let's take a look at some ideas to help you with finger picking songs whilst you're trying to sing them at the same time if that's something that you have problems with the first thing to say is that this video is an extension of the previous one I did where we looked at strumming songs and singing them everything that applied to that video also applies for this one so all the exercise ideas will also work with small adaptations for fingering instead of picking instead of strumming the same kind of ideas to build up slowly will work so go back and revisit that video if you've forgotten some of the tips in there but let's use this one to concentrate exclusively on the additional things that you can bear in mind when you're trying to finger pick now rhythm is the key here too I said in the last video that you must be able to tap your foot at all times and feel the pulse internally of the music crucial crucial to being able to sing and play anything and the same is true here now in strumming is two down strums that are marking out the beat and think of picking it's usually the thumb that can help you to mark out the pulse but you must always be able to feel that pulses let's take a very simple pattern like at a G chord six three two one two three two three one and two and three now you're feeling it come back to the one of every part with the thumb one one one make sure that initially you can definitely tap your foot on the ones and then expand it to one two three or tap tap tap tap leaving the pulse continues to be essential to being able to see the reason for that of course is that you must have the picking pattern whilst you're singing on automatic pilot and the only way it can be on automatic pilot is if you have the pulse also just automatically metronomic lee moving inside you okay now again the secret if you have trouble with this the secret to getting this down is to start simple and get more complex I'm going to use examples from free lessons on Jerry's guitar bow or in fact this first one is the lesson that I put down a long time ago the lesson is is showing its age now but it's the simplest kind of picking pattern so it's a very good place to start not on the point of the website but there's a youtube video of me teaching we're going to be friends by the white stripes the picking pattern again it's a G chord I'm actually they do it or he does it with no capo I can't sing it in a cue so I'm just going to pop a capo on fret 4 so I can sing it more easily but we'll play the same chord shapes got a G chord here and I'm going to pick a pattern that goes 6-2 6-3 6-2 6-3 one two three four one two three let me just play the first line for you the first kind of line of the song to give you an idea of what it is if you don't know it fall is here here yeah that ring the bell brand-new shoes walking climb fair Brooks and I can tell that we are gonna be friends it's as simple as that which makes it a very good one to start with us we practice trying to sing over that accompaniment you've got three chords on a G chord we're gonna play 6-2 6-3 6-2 6-3 and you'll do that twice one and two and three and four and one two three and so here the thumb is absolutely marking every beat you should find that your thumbs going down as your foot is tapping get both those things working when we go to a C chord we'll play five two five three five two five three then we'll go back to G and we'll play the G pattern one times six two six three six two six three and start with those four five so it's gene gene gee now if you feel brave and you were doing well with the strumming and singing you might like to try putting the vocal immediately over the top of that all of you feel yell back ring the bell brand-new shoes walking glances once again but to be able to do that you've got to have that pattern on automatic pilot so if you're finding that difficult then first of all go back and practice the guitar part until you really feel it's automatic and then like with strumming and singing you can try just putting the first word of each bar into the vocal by if you can do that then you're at least aware of where the bars are coming and and the shape in which the words are going across the accompaniment pattern another thing you can try this point if you're finding it difficult is to put the original track on you'll need to play that without a cap just and in first position G chord shapes and see if you can play the accompaniment whilst he is singing the song that also helps to reinforce in your head how the lyric goes across the accompaniment pattern and every now and again and check back in with yourself and try and sing through that four bar sequence all if you hear the girl I just bring them down brand new shoes walk in climb the fence works and then we're going to tackle the second off the second four bars I can tell that we are gonna be friends I can tell and we are gonna be friends it's a six bar phrase but it doesn't really matter but pick it up from this addy court where you'll play for one for two now he then leaves the ring finger in place and comes to the fifth string third fret for a kind of C chord but the pattern is just five two five two so you've gone or D for one or two little C five two five two one is funny kind of C to G normal pattern same as before another D to C again and then he plays two bars of the G normal pattern he does actually very slightly very that baton but for the purposes of trying to use this as an exercise for singing I want to keep the pattern exactly the same here it is again with the vocal I don't tell and we are gonna be friends I can tell that we are gonna be friends so go through the same series of exercises that we talked about before if that's difficult and when you get it try and put the two segments together and finally as we said in the strumming and singing video try recording yourself if you think you've got it right but you're not quite sure record yourself listen back see how it sounds see if you can tap your foot to your own playing and feel the pulse moving through the music what we'll do at this point is moved to a piece that's just a little bit more complex in the picking pattern not much for the little bit we're going to take a look at Leonard Cohen's Bird on a Wire if you want the tabs and everything you can download it free from the website what I'm going to do here is very slightly simplify the patent not much this is basically what he plays and we'll just do the first four bars to start with so a quick run-through of what that is in case you haven't got the tab in front of you on an a chord it's five four three four three four and it's three beats to