Cold Beer and the Fingerstyle Fundamentals Wrap-up
This lesson brings us to the end of our introduction to fingerstyle techniques for now, at least as far as playing the blues is concerned. At this point you should have a pretty good idea of how to develop your fingerpicking skills, applying and identifying chord shapes and finger patterns, and thumb independence. Now it’s time to begin putting it to use. If you’re struggling with any of these techniques, refer to the troublesome lessons and keep at it. If you have any burning questions feel free to drop us a line.
Cold Beer is an original tune that combines elements that were covered in section two. If you’re unsure what you need to work on, this song should help point out any weaknesses in your playing. It’s named Cold Beer because if you’re anything like me, by the time you get to the end you’ll need one.
Take your time and learn it in sections if needed, come back to it until you can play it through. The bass notes change with every chord, so be sure you’re playing the proper rhythm under the melody.
What a great little song! I spent the weekend learning it and playing is a gazillion times. Drove my family nuts. When that happens, you know you’ve got a hit! More like this one, please!
Thanks a lot Terry, glad you liked it. There’s lots more on the way!
-Sean
This is the best blues finger-style website I have come across. I’m a huge fan of Lightning Hopkins style, and to an outsider it can be so confusing figuring out the proper fingerings. Thank you so much for this! I hope you continue to update the site.
Nice little song for a beginner like me… Hope to learn this song, too!
I’m new to fingerstyle playing so I started at the beginning. I’m still stuck playing 9 pound hacksaw over and over … I can’t wait to start on this one.
I’m driving my family crazy too, Terry.
What a great site!. It’s been so much help to me improving my playing but most importantly the lessons have been a lot of fun.
Thanks so much.
Great to hear, keep it up.
There’s no stopping the cretins from hoppin’
[quote=Shmike]Great to hear, keep it up.
There’s no stopping the cretins from hoppin’[/quote]
That’s great.
I’ve played guitar for more than 20yrs but always in punk bands and always with a pick. That’s not to say we didn’t play a bit of everything once it was 2am at some pizza pub and we were long out of original material to play and the bar was promising us more money (and more free drinks) because there was still a crowd. You get the tip jar out, take requests and the drunks there don’t know the difference lol.
Maybe I’ll work out a fingerstyle version of “Cretin Hop” one of these days.
I’ll be starting on this one tomorrow. It sounds great but it doesn’t look so easy. I can’t wait.
I hope to see a lesson based on Blind Blake’s “West Coast Blues” one day. Not that I’m ready for that yet.
Haha, I come from the same background. This style transitions nicely into hybrid picking, Nashville claw/rockabilly, whatever you want to call it.
Yeah, Blind Blake is a whole new can of worms, the guys thumb was a force of nature. I’ll have some new stuff up soon and work into it.
The Ramones might translate really well into a fingerstyle arrangement, slightly sacrilegious but still cool.
Thanks for the comment!
-Sean
I’m having a lot of trouble playing open A with 3 fingers instead of just barring it and muting the 1st string.
I’ve been re-learning 9lb hacksaw because I got in the real bad habit of playing the A with my middle, ring and pinky … I got here and tried that and now I can’t pick up the 7 lol. I’ve played long enough to know better. I should have been able to anticipate it.
I have small hands, it’s not hard to fit 3 fingers in that space. It seems like I have to fret too hard and it wears my hand out because I need to keep my palm off the 1st string and I need to apply enough pressure with my 1st finger to make the note sound right far from the fret on the 4th string. It’s like I’m unable to get the help from my thumb that I usually count on because if I squeeze with my thumb, I end up muting the 1st string with my palm …
Excellent post. I definitely love this website. Keep it up!