Beginner Flatpickers

Comment by Nanessence on May 16, 2008 at 8:47pm

Hi Matthew,
I have the same DVD plus the 4-hour Bluegrass Workout he just released. What tunes are you working on? I have five memorized: Black Mountain Rag, Temperance Reel, Billy in the Lowground, Mighty Dark to Travel, and Brown's Ferry. Now I'm working on Angeline the Baker from the Bluegrass Workout CDs. I have the tempo up to 144 BPM, according to my metronome, for most of them. In the Bluegrass Workout, Steve's tunes are 160 BPM slow, and (I think) 210 for the fast version, but he says they have to be faster than that for your average square dance. Did you play guitar before you started flatpicking?

Comment by Matt Smith on May 21, 2008 at 12:40pm

Yes, I played some, mostly fingerstyle. I'm actually having more trouble getting my rhythm playing right than soloing. I can't get that strong bass note, then brush of the treble strings right. I guess that means I need to practice more :)

Comment by Randy Mellberg on May 22, 2008 at 4:20pm

Just getting serious with my flatpicking.....can't seem to really find anybody local to jam with or share info....looks like a good place to start

Comment by Nanessence on May 27, 2008 at 6:13am

What kinds of drills do you find most useful?

Comment by KLas Eriksson on May 28, 2008 at 1:51am

Hi- I have a youtube tip

Really great tone, doesnt anchor his pinky- I`ve been experimenting on that-anyone else have a comment?
For rhythmplaying I found Orrin Stars DVD useful.
Thank you Matthew for startingh this group!

Comment by Jaime on May 30, 2008 at 7:32am

Steve's stuff is great to learn from. I have several of his books. He's just about the only guitar "teacher" I've ever had.

Comment by Steve Burton on May 30, 2008 at 8:27am

I have Steves,You can teach youself to flat pick and learning the fretboard dvd and both of them have helped me a bunch. Complete flat picking and the first volume of songs for parking lot pickers will be my next buys.Thanks for the group!! this should be a great resoruce.
Steve

Comment by Marty Henrickson on June 2, 2008 at 12:26am

I'm a beginning flatpicker who's been playing guitar for nearly 20 years. I'd say my best resource is a good teacher. I've been taking lessons from Glenn Tolbert (who Tony Rice called a "highly underrated flatpicker") since January, and it's made a huge difference in my playing.

Comment by Dave Engel on June 14, 2008 at 5:05pm

Hi All,

Just joined the forum and this looks the place I need to be. One of those "been playing forever guys" just picking up flatpicking. Started off with Mel Bay's Complete Flatpicking Guitar by Steve Kaufman, CD and DVD included. Look forward to learning with you all.

Dave

Comment by Matt Smith on June 17, 2008 at 11:24am

Nan, as far as drills go I found some useful stuff on Folk of the Woods website. It's basically taking a scale that you know and walking it up in different intervals. It sounds more confusing than it is, and for me it's been great for building up coordination. You'll also notice that some of the parts of the songs that you're probably playing are nothing more than this. How about you?

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