the bar one and two and three play that twice then go to an E chord and play six four three four three four and you'll repeat that so it's a a e Eve here's how it sounds when we get the vocal over those first four bars like unwise like now again to move things along a little bit here I won't break down exactly what steps to go through the steps will be the same as they were for the White Stripes tune so if you have trouble with getting that vocal going immediately go through all the steps that we've talked about to get familiar with it including the ones we talked about in the strumming and singing video again the key is the pulse and the finger pattern is you have a Down cold so that it's on autopilot that's why I'm picking repetitive patterns right now repetitive patterns are the easiest ones to practice this on because once you've got the feeling of the pattern going baseball three four three four base four three four three four than just the base changes you can get that pattern on autopilot because the fingers aren't looking to it to do anything different so you're ready to get that to the point of like um unwise like what did four more bars that this one and then we'll put this one to one side the next two four bars go a is the two bars again as what will play that's before he changes it but we'll play that before and then to D where you can play four three two three two three and repeat that like a drum so the eight part we'll be looking at like on wire like a drunk in a midnight choir all right now up to now we've concentrated on repetitive patterns patterns that just where the fingers just repeat what they're doing and that's a really good place to start because as I said earlier once your fingers are used to that repeating pattern baby you can get in on autopilot and just concentrate on the singing which is what you have to do we'll continue with that idea on a slightly more complex pattern but again a repeating pattern leaving on a jet plane by John Denver is another one on the website one of the free songs and it sets up a repeating pattern that goes like this throughout the song there is a D chord that comes later on but essentially most of the song is moving between these two chords it's a G chord a normal G chord and then you leave the 6th and 1st strings in place and add the 4th string 2nd fret and 2nd string 1st fret the chord of CO the G and the pattern that he sets up is a Travis picking pattern 6 2 4 3 6 2 4 3 and exactly the same on the CEO of the G chord notice that the key here is that you're tapping your foot on the thumb notes tap tap tap tap tap tap tap feeling 1 2 3 1 2 3 more play just the pattern without singing until you can tap your foot without even thinking about it and that pattern is instinct you're not thinking anymore about what your fingers are doing they're doing it automatically don't try and sing until you can do that and if you're not familiar with Travis picking you might want to concentrate for a while on the first two songs because Travis picking in itself is a difficult enough technique if you are familiar with Travis picking that wouldn't be a very difficult patent again now now I can go through the pattern there actually I'm now going to pop a capo up at about fret 4 again just for the purposes of my vocal john denver's too high for me cool patterns the same of course just go to the same just in a different position is how the purple will go over that sequence claim plane oh my bike of my standing here outside you do now the rhythm of the singing is different from the rhythm of the play as we said in the struming video the brain cannot could split itself and concentrate on both those things at the same time that's the reason that the pattern must be automatic if you find it then you can get the pattern automatic but as soon as you start to sing the pattern breaks down it just means that you need to practice it more and start by practicing it more slowly if that is still causing it to break down go back to the tips from the struming video where we can start by humming you're asking your brain to do one less thing by not requiring it to think of the lyrics and if that's a bit too much then just as we did in the struming video laugh or hum an outline of the melody and just gradually add the complexity of all the syllables back in take as long as you need to order there's no there's no rush for this drop it as slow as you need to you will find that it clicks at a certain point at that point will be where the pattern is so automatic that you're really only thinking about the vocal over the top of it now don't move past any of those songs until you've got them down because I'm deliberately getting more complex as we go through each of the songs so take it a step at a time this one certainly the next one we're going to have a look at is a step up in complexity from the John Denver pattern we're going to play a simplified version of Jim Croce's operator again it's on the website as a free song but we're going to simplify the pattern to this then I am going to come back later and I'm going to add in the extra little bit because now we're going to look at what what a guitar is doing when they're able to add a little extra twiddly bits in whilst they appear to be singing the song as well but for now we'll keep it simple if you are following on the tab and doing a simplified version of the line from bar 5 where the vocal comes in on a G chord I'm going to play six three two and one then four three two and one and then four three now this is Jim Croce's favorite accompaniment and many other guitarists use it too I like to think of it as the one two three one two three one two actually counting one and two and three four but you feel the thumb going on one two one one the thumb is going you regularly hear before you even begin to start singing just play that G pattern and get familiar with tapping your foot because the taps are not always going to fall on thumb notes or tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap top that cap might be more difficult than it sounds and if it is slow it down tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap the pulse never changes from a regular one two three four on almost any accompaniment pattern but sometimes the accompaniment is playing across that pulse and it is here the courts are going to play our gene the minor weather pattern is the same but the bass is now the fifth string see which on Jim's version is different but we'll play send component but the fifth string bass and back to G this is what it's going to sound like when you get the vocal down operator would you okay now again I'm