Fingerpicking Guitar Lesson
Fingerpicking
Randall continues his extensive coverage of beginner right-hand techniques with a lesson on fingerpicking.
Taught by Randall Williams in Basic Acoustic Guitar with Randall Williams seriesLength: 34:17Difficulty: 2.5 of 5
Supplemental Learning Material
Basic Acoustic Guitar with Randall Williams
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsRandall Williams guides you through the basics of acoustic guitar.
Lesson 1
Series Introduction
Meet Randall Williams in this brief introductory lesson. Learn who he is, his teaching approach, and what he plans to cover in this series.
Length: 2:13 Difficulty: 0.5 Members OnlyLesson 2
Basic Chords & Strums Part 1
Randall starts off by teaching the Em chord and a basic strum to get you going.
Length: 5:25 Difficulty: 1.0 FREE
Basic Chords & Strums Part 2
Randall Williams continues his discussion on basic chords and strums.
Length: 7:22 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
The Learning Process
Randall discusses his philosophy on studying the guitar before moving onto some basic songs.
Length: 4:29 Difficulty: 0.5 Members Only
Your First Song
Randall guides you through your very first song. He teaches a rendition of a current popular song that uses only three chords.
Length: 6:25 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Song Two
Randall Williams shares another wonderful song in his beginner series. This song should be rather easy to pick up due to its similarity to the previous song.
Length: 3:10 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Song Three
Randall presents the third song in his beginner series set.
Length: 7:40 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Song Four
Randall Williams shares one last song in his beginner series.
Length: 2:55 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Right-Hand Techniques
Randall Williams talks about basic strums and right-hand techniques in this lesson.
Length: 15:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Fingerpicking
Randall continues his extensive coverage of beginner right-hand techniques with a lesson on fingerpicking.
Length: 34:17 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Randall Williams
View Full Biography
He felt that classical music lacked the inclusiveness of folk music, and that the inevitable division between performer and audience was unbearable. And so Randall returned to the world of traveling with his guitar, writing songs in train stations and sleeping on couches, then singing and playing on street corners, cafï, and pubs. For a time he lived aboard a 20' sailboat that he bought for $800, teaching himself how to sail by single-handing through the Baltic and North Seas with his guitar sleeping in the berth beside him at night. He wrote a book about the trip, which begins with the story of almost getting squashed by a tanker before dawn one morning in the North Sea.
He moved to North Africa, then set off across the Sahara by hitching with locals - bouncing through a minefield on the way that made his mother have bad dreams. He loved the adventure, but he missed the music.
In 2005, Randall returned stateside to scrounge up a career as a performing songwriter, hoping it wasn't too late. So far, it hasn't been. As the "Partial Capo Guy," Randall has written two books for Hal Leonard, recorded a DVD for Kyser Musical Products, and given workshops at some of the biggest festivals in United States. As a performer, Randall has been a finalist in the Founder's Title and Mid-Atlantic Song Contests, A regional finalist at Kerrville, a showcase artist at Northeast and Midwest Folk Alliance, and at the International Folk Alliance in Memphis, and an Audience Favorite at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. His 2007 live release, "One Night in Louisiana" made a respectable dent in the folk DJ charts (One single, "Lebanon," was #8 in May,) and he's generally a nice guy to have around, capos or not.
Randall is as much at home in a Bangkok slum or a Senegalese village, at the Kennedy Center in D.C. or the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels sandwiched between a twitchy orchestra and a full house, or shoeless on the floor of your living room. Randall has sung in a dozen languages in over 35 countries.
Lynne Andrews: "When Randall left the confines of classical music largely behind, they lost a great talent, but the world gained a good friend - a friend who will tell its stories with grace, compassion, humility and humor."
Randall began playing guitar seriously in 1988, and played his first open mic one year later. Randall kept playing and learning more and more. Randall began teaching guitar in 1992, while studying musical composition, analysis, and performance. Randall got his undergraduate music degree in 1996, then studied flamenco for about a year (1997) before beginning studies at the royal conservatory of music in mons, belgium.
From 1998 to 2001, Randall studied voice, analysis, and harmony at the conservatory, with classical guitar lessons on the side for about 6 months. Randall's undergraduate study and the conservatory courses added a degree of musical structure to his improvisational ability, and gave him a strong music theory base. He recieved the premier prix for concert singing from the conservatory in 2001.
Randall's most recent discoveries: how to build a structure for creating chords in open tunings, and learning how to structure placement of partial capos in standard and alternate tunings.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Hey everybody - sorry I haven't been on in so long. I hear you all about the jump in the series. I'll fix that when next we shoot. Anything else you need, let me know, by email or PM, and we'll get it done.
