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.
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Thanks, Justin! Is there anywhere one can find a fingerstyle lesson for This Year’s Love?
A good song is I had some help post Malone
Ps I had some help has a f sus2
This is really difficult.
I’ve been practicing happy birthday for over two weeks and have played it without an error once.
Practicing for maybe 2 hours a day and including this in my session for around 30 mins of that.
Also trying to learn Everybody Hurts and I can tell this is going to take many months to get to a reasonable level.
Extremely difficult. I just make so many mistakes, even slowing it right down, I hit the wrong notes or pluck the wrong string.
Im mix these two into my practice sessions of other songs. Does anyone else find that if they don’t play a song for a few days then it ends up littered with errors when you do play it.
I’ve learnt around 6 song and trying to keep those at a level where I can play them well enough takes constant practice.
It is enjoyable but the finger picking is exceptionally difficult.
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Justin’s fingerstyle Happy Birthday is deceptively difficult. You’d think it would be easy, but the fretting fingers are moving all over the place. I actually found it more difficult to learn than Boom Base with Licks which is a Grade 4 track and is considerably longer.
I just play HB a couple of times whenever I practice and don’t stress about errors. It’s coming along slowly. Sometimes sleeping on it is more beneficial than ploughing on and getting frustrated.
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Hi James, I haven’t played this in a while, but plan to go back to it soon. When I do I will take Justin’s advice and divide the song into 4 sections (if you are singing it, it is the 3 sections ending in you and the one section ending in the name). Then I will play the 1st section several times (Justin recommends 10 times but I don’t have the patience) without error before going on to the 2nd section. I will play each of the 4 sections for several times without error by playing as slow as I need to. Then I will play the 1st and the 2nd section several times together without error and then the 3rd and 4th section together several times without error. Only when I have done all of that will I try to play the entire song. Justin notes that it is best not to play too many times with errors since practice makes permanent.
I will add though that I think this is more of a challenge exercise that you don’t have to master to pass grade 2, so there is no need to stress too much. Have fun learning and celebrate your successes and what you can do well.
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I want to see what others thinkt about my mix of selected songs that I practice daily, I have taken mainly Justins suggestions but added a couple.
This Years Love - David Gray, trying out various rhythms (practice along on App)
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix, do rhythm and riff, may try and add solo later(practice along on App)
Eleanor Rigby - Beatles, trying out various rhythms and starting to try finger picking on bridge (practice along on App)
Heart of Gold - Neil Young, mainly rhythm an experiment with feel/style (practice along on App)
Come As you Are - Nirvana, not doing too well on this one, I struggle with the Riff often getting lost in it, I think this is partially down to a rhythm issue I have, quite frustrating but will preserver, not good enough to practice along on App yet
Wish you Were Here - Pink Floyd, I am slowly trying to lear the whole thing, Intro and Intro solo is getting there, Verse and Chorus are getting much better rhymically/strum pattern consistency. Eventually I will add the other solo and go for the whole song.
A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers, this is one I learnt many years ago, I always found it tricky, it is in12/8 and requires consistent picking of individual strings in chords to sound authentic. A couple of the chord shapes are tricky to get and change quickly. This one is a want to do of my own.
I am also going to add La Bamba into the mix for some fun.
I hope I have selected a reasonable variety and styles, any thoughts?