D as the bass note. This is a perfect example of an off-balance series to set the mood for a song about insanity, or at least perceived insanity.

• Lesson 2: Hallelujah Guitar Lesson - Leonard Cohen

  Hallelujah is one of many Cohen songs that got more recognition by other artists, this one in particular by Jeff Buckley. His compelling recording a few years before his untimely death moved anyone who heard it. Hallelujah is considered by many to be one of the greatest songs of all time. This lesson looks at few different renditions, including Jeff Buckley’s and Kate Voegele’s

• Lesson 3: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is an acoustic fingerpicking song played using arpeggios (chords played one string at a time). It uses a repetitive 4-mote pattern and the challenge is to keep all notes ringing as long as possible. Jimmy Page took credit for arranging it as a traditional tune when it appeared on the first Led Zeppelin album. Page and Robert Plant had heard it on a Joan Baez album and later added the real author, Anne Bredon to their credits.

• Lesson 4: Silent Lucidity Guitar Lesson - Queensryche

  Silent Lucidity uses a modified arpeggio accompaniment pattern, occasionally with measures in an odd time signature, over relatively simple chords that include some open strings. We take a look at the picking in the verses, strumming and a picking pattern in the chorus, the accompaniment to the solo, and even the solo itself.

• Lesson 5: Romanza (Trad. Spanish Ballad)

  This is a piece that I like all my students to learn at one time or another. It has a simple arpeggio going on in the right hand but some complicated concepts and techniques for the left. There are many arrangements out there and this one is basically the one I grew up with in the book World's Favorite Series (#43, I think), where it is called Spanish Ballad.

• Lesson 6: Landslide

  This fingerpicking song by Stevie Nicks has been a favorite of Neil’s students since it was released in the 1970s. It uses a very regular Travis-style pattern and only open chords. In the Play Through segment Neil plays an instrumental version that incorporates the melody into the picking, a chord solo. Tab to this arrangement is included as well.

• Lesson 7: Blackbird - Guitar Lesson

  The Beatles spent part of the summer of 1968 in India on a retreat with followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The English folksinger Donovan showed both Paul and John a guitar accompaniment style known as Travis Picking. Paul’s right hand technique has all the notes being played with the thumb and index finger. His index finger never really picks out a single string, it is more of a brush across 2 or 3 strings, and is brushing down or being pinched with the thumb on the beats, and brushing softly up between the beats.

• Lesson 8: House Of The Rising Sun - Guitar Lesson

  House Of The Rising Sun is an old folk song that found new life in the 60s, particularly after Eric Burdon and The Animals recorded their dynamic version featuring the electric guitar playing a distorted arpeggio through the chord progression. This lesson looks at fingerpicking it acoustically but it transfers very nicely to the electric as well.

• Lesson 9: Time In A Bottle Free Guitar Lesson

  Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce. This free lesson is a solo accompaniment version finger picked using a simple arpeggio.

• Lesson 10: Dust In The Wind

  Dust In The Wind is a classic Travis-style fingerpicking song that is a ‘must learn’ lesson for all guitar students. It uses a steady alternating bass technique in a repetitive pattern. The main difficulty is getting it up to speed but it will come with practice. It appeared on Kansas’s 1978 album Point Of Know Return.

• Lesson 11: Streets of London - AcousticGuitar Lesson

  Streets Of London, written by English folksinger Ralph McTell in the late 1960s is a great example of a fingerpicking accompaniment to a somewhat simple chord progression. This lesson focuses on altering your picking patterns and creating your own, continually through the song.

• Lesson 12: Just Breathe Guitar Lesson - Pearl Jam

  Really a solo guitar song by Eddie Vedder, Just Breathe is a fingerpicking tune much like Dust In The Wind or Blackbird. One of the similarities is that the picking is easy but very fast. This was released in October 2009 on the Pearl Jam album Backspacer.

• Lesson 13: The Weary Kind - Guitar Lesson

  The Weary Kind was used as the Theme From Crazy Heart, a 2009 movie starring Jeff Bridges. This song was written and performed by Ryan Bingham and it features some simple chords with an unusual, and rapid, fingerpicking pattern. This lesson started as a Fly On The Wall clip that generated enough interest from our members to warrant a more detailed version.

• Lesson 14: Helplessly Hoping

  *Helplessly Hoping*is a classic fingerstyle tune by Stephen Stills that was released in 1969 on the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album. Stills’ playing is generally very free form and he never plays this song exactly the same way twice. The lesson covers the chord progression and presents a ‘Campfire Version’ that is easy to strum, as well as great detail on specific licks and additions that Stills uses and how to add your own variations to fingerpicking patterns, making the arrangement your own.

• Lesson 15: The Boxer Guitar Lesson - Paul Simon

  The last Simon & Garfunkel album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, included The Boxer, a semi-autobiographical Paul Simon song that is one of our most requested. Another classic Simon lick starts this otherwise somewhat generic fingerpicking song. The lesson includes a fingerstyle arrangement of the solo as well.

• Lesson 16: If You Could Read My Mind - Live Short Lesson

  Neil did a live session for some Totally Guitars Members where he was teaching them how to play If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. Most of it is done with an arpeggio pattern that hits three bass notes in a measure, rather than the four that are done in most alternating patterns.