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Chord Picking
Guitar Chord Picking
Beginner Flatpicking Techniques
Welcome
to the guitar chord picking series! Over the coming lessons, we'll be
learning an alternative way to play chords on your guitar, the primary
method being strumming. Go straight to the chord
picking contents here, or read on for a quick intro...
What
does chord picking involve?
Rather
than play all the strings/notes of a chord at once, as with strumming,
you instead separate the strings/notes out, one by one, using different
picking rhythms and patterns. When using a plectrum/pick to strike the
strings, the general name for this kind of playing is flatpicking, the
other main style being fingerpicking.
Now,
if you entered a "flatpicking contest", you would most likely find
yourself in competition with bluegrass guitarists, as the flatpicking
term has become most associated with bluegrass playing styles. However,
in general terms, flatpicking is simply about picking, using a
plectrum, in a non-lead guitar context, making it predominantly a rhythm guitar
technique.
When the notes of a chord are separated out one by one like this, it is
known as an arpeggiated
chord, and creates a very different effect to strumming.
Chord
picking can get very complex, and it's ultimately down to you to
experiment with different rhythms, tempos and patterns, but this series
will lay the foundations you need to develop naturally. There'll be
video, audio, clear tab/diagram exercises and backing tracks to help
you become physically confident with flatpicking.
It's probably a good idea to go over the strumming series first as,
eventually, you'll want to mix strumming with picking to create more
interesting patterns.
Also, familiarise yourself with alternate picking, as this is an
elementary technique used in chord picking/flatpicking.
Oh, and of course, you'll need to know some chords or you'll have nothing to
pick!
OK! Ready to begin?
Guitar chord picking Series
contents
1.
Chord Picking Basics
2.
String
Skipping & Layered Melody
- More coming soon! -
Chord picking basics
The
first thing we need to be clear on is hand positioning. Many guitarists
find it helpful, for stability, to rest their pinky/little finger on
the
pick guard  (or around that area if you don't have a pick
guard).
This helps to
maintain a set distance between your picking hand and the strings, and
therefore keeps your action consistant, meaning better control for
rhythm and timing. Strike the strings in exactly the same place you
would if you were strumming (this was covered in the strumming series).
Let's
start by picking the notes/strings of the open E major chord, as this
will get us physically used to playing across all 6 strings. Using the
positioning from above, we're going to pick from low E string to high E
string, then back again. This is where alternate picking
comes in...
You start with a down
pick, followed by up,
down,
up,
down,
up
etc. - one pick per string.
Take a look using the down and up pick arrows in the tab below...
Click to hear slow example >
If you're unsure, watch this video closely and observe the picking
action:
You'll obviously need to start off slow.
Make sure every pick, up or down, is clean and strikes just the one
string at a time. It's important to maintain a constant tempo, and
the best way to become disciplined with this is with a metronome.
Use the metronome to gradually speed up, but don't jump in at the deep
end. Only speed up when you can play cleanly and accurately at your
current speed!
So that's our basic chord picking action - the foundations we'll be
building on throughout this series.
Now,
you won't always be picking across all 6 strings like that and you
won't always want to simply travel up and down the chord. For example,
still using the E major chord and alternate picking, you could start at
the low E string root note and play up to the G string, before starting
the sequence again on the low E string...
Click to hear slow example >
This requires you to "skip" from the G string back down to the low E,
and is a good initial exercise to work on with a metronome,
before we move on to more complex string skipping. Take a look at the
video to see this in action:
Try these simple patterns with other chords you
know.
When
you're confident with the above (and you could spend up to a week on
just that if you want to get it perfect!), onwards and upwards...
Changing
chord whilst picking
OK,
this is where things get a little more complicated, and where you're
going to have to have a little more patience! It will frustrate you at
times, you may even feel as if it's "impossible" at times. But all this
takes is time and
persistence... like so many challenges in life.
Changing chord means you most often have to interrupt your picking
rhythm and change your starting string/note. The idea is that chord
changes should help to form the picking rhythm.
Take a look at the below exercise. Two chords, two picking patterns.
Listen to a slow example here >
Same applies - use alternate
picking and use a metronome
to start slow and build up your confidence gradually.
What about changing between 3 chords? Little more to think about. See
below:
Listen to a slow example here >
That
one may take some time to accomplish at faster speeds, but try working
on your own similar exercises, using chords you know and mixing
different patterns with the chord changes. At this stage, just stick to
the "straight up" or "straight up and down" patterns we've looked at,
as we'll be expanding on these in future lessons.
Go to
Part 2 >
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