Finger Picking Lesson - 4 & 20 - GuitarTalk Community

Finger Picking Lesson - 4 & 20

Bob-Dubery

Hi all,

I have prepared an on-line lesson which, I hope, will be useful in learning the rudiments of finger picking.

This is based around an arrangement of Stephen Stills' 4 and 20.

NB! You need to use drop-d tuning for this IE the 6th string of your guitar must be tuned down a whole tone from E to D. This will give us two Ds in the lower register on open strings, and that will give us a nice drone effect.

If you don't know that song well then here's a clip of Stills playing it.

I don't propose to do the whole song here, nor to mimic Still's version exactly. That's for the sake of brevity, in the spirit of sticking to fair use and because Stills uses a different tuning.

I will step through a shortened version of the verse that will nonetheless demonstrate all the chords used and the finger picking pattern. Then we'll look at some alternate picking patterns that you can use to add variety whilst playing the same chords, and then we'll take some of those patterns and mix them up.

There are some files and clips related to this lesson...

Those of you who use PowerTab can download a .ptb document here.

If you don't use PowerTab then the tab is available as PDF here

And here's a clip of me playing a shortened version of the verse that demonstrates all the chords used in the verse.

Bob-Dubery

A word about timing: When looking at the tab, you will note that there is a regular pattern on the 6th and 4th strings. The 6th string is ALWAYS played on the 1 and 3 counts in the 4 beat bar, the 4th string on the 2 and 4 counts. The 6th and 4th strings are ALWAYS played with the thumb. Let the thumb provide the pulse to the song, keep it steady and remember it NEVER wavers from the pattern described above. Although the left hand may move the right hand thumb will stay alternating between those two strings and always on the beat. On the tab you will see some notes that are written as if they fall between two downward strokes of the thumb. This is exactly where those notes do fall when you play the piece.

For the other strings we assign a finger per string. The ring finger is assigned to the 1st string, the the middle finger to the 2nd and the index finger to the 3rd string. You are welcome to come up with your own method, but I find that the “finger per string” assignment that I have described is generally the easiest - at least when learning a song.

Having watched the clip of Stills performing the song you should be familiar with the structure of the verse. There are essentially two parts in each a descending part and an ascending part. The descending part repeats twice and also serves as the instrumental passage between verses. The ascending part repeats three times to form the second part of the verse.

Listening to the first verse we have the descending sequence starting on the words “four and twenty” and ending as Stills sings “I come into this life”. Then it starts again on the words “the son of” and ends at “lived in strife”

The ascending part begins on the word “tired” in the line “He was tired of being poor” and ends just after the word “poor” in the same line. It then repeats twice more.

Before we go any further, I just want to address the issue of SPEED. My advice is to not worry about speed. Slow things down as much as you need to. Worry about accuracy and about good timing, and the speed will come naturally with repetition.

Bob-Dubery

OK... let's look at that first part, the descending part.

There are four bars in that part. The first three bars all use the same right-hand picking pattern, so let's look at that first bar in more detail.

The first note in the bar is on the 6th string (which, remember, is tuned down to D). That's on the “one” count in the bar.

The first melody note is the A at the 5th fret on the 1st string. Here we “pinch” IE play that note simultaneously with the note that the thumb plays. So we have the thumb making a downward strike on one string and a finger making an upward strike on another – hence the term “pinch”. The pinch here comes on the "two" count.

After the pinch we have another strike of the thumb on the 6th string. That's the "three count"

Then we get to the second melody note of the bar. This note falls between the 3 and 4 counts. So we might count “one... two.... three AND four...”. The note we play, 2nd string at 7th fret, giving us an F sharp, falls on the AND, neatly between the three and four counts.

See this video clip of the right hand playing the first three bars slowly. I start off with setting up the bass “pulse” and then play those three bars. I play this passage with thumb, ring and middle fingers. So I have tucked my index finger out of the way in order that you have a better view of what the other two fingers do (and when). You do not need to play like this – it's just an adaption I made in this case for this video clip.

OK. For the first three bar the right-hand pattern is exactly the same. We just move the left-hand down the neck to give us the downward progression that ends up on a d major chord.

In the 2nd bar we finger a G on the first string and an E on the 2nd. For the third bar we finger an F# on the 1st string and a D on the 2nd. Throughout we have our pair of Ds, an octave apart, ringing in the lower register.

So the descending sequence is
F# A
E G
D F#

And throughout the right-hand pattern remains the same. Only the left hand changes.

Ray

Thanks unca Bob.