going to skip through the steps that steps will be the same ones you did for leaving on a jet plane and the other songs take it step by step don't rush it if you lose it go back and follow the earlier steps slow it down all the things we talked about what I do want to do with operator is get a bit more into what he actually plays because he begins to change the pattern on that it starts on that C chord what he actually plays is this operator would you help so we've got two things happening here the first two bars are the same as before would you but on the see he doesn't continue that pattern what he plays is a pinch of five and one then he gets he's going to play descending phrase so it's five and C chord five and one then you want the 5th string 2nd fret 2nd string 3rd fret 5 and 2 then just the second string at the 1st fret 5 and 2 and then just the 6th string at the 3rd fret and if you want you can also play second string home now the key to that is the rhythm it's just 1 2 3 4 that's how he's able to change the pattern and sing over the top of it because it's not a complex rhythm 1 2 3 4 next bar and that under the words actually fit over it in quite a regular pattern please just watch out the place this is the kind of thing singers are doing a lot help is on the beat me is on the beat the place is in between that one and that one how we play this and the reasoner the risk of repeating myself the reason we're able to do that is because we're feeling the pulse of the 1 2 3 4 so that we can sing a different rhythm across that pulse and still play the regular beat here because we're feeling the Metro inside is driving that two three more feet before I get into the complex thing that he does in the next bar I'll put those three bars back together operators could you help me please now he does this call now I could break down what he's playing there maybe I will in a moment but what I want to emphasize about this is notice that this is the most complex part of the accompaniment so far where does he put it he puts it at the end of the line during a segment in which he's not singing the singing just overlaps the beginning of that bar but he doesn't sing anything else he could hold that note he'll replace his call it just thinks call and he can now he can concentrate on what he's playing because he's not singing anymore so now this this more complex thing doesn't have to be on autopilot in the same way that the accompaniment did while you were singing because you're not singing anymore and you'll notice his time and time again when you do finger pick songs have tried to sing them that the cool little tricks that they're playing are coming in between some segments and the reason is of course that their brains can switch from the concentrating on the vocal to concentrating on the guitar part I'm ready could you help me please this call when he goes back to singing again he's got to go back to the standard pattern number for the match focus all baby and same pattern together 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 is singing so it goes back to a regular pattern so just to sum up these segments that they will go back over all the exercises again it's crucial that you've absorbed that procedure by which to step up towards the full vocal but the one thing that I want you to take out of this is that if you start at any point you can't sing over the top of what you're playing it's because you haven't internalized the pattern and there will be or usually there will be some kind of pattern if there isn't create one for yourself you don't have to play if he seems to be playing something slightly irregular or she then find a pattern using the same chord shapes that is regular to you you don't need to in a compliment as long as you're holding down the correct chord you don't need to be picking note for though what they're picking while they are singing you're going to find the key elements of the song will be in the introduction and in the sections where they're not singing okay so finding a regular pattern can be very helpful for this and most singers as we've seen in the songs we've done so far we'll do that okay because of the complexity of finger picking this video has gone on probably longer than I intended already I'm going to finish it with a little look at fire and rain another free one on the website and again I'm going to use this to demonstrate something we showed in operator which is how often a singer guitarist will play a repeating pattern while he's singing and put the little licks in in between that the sung lines fire and rain is a perfect example by James Taylor of that when he's singing is going to be playing something as simple as for example this just yesterday more women know you were gone did you notice the same thing that we saw an operator as soon as it gets complex it fits at the end of the line while he's singing it's not complex just yesterday Lord they let me know you were gone and change tailor is the best example of this because all these classic little James Taylor licks that you hear everywhere in his music that kind of thing all the ways being done at the end of lines in between vocal lines this one if you're interested in having a little look at that it's a little mini a shape up here it's got a two string bar at the fifth fret he can--he Kappas at three twos drink bar at the fifth fret and the 3rd string of the sixth fret and he just plays bass note in this case five three one two then bring that shape down two frets three and four and play six three one two or I will call that is right now and the pattern is the rhythm is just one two three and four and your foots going tap-tap tap-tap regular pattern to a normal decode bass levels to four more three one two and then a will include the lick because he's finished singing just here thirty home they let me know you were gone some like that what you're doing is moving mentally between the singing and the guitar part concentrating on the bottom boatful here vocal vocal guitar and back to the vocal as I begin to sing again whose and plans they may put an end to you and again he's playing simple patterns again big big big big regular rhythmic patterns just out of the chord shapes while he's singing so I hope that somewhere in there that gave you some helpful tips if you are still struggling with singing and finger picking it is one of the things that many people find very difficult it will always succumb if you go through the steps that we talked about take it as slowly as you need to get that pulse internalized can't emphasize that enough that is the key to everything and with that I will see you next time