Description
There are endless ways to combine the pick and the fingers in useful ways, so in this lesson we'll start in the simple and explore a very simple version of a hybrid finger picking pattern.
First grab your open C major chord. Make sure you're holding your pick between your thumb and your 1st finger and that your 2nd and 3rd finger are resting over the strings, ready for action. Make sure it's a relaxed position for your hand.
Now let's get a simple part going with our pick, so we'll just alternate between the A and the D strings. The simplest version would be to just add a G string between the first two, picked with your 2nd finger. Even though it's simple this is a usable as a pattern of it's own, but let's keep building on it anyway.
Now let's add the B string (picked with our 3rd finger) after the 2nd note we pick. And again, this is completely usable as a pattern of it's own, but let's continue building on it anyway. You could of course just repeat that pattern for the 2nd half of the bar and there's nothing wrong with that, but let's instead leave out the last upbeat.
Some people may prefer to use your 2nd finger for both the G and B string, and when you're in an actual playing situation, always do whatever makes it sound and feel the best! But while we're sitting here practicing and trying to get better, let's stick with using both fingers even if it's a little tricky at first.
So let's apply this pattern first to the C major chord for 4 bars and then we'll switch to an Am chord. RH stays the same. We'll do each chord twice and then we'll end on a full strum of the C chord.
Now let's try this extra slowly with the metronome. Remember that you can always do this exercise on your own with the metronome at any tempo that suits you!
Lesson Info
