Level: Intermediate

3 Essential Fingerpicking Exercises!

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Unlock Mississippi John Hurt's unique delta country blues style in today's featured lesson on how to play "Coffee Blues" on guitar.

Similar to Merle Travis, Hurt would use an alternating thumb pattern with his fingerpicking hand to create a driving rhythmic sound underneath his vocals. This style of playing creates a full band like sound with the thumb handling what I call "backing" and then the other fingers can play different rhythms and melodies against it.

This is an excellent style to use to play behind a singer, and should be something every singer-songwriter should add to their playing style.

I'll break down this picking style and song note-for-note in today's video.

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Learn how to play Marry me as recorded by Train on guitar. In this video I'll break down everything you need to know to get playing this song today. You'll learn the fingerpicking patterns, the chords, and the different sections to be able to go and play it right along with the original recording.

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