Picking Patterns - Lesson two
In this lesson we will continue using the same three chords (although you are completely free to use another three chords if you wish, as long as they have bass notes on the 4th, 5th or 6th strings).
Continuing to use the classical finger method and plectrum notation as follows (see lesson one if this is not clear. So let’s look at pattern two.
You’ll notice that the only real difference between this and pattern one, is that your fingers are reversed. Instead of playing from the lowest note to the highest, you play the lowest note, jump to the highest and play down again. Here you can see you are playing four bars of D using your thumb (p) to pluck the 4th string, followed by your ring finger (a) playing the 1st string, middle finger (m) playing the 2nd string and your index finger (i) the 3rd string.
Again we are using one pluck per beat, with bars 5 and 6 are using a C chord with the pattern only changing for the thumb which now plucks the 5th string rather than the 4th, and again two bars of G where the thumb now plucks the 6th string. Next we will play the same pattern using a plectrum. The chord progression is exactly the same. The main difference over lesson one is that there is only one downstroke per bar with three upstrokes taking you back to the bottom again.
Be careful at this point to ensure that when you play the C or G chord that you skip over string 4. This happens reasonably naturally because you are getting ready for a downstroke again. As with lesson one, if you find this tricky then please persevere in order to build a good foundation for further patterns. |