Bob-Dubery

Now for that 4th bar. The picking pattern changes here, but if you have the preceding 3 bars down pat then this bar should not present too much of a problem.

Here we start with a pinch on the “one”. We pinch the open 6th and 2nd strings.

Then there is a note between the “one” and the “two”. This is an A at the 2nd fret on the 3rd string! This is on the “one AND...”. And THIRD string, so if you're assigning a finger to each of the 3 high strings (as discussed above) you'll want to use the index finger here.

On the “two” we have one note – the open 4th string.

And then a note between the “two” and the “three”. So this bar is a little busier early on than the preceding 3 bars. Now we have a D at the 3rd fret of the 2nd string.

To make things a little easier, you need to think ahead in the THIRD bar and just finger a regular D major chord there. Then all you have to do is lift off when you get to the B that is pinched on the "one".

See this clip. I actually finger a D in the third bar and then life is easier in the 4th.

And then the “three” and the “four” are just the thumb on the open 6th and 4th strings respectively.

So you might count this one “one and two and three... four”.

Here's a clip of me playing, at a fairly slow speed, all 4 bars. This shows only the right hand. For the 4th bar, as discussed above, the index finger comes into play and so I don't tuck that out of sight here.

You can see me using my pinky for support and stability. This is a bad habit of mine and not to be recommended.

This bar is busier at the start than at the end. For the “three” and the “four” we are just playing open strings. This gives an extra little bit of time to get your left hand back into position to start the sequence again.

Once you have these 4 bars down pat you actually know half the song!

Bob-Dubery

Now for the ASCENDING part. Again this is a four bar sequence. We play this through three times, but there is a slight change in the 4th bar on the third time around.

The first two bars are picked exactly the same, so we'll take a good look at the first bar in the sequence.

On the “one” pinch the 6th string at the 3rd fret and the 2nd string at the first fret. (This is the first time that we do not play the 6th string open. Remember that we are in drop-d tuning, so that not is an F, not a G).

On the “two” play the open 4th string with the thumb.

After the “two” but before the “three” play the open 3rd strong. So this is on “one...two AND”.

On the “three” you play the 6th string, still fretted at the 3rd fret. Play this with the thumb.

After the “three” but before the “four” you again play the 2nd string at the first fret.

On the “four” you play the open 4th string with the thumb.

So now this bar could be counted, for the purposes of picking, as “one... two and three and four...”.

You don't have to change the left hand fingering during the bar. So when you start the bar get the 2nd and 6th strings fretted immediately. I use the ring finger to fret the 6th at the third fret and the index finger to fret the 2nd string at the first fret.

For the next bar you simply move those two left hand fingers up the neck by two frets and the right hand pick stays the same.

Bob-Dubery

For the next bar our left hand makes a bit of a jump, up to the 8th fret. BUT on the “four” of the preceding bar we played an open 4th string, on the “one” of this bar we play an open 6th string, and then there's a pinch on the “two”, so again you have a short spell where we are playing only open strings and this gives you plenty of time to move your left hand into position.

Now the bar in detail.

On the “one” play the open 6th string with the thumb.

On the “two” pinch the open 4th string and the 1st string at the 8th fret.

On the “three” play the open 6th string with the thumb.

After the “three” but before the “four” play the 2nd string at the 10th fret. (this is on “...three AND”).

On the “four” play the open 4th string with the thumb.

After the “four” and before the “one” of the next bar again play the first string at the 8th note. Try to emphasise this note, and let it ring into the next bar. By doing this we effectively anticipate the first note of the next bar – and that, one note anticipating another, is SYNCOPATION.

The pick in this bar can be counted as "one... two.... three and four and"

The fourth bar in this sequence is straight forward. The left hand should not have moved from the previous bar. Remember that the last note of that bar is still ringing, so it SOUNDS in this bar although we PICKED it in the previous bar.

Let's walk through that bar now.

On the “one” we play the open 6th string with the thumb.

On the “two” we pinch the open 4th string and the 2nd string at the 10th fret.

On the “three” we play the open 6th string with the thumb.

On the “four” we play the open 4th string with the thumb.

So again there is a nice bit of space that we can use to get the left hand into whatever position is required next.

We go through this sequence twice. The third time we play the first two bars with the fretted 6th string as previously, but the next two bars change and will give us a pause at the end of the verse.

You are now more than 3/4 of the way to knowing the entire song.

Bob-Dubery

PLEASE NOTE! I have made a small change to the PowerTab and the PDF documents referred to in the first posting in this lesson. The change is minor and will not have effected anything covered until now. URLs remain unchanged.

