ACOUSTIC
b Y FRED Sokolow
FINGERPIckING VARIATIoNS
Embellishing With Add-Ons and Drop-Offs
To vary a picking pattern, you can add notes to a basic chord, or drop notes. For example, in “Car Chase,” which follows, you change the A to
Aadd9 by “unfretting” the second string (dropping a note); then you fret the second string one fret higher than usual to make an A supended
(an add-on)
Dropping a note
Adding onto a chord
“Car Chase” has a groove reminiscent of Tracy Chapman’s
“Fast Car,” or “Blue Nancy.”
The backup picking features
drop-offs and add-ons.
“Birdcalls” is another example of fingerpicking with
add-ons and drop-offs, set
to a rock groove like that
of the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn,
Turn,” and “Mr. Tambourine
Man,” or any number of
Tom Petty hits.
