Indie Style Music Lesson

At this point in the course, we're really comfortable with reading notation and tab. We're looking for those new notes we've not played yet, starting with this line.

New Notes

• First Fret on the B String: This gives us the octave of C as well as the open B string.
• We've played this before when we learned the names of the strings:
  • Eddie Ate Donuts
  • Good Boy Eddies

The fifth string, or the second from the floor, is our B string.

We can test the C octave by playing:

• First Fret on the B String (C)
• Third Fret on the A String (C)

These are the two Cs we now know. You can hear they are the same note, just in different ranges.

Half Notes

Starting off, we have our half notes to play.

• First fret with our first finger on the B string: This gives us C
• Followed by open B.

Counting:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Alternate Picking

Moving on, we're picking up some speed.

What we're going to try and do is use alternate picking to play this:

• First fret on the B string to open B (C to B).
• Then, second fret on the G string to open G.

Since the notes are moving quickly, we will use alternate picking.

Technique

• Alternate picking involves going down and up with the pick.
• Key: Small movements.
  • You don't want the pick to come too far away from the guitar.

To practice, take just the open high E string and play:

• Down and up, up, down, up, down, up.

Pause here and try that for a few minutes, getting comfortable with that motion of down and up.

Wrist Movement

It's all about the wrist. We're not trying to move our thumb or our whole arm; it's all in the wrist. Alternate picking allows us to play twice the speed we normally would, letting us play a lot faster phrases.

When using alternate picking, we need to rest our arm somewhere so we're not floating and being inaccurate.

You can use:

• Pinky and ring finger to rest on the pick guard if needed.
• Or, as we did with our power chords before, rest our hand behind the saddles on the bridge.

You can even combine both to achieve a really solid movement.

Bar Three

Moving on to bar three, we're back to the concept we looked at‚ pop.

• Quarter Note On, Quarter Note Off:
  • Second fret on the G string (A)
  • Quarter note rest
  • Open B string
  • Quarter note rest
  • Dotted half note on C (first fret of the B string, our new note), lasting for three beats.

I'll take you through that section with particular focus on bar two, where we're using alternate picking:

• Down on one
• Up on the open B
• Down on the second fret on the G
• Up on the G

Practice

Here we go, nice and slow:

1, 2, 3, 4.
2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.

There's a lot of detail in that one line with alternate picking, the rests, and our new notes and fingerings.

Take some time to get comfortable with this, build up slowly, and I'll see you with the backing track in a second!