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Okay, so yesterday I was talking to a friend, and he happened to suddenly pick up a guitar and spontaneously play a few bits from Classicaly Gas, flawlessly.
Now, this is odd as I had previously thought he only knew a few chords and was still practicing, and KNEW he had hardly been playing very long at all.
So, he showed me the basics of finger picking (how the hell did he learn so fast?), and I found the tabs for Classical gas online. Now, since then I've practicing like hell and can only play the first little bit of the intro, which is probably the easiest part in the song by far.
Do any of the guitarists here finger-pick? (I know aetherfox does) If so, are there ANY good finger picking practices I could do? I can't find any that seem to help at all, apart from struggling to learn this song, which is damn near impossible with my attention span.
I want to learn it, (if just to play this song :p) but I keep falling back to strumming and soloing with a pick. Finger picking is a completely different technique altogether, and one that's much more difficult than just strumming-- this I know-- but then how the hell did he learn it so fast? I dunno, how many professional guitarists use finger picking anyway?
If I'm not going to use it extensively, should I bother?
I mean, I'd love to know how, but it's really fucking daunting...

slow down there (geeze, you have so much angst lately!)

i've been fingerpicking for about a half a year, it comes pretty natural if you take it slow. as far as excersizes go, i'd say try and find more songs like classical gas (except alot easier, maybe even some that don't use fingerpicking), and work your way up.

I do finger picking exercises every once in a while. I suck at it. Once in a while isn't enough to make me a pro at it, but I still do it. I don't have any good excersises, I just finger pick.

About that guy learning really fast, I'm not sure. Some people just have talent, and for others it takes them alot longer to learn. Unless the guy was just lucky. I've had a few days where I could kick some butt, but then the next day I go back to sucking.

When I say talent, I don't mean he could, all of the sudden, play good out of nowhere. It gets me sick when people say they can't do "this" or "that" because they don't have the "talent". I believe in different learning speeds, but you have to earn talent. So I'd bet he has probably played some type of stringed instrument in the past. That's just a guess though :???:

I always found finger picking to be easier when playing select strings. Of course, this was way back in the heyday of thrash metal, so the one song I used to fingerpick all the time was the intro to Metallica's "...And Justice For All". Freaked out my high school buddies when they not only saw me fingerpick the sucker but do it correctly.

Some people use actual finger picks; others, like me, just use their fingers themselves.

Quote:...so the one song I used to fingerpick all the time was the intro to Metallica's "...And Justice For All"...

Cool! I practice that intro alot too, but I don't figerpick it.

Quote:slow down there (geeze, you have so much angst lately!)

Ha. Sorry bout that. I'd say 'you don't know the half of it', but that would just be more angsty :wink:

Quote:i've been fingerpicking for about a half a year, it comes pretty natural if you take it slow. as far as excersizes go, i'd say try and find more songs like classical gas (except alot easier, maybe even some that don't use fingerpicking), and work your way up.

Well, I've tried some easier songs, but it seems the ones I find are either too easy or too hard.
I suppose you're right though; it comes with practice-- Maybe I should actually set aside a fixed amount of time each day to practice instead of just doing it whenever I feel like it.

Quote:When I say talent, I don't mean he could, all of the sudden, play good out of nowhere. It gets me sick when people say they can't do "this" or "that" because they don't have the "talent". I believe in different learning speeds, but you have to earn talent. So I'd bet he has probably played some type of stringed instrument in the past. That's just a guess though

I never said I can't do it because I don't have the talent; in fact I personally believe I have plenty of talent. It's just intimidating when someone seemingly learns twice as fast as you.

Quote:I always found finger picking to be easier when playing select strings. Of course, this was way back in the heyday of thrash metal, so the one song I used to fingerpick all the time was the intro to Metallica's "...And Justice For All". Freaked out my high school buddies when they not only saw me fingerpick the sucker but do it correctly.

Holy shit, that must've been something!

Quote:Some people use actual finger picks; others, like me, just use their fingers themselves.

I just use my fingers alone. Works better for me, feels less... Clumsy.

Sorry, but I wasn't accusing you of saying that. I was talking about other people in general that no one here would know about, since I brought the subject up and all.