I’m wondering what the picking pattern is if the chord changes in the middle of a phrase! I’m practicing Everybody Hurts and it’s easy to do T 12321 T 12321 for one chord for a full phrase then switch for the next chord and do the same but some phrases have one chord for the first three beats then a different chord for the next three beats so then what do I do with the picking pattern? Hope this makes sense.
Welcome to the community Meghann. Where the bar is spit between two chords you could do T, 1, 2, T, 1, 2. Have you checked out Justin’s song lesson which would be specific to the song your learning Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. | JustinGuitar.com
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When you say “check out these songs” are there resources available to help figure out each song? Maybe tabs or something like that? I have your app but it doesn’t help with finger picking and riffs.
@ScheyenIam
Hello Peter, welcome to the forum. If you go to the learn more page for the lesson (link at top of this thread). The recommended songs are listed there and if you click on the song title it should take you to the video lesson for the song. You can also find other song video lessons here
Bit disappointed not to see ‘Romeo & Juliet’ included as a beginners’ fingerstyle song… 
I’ll second “Dust in the Wind” for having both an unusual picking pattern (but not crazy hard once you get used to it), having plenty of sus chords, and being a lot of fun to play!
Mama Said by Metallica has D-Minor sus chords in it and it is really fun to play 
Im working on finger-picking December by Collective Soul. It’s got a cool little pattern and uses the stuck 3 and 4 chords so its a good excercise.
“Brilliant Disguise” by Springsteen is pretty easy and uses an A, Asus2, Asus4 riff.
Good for some practice and maybe an open mic?
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Hi everyone!
I am attempting to learn everybody hurts by REM but I’m struggling with smooth chord changes. I’m practicing chord changes separately but I think I need to change it up. Anyone know any slowish finger style songs? Hallelujah is totally on the table but I think it’s even harder XD
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Hi Gustavo,
on the off chance that I say something that might be sound dull … have you already thought of Justin’s happy birthday ?.. it is available in 2w versions and I thought that was a nice step (that whole module by the way) …welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Gustavo, as with everything slow it right down to a speed that you can comfortably make the changes and pick accurately and cleanly. Then gradually increase the tempo. Speed will come in time.
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Hi Roger!
Thanks for your reply. Yes, i am practicing happy birthday as well but since it gets its own practice slot i treat as a separate song 
My aim is to learn happy birthday and everybody hurts. But ive been doing thay for 2 weeks straight and i think a break with a new song might be nice.
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Cheers Roger! I’ll check that out 
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@GBguitar2023 Nothing wrong with trying something else, Gustavo, though sometimes just better to stay focused and adopt a mindset that it is going to take some persistence and sometimes for quite a while.
I must amplify @Socio’s comment. Slow down the tempo right down to what it needs to be for you to play the finger-picking pattern and make the chord changes. It s good to continue to work on the One Minute Changes for those chords as you are doing.
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Hello Gustavo, and a warm welcome to the community 
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Fingerpicking is such a beautiful, but also not so easy to learn technique. Whenever I’m learning a song with picking elements, it takes quite a lot of practice time before my playing sounds smooth and doesn’t contain too many mistakes. So far, I’ve not been able to learn a fingerpicking song within 2 weeks. It’s more 2 months, I have to invest 
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Practicing the chord changes seperately, is a perfect additional way to come closer to your goal.
To me, it’s also important that I really love the song I’m practicing, when that much effort is needed. This helps me to stay motivated.
And as already been said, slow down 
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You’ll get there 
!
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Hi everyone, thanks for the replies!
@Socio and @DavidP, during the 4 minute practice I’ll be more conscious of the changes and really slowing waaay down.
@NicoleKKB yes! I really like the technique but it requires coordination that i don’t yet have. Thank you for pointing out the time scale. I’ll take my time with the practice!!! What songs do you practice?
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This will come with practice. It’s a perfect training for the brain 
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I like to combine picking with strumming parts within a song. E.g. picking the verses and strumming the chorus.
My last song, I played that way was The River by Bruce Springsteen. I picked the intro and the first verse, the rest of the song was strumming 
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Listen up! The best song to learn for sus chords is Behind Blue Eyes by the Who. Justin teaches it as a grade 5 song, however you can get it to a grade 2 by doing the following:
- strumming rather than picking the verses and chorus. I think it still sounds pretty good if you pick the intro (easy to do), lightly strum the verse and heavier strumming for the chorus.
- Learn the Bm chord (which is easier than the F chord)
- Drop the bridge of the song to start (which I believe is what Limp Bizkit did when covering the song). You can introduce it once the rest of the song is sounding okay.
The reason why I think it is the best song to learn for this module is that it uses an Asus2, Dsus4 and Esus4. And uses them throughout the song. Plus it consolidates previous grade 2 modules with the Cadd9 chord and little G used.