Fantastic Finger-styling // February
- Abhay Liginlal
- Feb 28, 2018
- 5 min read
Welcome Back!
Thankfully, February was not nearly as hectic as the last month, but it did not help that I had to travel for Forensics during the middle of the month (even though I won gold!). Regardless, I found myself with a lot more time to do what I wanted in February, at least when it came to music. (gif)
First off, I got a new guitar! It's a Yamaha F310 and I got it for 500 riyals. How I managed to snag a Premium Yamaha Guitar in Qatar for 500 riyals, I have no idea. I went to Fifty-One East the other day and the same guitar was 1799. Sometimes the markups these retailers make are absolutely ridiculous. The best part about this guitar though is that it's steel string! I've been using a cheap nylon string one for a while so my songs are definitely gonna sound different from now on (hopefully better?).
I decided to embark on two endeavors this month (accompanied by my new guitar :D) : learn more about Finger picking, which I dabbled in during October, and use the techniques that I learn to play one of the most iconic songs ever! (gif)
Warm Up
I decided to warm up earlier in the month with a really, really, simple riff just to get myself in the mood. Since Finger styling is the main focus of today, I decided that a simple song that is a regular in my music queues would be a great way to start the month.
'Pills' - Joji
My love for this song comes from a very strange place. There's a channel called TVFilthyFrank on YouTube. It's known for cruel, horrible, disgusting humor that makes a show like Jackass seem tame and childish by comparison. The host of the show, George Miller, ran it for 6 years, but abandoned it to focus on a music career. Being an avid fan of the channel, I decided to listen to his music and I was hooked! I'm a big fan of Low-Fi music so it hit a good spot with me. The riff is insultingly easy, but it's exactly what I needed for a warm-up going into a jam packed month. (album image)
Please turn up the volume because my mic did not do a great job of picking up the background vocals :(.
This song is the first time I layered my guitar playing with any sort of background music. The reason I did that is the aesthetic of the song simply isn't the same without the vocals or the background instrumental. To additionally compliment the aesthetic, you may have noticed I used my nylon string guitar instead of a steel string. I think the nylon compliments the flat, depressing atmosphere of the song a lot better and as such was a better choice. This song is less about how complicated you can make your chords and picking and more about your ability to keep pace, tempo and rhythm.
While the piece is ridiculously easy to play, it's both a good warm-up to a busy month and a song I've wanted to play for a long time.
The 4 Styles
There are endless combinations that you can use in finger picking to make a distinct sounding beat. For reasons of simplicity and not writing till next Christmas, I'll be covering 4 different patterns that I thought were distinctly cool, using one of these patterns to play the song 'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' by Elvis Presley (gif).
To test out these finger-style patterns, I'll be using the G - D - Em - C chord progression for the sake of consistency and simplicity (ooh wordplay, look at me, I can use English).
So without further adue...
Adu?
Adieu, I just googled it.
Let's Begin!
1.
This finger-picking style is composed of a the simplest possible beat and the simplest finger-picking pattern imaginable. It's a simple but effective start. It begins with a low and high E pick, followed by a G-B-G string combination. While you can keep the beat with this song, you can't do much else with it. It is a very good way to introduce yourself to picking a bass and high string at the same time though!.
2.
The difficulty was slightly increased with this patterns. There are more strings involved and a slightly more difficult pattern. There's a pretty simple pattern here and it doesn't take very long to learn.
3.
This finger-picking style is an alteration of the one above, where the exact same strings are used but there are more actions to take into account. For one, there is an alteration between the the G and B strings before going into the High-E string and the beat ends on the G-B alteration as well.
4.
Finally, the last finger-picking style is the first to not utilize the high-E string in any sort of capacity. It goes with down the strings and back up again. I got this finger picking from a song I listen to heavily. I may do a song of the month for it later on so stay tuned!
Luckily for me, the third one is exactly what I'll be using for this month's song! We'll be taking a break from K-Pop in February and focusing on a classic hit by Elvis Presley!
Song of the Month!
'Can't Help Falling In Love With You' - Elvis Presley
This is a song I've been wanting to play on this blog for a while but never really got the chance to introduce in a natural way. I discovered it with the Twenty-One Pilots cover (yes I realize this is sacrilegious don't murder me), but quickly realized the brilliance of the original. I fell in love with the song, despite not even being a huge fan of oldie music. (album cover)
It's really simple to play, as you'll see in the following clip, and all it takes is the 3rd of the 4 finger styles I learned earlier
The song is broken into two parts: a chorus and a bridge. The chorus itself is broken down into two parts: one set of chords that range from Am, Em and C, and another set of chords ranging from Fm, C and G. Oddly, there is no buildup to the chorus in any way, the only thing separating different choruses is a bridge.
The bridge is a set of 5 chords: Em, D, A, Dm and G. First, the Am and D chord is played in succession 4 times, and afterwards there is a symphony of the chords Em, A, Dm and G, in that order.
Even though there was never a change in the finger-pattern, keeping composure for 3 minutes repeating the same pattern over and over again while constantly changing chords is really draining. After a while you get used to it and really get into the song
I sang for the first time in a song of the month. Yeah, that didn't turn out so
well. In my defense, I have probably the worst set of vocal chords on the planet and am incredibly tone deaf so my garbage singing did not surprise me whatsoever. I hate hearing myself speak, so just imagine singing. With that being said, I think knowing the lyrics really helped with keeping up the pace and transitioning chords. (gif)
This song was excellent for practicing finger-picking and is extremely catchy. It is quite repetitive, but if you ever feel a bit down and need some mellow music to accompany your sadness, Elvis won't let you down!
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