@Craigward can’t answer you but I find your questions all very interesting and hope they’ll be answered!
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Unlike strumming, where most or all of the strings will be sounded at once, fingerstyle allows for a little flexibility in when you move your fingers to change to the next chord. Even more so if your last note or two are open strings that will continue to sound even with a chord change happening.
The first change here is Am to C. You have two anchor fingers and an open string played last. The 3rd finger movement to make the C chord needs to happen after the count of and after 4 and before the count of 1. The next changes have no anchor finger and the last note is fretted so you simply need to make the changes clean and swift after the count of and after 4 and before the count of 1.
Thanks for the heads up @Thymas
These instructions show what you describe and how to achieve the repeats.
The 4x written above every fourth bar is Free Text. The file is actually set to play just one repeat, two times through each section.
To change the repeats from two to four, make sure the cursor is within the fourth bar.
Find the ‘Repeat Close’ tool.
Turn it off by clicking once.
Turn it back on by clicking once. In the new floating pane that opens, increase from the default 2 repeats to 4. Or more if you want more.
You will now see above the fourth bar that 4x appears directly above the double bar.
You need to go through this same process for all sections.
Thanks for sharing the ready-made version JK.
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The little finger anchor is not for everybody.
I can use it if I make a conscious effort but years and years of not doing so allied with not having trained myself out of not doing so mean my default is not. I do tend to anchor the outer edge of my palm on my bridge at times. A little like palm muting but further back.
One thing I would suggest is to look at the entire position of your guitar - the angle it makes coming away from you, the angle of your forearm and wrist as they approach and sit above the strings. Is your hand placed so that your thumb sticks a little to the side of your fingers, not within the same space?
This shows good thumb / finger position without a 4th finger anchor.
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The key of A minor and the E chord is used instead of the Em chord (which is the actual diatonic chord to the key) as it gives a stronger resolution back to the tonic. Using a major V or a V7 is very common in minor key progressions. It can be viewed as a borrowed chord (borrowed from the parallel major key of A major) and it can be seen as using the harmonic minor scale (which was created to give the major V chord specifically.
You can use any pattern anywhere you like really. Many songs will use patterns that are more complex than the first simple ones learned here but that does not preclude them ever being used in songs. And as you are beginning to learn the technique you can play these patterns to any song you like at first, as a step in.
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Are you conducting some old thread archaeology?
This is now fixed and the pdf is available.
Sorry that it took so long.
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Thank you!
What sort of speed should I be aiming for as a good baseline level? After some practicing I can now play through the Guitar Pro file with the 5 patterns sequentially without mistakes at 1x speed, but I saw that’s only 80bpm (albeit with 8th notes so I guess its like being able to play 160bpm quarter notes). Was wondering what a “useful” speed is for playing a good range of songs, as I’d like to keep working on it but nice to have a target to aim for.
Hey @saj78, Fingerpicked songs can go pretty fast. I just checked “Sounds of Silence”, which in my mind I hear as a fairly slow fingerpicked song (in the 1st verse). The bpm of that song is around 100 (eighth notes). That might be a good target for starting out.
BTW, once you have a pattern committed to muscle memory, the speed will naturally increase as you play it more and more. Good luck!
“Brain Damage” by Pink Floyd is a great finger-picking song.
Hi,
I apologize if this question is in the wrong section, but it’s related to this lesson. I’m trying to practice finger style and using REM’s “Everybody hurts” and Justin’s excellent tutorial. All’s good until I reach to Em. The pattern does not seem to “use” A and D strings when you change to Em chord, and I cannot figure out what to do? This is at 11:57 of the lesson -
https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/r-e-m-everybody-hurts-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-bs-920)
Thank you 
If I understand correctly, you seem to be confused because you’re picking the open strings (low E - G - B - high E - B - G), while you’re holding down the second fret of the A and D strings which you don’t pick.
This is normal. With this particular pattern, you don’t even have to form the E minor chord. However, it’s good practice to put down the chord anyway, just in case you hit a ‘wrong’ string.
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Thank you Justin for doing this lesson immediately after your Learning to Sing lesson. This gave me the opportunity for a “2 for 1,” where I was able to practice singing the notes in each pattern after I initially learned the pattern without singing. I did this by singing the order of the fingers, i.e., thumb, 1, 2, 3 for Pattern #1, thumb, 3, 2, 1 for Pattern #2, etc.
I feel that the combination of fingerstyle and singing makes it easier to focus and play each pattern correctly in time with fewer mistakes each time. It also enabled me to accomplish Justin’s recommendation of zoning out/meditating easier than if I wasn’t singing.
Started to have a go at Finger Style and typical of me I had a go at Pattern 4 which is not the easiest, actually didn’t find it too difficult and now at the point where I am trying to change chords.
However, pattern 4 has a bass note on beat 1 only but I am thinking ahead and want to have a simple pattern that has alternating bass notes on beat 1 and 3, as some songs will suit that.
I am thinking of combining pattern 1 and 2 so you end up with T 3 2 1 Talt 1 2 3.
Is it going to sound alright or is there another alternative simple pattern with alternating base notes. I am aware that there are alternating bass patterns in the Folk Finger Style Course but wanted to get some very simple patterns first that I can actually play with some songs before moving onto this course.
Michael
Hey @MAT1953 , when I think of alternating bass, I think of Travis picking, which has a bass note on every beat, alternating on 2 (or even 3) different bass notes. The “ands” are played on the treble strings with fingers 1, 2 and 3.
A common pattern is the following:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
T T 1 T 2 T 1
It’s understood that the thumb is playing different bass notes, which depend on the chord. For example, on a G chord the thumb would alternate between string 6 and string 4. Sometimes, the bass pattern is more complex, e.g. a C chord, where the bass notes are played on string 5, string 4, string 6 and string 4. When playing string 6 you have to move your 3rd finger to that string (3rd fret) to play a G note.
This is quite a step up in complexity from the patterns in Justin’s lesson. A first step could be to learn the above Travis picking pattern without alternating the bass.
Good luck!
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Jeff @jjw
Thanks for the suggestion, have heard about Travis Picking, but perhaps a bit beyond me at present.
Michael
Good explanation here. Paul builds it up nicely from basics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6b371mNkCw
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