FingerStyle Guitar w/ Tim Williams | Fall 2024 | R7:00

About Course

This is a 60 min, 10 week class held Thursdays at 7:00 | October to December 2024

The term “Americana” covers a broad range of contemporary genres. The course will touch on Blues, Rockabilly, Travis Picking, Hawaiaan Slack Key, Classic Singer-Songwriter accompaniment styles, and much more. Students need to be competent with first position chords and open to learning new variations, and willing to put in the time to “divorce” the picking thumb from the fingers (sometimes referred to as thumb independence). A sense of fun and musical adventure is also always an asset.

Course Content

Video Archive

Week 1 Getting started
We will talk about guitar set-up, action, string gauges, etc. and begin a simple exercise to create or improve thumb independence.

Week 2 Using finger style guitar to accompany a song
We will begin to explore finger style patterns for song accompaniment and continue working on thumb bass.

Week 3 More patterns, the roll, and thumb bass runs
Single note bass runs with the thumb, rolls incorporating thumb and fingers, more patterns

Week 4 The Blues part 1
Simple blues licks for many common blues tunes.

Week 5 The Blues Part 2
A look at some pioneer blues artists' techniques

Week 6 Ragtime
Ragtime Guitar. Originally a piano player's music, ragtime translates well to guitar. We'll look at some of the most common licks and chord progressions.

Week 7 Nashville, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and more
We will trace the development of modern Nashville finger style from the 1920s to the present

Week 8 More Merle, More Chet
A deeper dig into instrumentals by these two giants of finger style.

Week 9 An intro to slack key Hawaiian style guitar, and open tunings.
Open G, Open D, and the Slack Key classic "Hawaiian Reverie".

Week 10 Review
We'll touch back on everything just before you head out the door!

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About Course

What Will You Learn?

Course Content

Video Archive

Week 1 Getting started We will talk about guitar set-up, action, string gauges, etc. and begin a simple exercise to create or improve thumb independence.

Week 2 Using finger style guitar to accompany a song We will begin to explore finger style patterns for song accompaniment and continue working on thumb bass.

Week 3 More patterns, the roll, and thumb bass runs Single note bass runs with the thumb, rolls incorporating thumb and fingers, more patterns

Week 4 The Blues part 1 Simple blues licks for many common blues tunes.

Week 5 The Blues Part 2 A look at some pioneer blues artists' techniques

Week 6 Ragtime Ragtime Guitar. Originally a piano player's music, ragtime translates well to guitar. We'll look at some of the most common licks and chord progressions.

Week 7 Nashville, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and more We will trace the development of modern Nashville finger style from the 1920s to the present

Week 8 More Merle, More Chet A deeper dig into instrumentals by these two giants of finger style.

Week 9 An intro to slack key Hawaiian style guitar, and open tunings. Open G, Open D, and the Slack Key classic "Hawaiian Reverie".

Week 10 Review We'll touch back on everything just before you head out the door!