Exercise Your Independence
BY ANDY ELLIS
CHOPS: Intermediate
THEORY: Intermediate
LESSON OVERVIEW:
• Develop fretting-finger
independence.
• Learn how to anchor one note
while moving others around it.
• Polish your picking patterns.
• Explore oblique and contrary
motion.
Click here to hear
sound clips of
these examples.
Welcome to the second lesson in our series on building fingerstyle technique. Last month, we explored exercises
designed to strengthen the ring finger and
include it in a variety of fingerpicking
patterns [“Picking on the Ring Finger,”
November 2011]. As promised, this month
we’ll look at another aspect of fingerstyle
technique—one that’s often overlooked
when discussing fingerpicking—and that’s
fretting-finger independence.
One benefit of fingerstyle technique is
that it gives you the ability to simultaneously play multiple lines. This can be as
simple as arpeggiating a chord while playing
descending or ascending lines, or it can be
as involved as juggling phrases that move in
opposite directions. Whatever the situation,
fingerpicking demands digital dexterity in
both hands, and often it’s the fretting hand
that actually has the toughest gig.
With that in mind, let’s look at ways to
increase independence between the fretting
hand fingers in the context of fingerpicking.
We’ll dive right in with the Robert Johnson-inspired blues turnaround shown in Fig. 1.
In measure 1, use your 4th finger to hold the
high D as you lower a major sixth chromatically on the 2nd and 4th strings. Your thumb
(p), index (i), and middle (m) fingers pluck
the 4th, 2nd, and 1st strings, respectively.
Measure 2 offers the same musical motif,
but this time you’re holding A on the 2nd
string (use your 4th finger again) and the
major sixth descends on strings 3 and 5.
That last five-fret stretch (beat 4) can be a
bear, so ease into it gently. If you have trouble making the final Dm-to-A move, practice it slowly by itself a few times, and then
rewind and try measure 2 in its entirety.
Incidentally, this example illustrates a
type of counterpoint called oblique motion,
in which one or more lines move against a
fixed note or interval. This “
anchor-some-notes-while-moving-others” approach gets
to the heart of fingerstyle guitar.
We encounter oblique motion again
in Fig. 2, but this time, we’re arpeggiating a chord (Dm) above a descending bass
line (D–C–B–B%). There’s more to this
slash-chord passage than meets the eye, as
you have to shift your fingers around to
hold the Dm chord while executing the
bass line. Start with the fretting fingering
as shown. Then as you sort out the subsequent moves, notice how the 4th finger
is the only digit that doesn’t swap places
with its mates sometime during this four-measure passage. Pluck the bass line with
your thumb and use your index finger on
the 3rd string, your middle on the 2nd,
and ring on the 1st.
Fig. 1
4 4 &### 4
p
i
m
D7
p
i
m
p
i
m
Dº7
˙
oeoeoe n oeoeoe oeoeoe oeoe b
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
9
9
10
9
9
10
8
8
10
8
8
10
7
7
10
G‹ D oe oe
oe
oeoeoe nb oeoeoe oeoe
4
A7 Aº7
oeoeoe n oeoeoe oeoeoe oeoe b
D‹ A
oeoe
oe
oeoeoe n oeoeoe oeoe
m
i
p
m
i
p
m
i
p
10
9
10
10
9
10
10
9
10
9
8
10
9
8
10
8
7
10
8
7
10
7
6
10
Dm
Dm/C
Dm/B
Dm/Bb
Fig. 2
™ ™ 4 4 &b 2 4
1
oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
oen
oeoeoeoeoeoeoe
™™
oeb
oeoeoeoeoeoeoe
let ring
™
™ 02
10
10
10
10
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
20
2
20
2
20
2
˙
™
™ 20
3
2