I love your class. Want to learn more how to integrate more melody in strumming.do you have the next class?1
I love your class. Want to learn more how to integrate more melody in strumming.do you have the next class?1
I felt like he jumped from 1st grade to high school. I love his style, but the lesson is impossible to follow by a true beginner.
Hey Ransall. You are a natural in teaching. Truly inspirational - any chance of doing some more advanced fingerpicking? Thanks again for saving my day Kim, Denmark
Hello, Randall. Outstanding teaching techniques--voice, tone, pace, repetitions. I really appreciate the progress I made acquiring the ability to vary pick-and-strum patterns. Thank you, thank you.
Hi Randall, I have to somewhat agree with some of the commets about the finger picking segment. I am lost. It is difficult to see what you are doing with the picking and strumming plus the new cords and stepping and down didn't make sense. Can you maybe fill in the blanks. Thank you
Ansering my own question the T means thumb. Dah. It pays to watch and listen without the guitar in your lap.
Thanks Randall et al. I understand the frustration but I find the concept is working well for me. Not perfect by any means. But I find it is fun that I can fingerpick at all! So I take time to go back and forth over the lesson and materials and improvise to help me pick it up. Oh I take breaks away to let out the dogs. It is working! I do use the book mark tool for repeat. The supplemental tab to get another visual for the chords helps a lot. Does anyone know what the T over the sixth string indicates on the second D/F# variation?
2 finger chords to full chords without a lesson on how and an introduction to a bunch ore chords without a thought of teaching them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is effed!!!!! just threw a bunch of new chords in there and walk ups and downs without teaching how to do any of it!!!!! like the style of teaching but gotta be a little more instructive!!!
I am confused about the F# as it was not taught. I tried to find the chord in the supplemental contents but I can only see 2 d/f# and they are both different. Dont know which one to use? Please help?
Was really enjoying the lessons until this last lesson. I was looking forward to fingers guitar big time, but I'm totally lost now. The walking lost me. I can't wrap my thumb and play chords that we haven't learned at the same time. Unfortunately it's time to move on now:( It seems like we skipped a lesson or two here..
Wow this was great! I went through all the lessons, I love the way you just jump right in to the fun stuff! I'm still getting the hang of the 'clicks.' I learned a TON in just an hour and a half!
I realy enjoyed your lesson which was very usefull for me especially the right hand technique. It showed me that one can play effectfully also in the beginning. Hope to learn more of that stuff. Do you have any other lessons here? Thank you!
I realy enjoyed your lesson which was very usefull for me especially the right hand technique. It showed me that one can play effectfully also in the beginning. Hope to learn more of that stuff. Do you have any other lessons here? Thank you!
Enjoyed the lessons but the jump to 10 is too much.
This is great, and I'm really loving your style, Randall. I'm not an "absolute beginner" but I'm a lapsed beginner wanting to back up and rebuild my foundation. I've started my 10-year-old son on your lessons and this is the first time he feels like he's getting material that isn't too fast for him *and* isn't being talked down to. But here I suddenly feel like we left "guitar for absolute beginners" and accidentally got some Phase 2 bit by mistake. Jumped from two-finger chords to full chords without learning the chords, walking bass, etc. There's a huge gap between lesson 8 and lesson 9 and I don't know what I'm going to do when my son gets up to 8... I don't think it will have prepared him for 9, let alone 10. I don't know what happened, and maybe the "absolute beginner" was received well enough and was thought to be "too slow". But I for one, as a lapsed beginner, would really appreciate the "missing lessons" to be filled in.
I too have been skimming this series for a friend and think it's possibly the best absolute beginner series I've come across but this lesson does seem sufficiently out of context to even be a mistake? That said it's another great lesson for what it covers. :)
Sweet lessons. I am going to to practice to try to catch up to the walking and the different chords. I also want to learn how the different notes go together to make the chords. I think this will help not that it will be easy. Are there any more lessons coming?
Thanks for this very useful lesson on how using right hand, this could be developed on other Jamplay videos. Salut
Outstanding lesson Randall - and the watercolor analogy is dead on. Like others have said, this really helpd bring some things together... I think I actually have a clue now on getting some musicality into my flat chords and basic strumming. Thanks!
Another great lesson from Randall. This guy really knows how to teach!
hi , just discovered you on here and loving your shizzle!!! but all of a sudden you are talkin about walkin??? what is that all about? im not quite getting it
Thanks Randall, this lesson was so helpful!
THANK YOU!!! I had watched both lessons on the tool box but wasn't quite catching it and for some reason this clicked for me. This helped me take 3 ordinary cords that played the way I do got boring after the third time threw them, and opended sooo many options.
Hi Randall, Like bluescribe, this helped me bridge some gaps in my sound. I'll be looking for more with you. You're teaching style is nice and relaxed and fun. Thank you!
YES!!!!! This helped put some pieces together for me. Thanks.