Bob-Dubery

OK... now we are starting the last four bars of the verse. These go with the line “And he worked like the devil to be more.” There is a pause at the end of the verse which adds dramatic effect and, usefully, allows us to get set for the start of the next verse (or to take applause).

The first two bars are the same as for the preceding passage that we dealt with. These are the bars with the ascending note on the 6th string.

The third bar we would count the pick as “one... two and three and four...”.

On the “one” pinch the open 6th string and the 1st string at the 8th fret.

On the “two” pinch the open 4th string and the 2nd string at the 10th fret.

On “two AND” play the 1st string at the 8th fret.

On the “three” play the open 6th string with the thumb.

On the “three AND” play the 2nd string at the 10th fret.

On the “four” play the open 4th string with the thumb.

The very last bar of the verse is simplicity itself. Just pinch the open the 6th string and the 1st string at the 8th fret and let them ring. At the end of the first two verses you probably want to keep the count going in your head and start the next verse on the “one” count again.

Here's a clip of me playing the ascending part. The view is of the right hand. I play the "regular" part first, and then the last four bars of the verse.

Bob-Dubery

Still to come are some alternate picks that can be used to add variety in the descending part of the verse.

Please let me know if you spot any errors.

Bob-Dubery

Now we have a workable version of this song. Let's look at some variations that we can throw in to add a little variety and colour to the performance. This is especially important if you perform the piece as a song with vocals. For each verse there are 4 bars where your playing will not have vocals over the top of it, this is the first pass through the descending passage that we learned first. If you can add a little colour for just those 4 bars then the performance becomes more interesting – for you and for your audience – and will hold people's attention and lead them into the story that the song tells.

So now we will look at some variations on that passage that will add that extra colour.

We'll look at two of them. In each case the variation is only in the right hand picking pattern. The left hand stays the same. In many songs where you fingerpick you can add a little variation and interest just by varying what the right hand is doing.

There is a PowerTab file for these variations. Download it here. If you don't have PowerTab then you can download PDF version of the document here.

There are three sets of 4 bars each in those documents. In the first two we take a picking pattern and apply it to the left hand part we already know. In the third set I show one way that you could combine a different pattern for each bar. Once you have all these patterns down pat and can combine them with confidence you have a large number of variations on the arrangement that you have already learned.

Here's a video clip of me playing these variations. I play 4 sequences of 4 bars. The first three correspond to the three passages show in the tab, the fourth is just random variations. The focus is on the right hand.

Bob-Dubery

For each of these variations we only change the first three bars of that descending part. The fourth bar, with the little flourish on the D major chord, remains unchanged. And as with the parts we have already learned the right hand pattern is the same for each of those three bars.

Note that in each case the thumb maintains the steady pulse that we have become used to.

Let's look at the first variation. This makes use of a pinch again, but this time we pinch THREE notes. For this pinch we simultaneously play
The 6th string with the thumb
The 1st string with the ring finger
The 2nd string with the middle finger.

So our first bar in detail...

On the “one” we do the three note pinch with the 6th string open, the 1st string fretted at the 5th fret and the 2nd string fretted at the 7th fret.

One the “two” we play the open 4th string with the thumb. If the 1st and 2nd strings are still ringing then let them continue to ring.

On the “three” we play the open 6th string with the thumb. Again let the 1st and 2nd strings continue to ring.

Between the “three” and the “four” play the 1st string at the 5th fret.

On the “four” play the open 4th string with the thumb.

For the next two bars the left hand moves in the way we are now used to, and you maintain the picking pattern.

Bob-Dubery

The second variation sounds similar to the original arrangement that you learned, but the notes actually fall on different beats.

Initially we just played a bass note on the open 6th string on the “one”, now we pinch that open string and the 6th string.

On the “two” pinch the open 4th string and the 2nd string.

On the “three” play the open 6th string with the thumb.

Between the “three” and the “four” play the 1st string.

On the “four” play the open 4th string with the thumb.

Once you have learned these two variations we can start to combine the various picks we have now learned.

Bob-Dubery

In the third set of 4 bars in the tab we now just combine the three patterns that we have already learned.

The first bar uses the first variation with the three note pinch. The second bar is the “original” variation. The third bar is the second variation.

You can string these patterns together in different ways and to different effects. As you develop more confidence with this style of fingerpicking you will develop your own patterns with the right hand, add in hammers and pulls with the left hand and in doing so you will develop a lot of variations.

Well done! Good luck!

I hope you enjoyed this.