Category Archives: Modern Acoustic Fingerstyle

Erik Mongrain- PercusienFa Guitar Lesson

These two lessons will look at some of the skills and techniques needed to play Erik Mongrain’s ‘PercusienFa’. The first lesson will talk about tuning, playing position and percussive techniques, and the second will talk about the separate left and right hand techniques. Please note that this article does not provide the tab, but you can download a very accurate tab from Erik’s website using this link: http://www.erikmongrain.com/Music.asp

Tuning

The guitar in this song is tuned to ‘Open E’ tuning, which from low to high is E G# B E B E. I would recommend using strings of at least a 12 gauge to ensure you get a good sound from the D and G strings, as they will have to be loosened substantially to get the lower notes needed for the open tuning.

Position

When playing this song, you will need to have the guitar in what is called ‘lap tapping’ position. Instead of holding the guitar to your body and over your right leg as normal, lay the guitar flat so that the strings are facing upward, the neck is balanced on your left leg and the body is balanced on your right. For most dreadnought guitars you want to aim to have the 12^th fret pointing to the middle of your body, but this is not an absolute rule.

For those of you who, like myself, are not particularly tall, you may find that your guitar is falling off to the left as your left leg is not high enough. You can resolve this problem by using a footstool for your left leg, or a large book, or whatever else you may have to hand.

Percussion

The title of the song literally translates as ‘Percussion’, and percussive techniques play a huge part in the song. The beginning and the end of the song uses percussive hits on the body with the right and left hand to create a rhythm – you can watch the video to learn the exact rhythm. You can also hear the open strings ringing out as a chord on beat one of every other bar. This is not done by actually hitting the strings, but by hitting the body just behind the bridge, causing the strings to vibrate but with less attack – when done correctly it sounds brilliant!

Lesson 2 – Left Hand and Right Hand

Continuing from the last lesson on PercusienFa, let’s have a look at the left and right hand techniques needed for the song.

Left Hand

Both hands in this song share the playing of the chords and melody, but they both use some different techniques to do so. The left hand mainly uses a combination of overhand tapping, hammer-on’s and pull offs. If you have not mastered these in standard position, please check out my tutorials on Andy McKee’s ‘Drifting’, as this song uses many of these techniques but in standard position.

Start by tapping the large E string in 7^th fret. Place your thumb slightly behind the neck for support, and use your first finger to press the string. Then, use your middle finger to tap 7^th fret on what would normally be the D string. This is the LH starting position for the song. It is a B5 chord, and that same shape is moved around the fretboard during the song to create powerchords over which to improvise the melody.

Right Hand

The right hand also uses some tapping, hammer-on and pull-off techniques. Practice this by taking single note on the fretboard, tapping, pulling off, and hammering on again in succession.

The main function of the right hand, however, is to produce the harmonics. If you have read by blog on the right hand techniques needed for Andy McKee’s ‘Drifting’, you will have done some work on explosive harmonics in standard position before. However, the technique for the explosives here is slightly different. Take your index finger on your right hand, stick it out straight and curl your other fingers and your thumb inwards into a fist, like you are pointing at someone. You will be aiming to strike the thin E string over the 12/13 fret divide. Use the right hand side of the finger to strike the string and create the harmonic with a quick bouncing motion – make sure your finger comes back up from the string really quickly, otherwise the harmonic will not ring out clearly.

It can take a while to get a grip on this technique, and the first few times it may well hurt, as you are hitting the string with a soft piece of skin. Make sure you practice this little and often to start with, to build up the skin toughness and to avoid cutting or bruising around the finger.

Lucy Osborn

Modern Acoustic FingerStyle Series- Andy McKee Drifting Guitar Lesson Part 2

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In the last lesson we looked at left hand techniques needed to play Drifting, in this lesson we will look at the right hand techniques. The right hand uses a combination of tapping, streaming and percussive hits.

Tapping

To tap a note, take the first finger on your right hand and press down quickly and firmly on a string (we will take the F sharp on G string 11th fret as an example, as this is the first tapped note of the song). This is not the same as simply fretting a note – you must bring the finger down with enough force to ensure it causes the string to vibrate, creating the note. Practice this on different strings in different frets to make sure you have a good control of the technique.

Streaming

After you have tapped the F sharp note, use your ring finger to pick the open small E string from underneath, the middle finger to pick the open B string, and the first finger to pick the open G string. Never flick the string with a nail or finger, always pick from underneath.

Percussive Hits

We covered this in the last blog, but for the right hand percussion you want to ‘roll’ your fingers on the scratchplate to achieve a slightly different percussive sound. Roll your fingers from your third to your first finger.

Putting it all together

To combine all the right hand techniques together, you must first tap the F sharp, then stream the E, B and G strings, then perform the finger roll on the scratchplate. To combine the left hand and the right hand techniques takes a great deal more time, and you will need to watch the video to get this exactly right. The order of techniques is this: left hand chord tap, right hand note tap, simultaneous left hand percussive hit and E string stream, B string stream, simultaneous left hand chord tap and G string stream, right hand percussive roll, left hand percussive hit. Practice this really slowly and watch the video. Once you have these techniques under your belt, you will be ready to learn the whole song.

If you would like to learn the whole song, you can buy an accurate tab from Andy McKee’s website here: http://www.andymckee.com/store/tabs/.

Please don’t get any other tabs from unofficial sources – they are usually largely inaccurate, but more importantly Andy is making a living from being a musician, and selling sheet music is a big part of that. If you decide you need a tab, please buy the official one and support this man’s amazing talent.

–

Lucy Osborn

Professional Guitarist and Guitar Tutor

07716587032

www.lucyosborn.com

Modern Acoustic FingerStyle Series- Andy McKee Drifting Guitar Lesson Part 1

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Hey there Your Guitar students, I have a real treat for you this week with a guest guitar tutor- Lucy Osborn doing Part 1 of a series on Modern Acoustic Fingerstyle guitar. She is focusing on the Youtube phenomenon Andy McKee and his unique approach to modern guitar playing. Lucy is a fantastic fingerstyle player who knows this style and writes and performs using many of the techniques covered in this series. Please watch the video to hear Lucy’s cover of Drifting by Andy McKee and to see examples of the content covered throughout the lesson. Enjoy.

Welcome to my first blog on Modern Acoustic Fingerstyle. The example song we will be looking at is ‘Drifting’ by Andy McKee. Before attempting this song, make sure that your guitar is tuned to DADGAD.

As you can see from the video, the left and right hand are working together to create the whole sound, but are playing separate parts and use different techniques. Therefore, this first blog will concern the left hand technique, and the following blog will concern the right hand technique.

The primary function of the left hand in this piece is to outline the chords and to execute some of the percussion. Lets look at the chords first. The left hand is using an overhand technique to play a chord on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings. To do this, put your thumb into the back of the guitar neck, with your hand angled so that your first finger is coming over the top of the guitar, not underneath. Then, bring the first finger down quickly onto the strings. This creates a hammer on, which causes the strings to vibrate. It is really important with this technique that you are careful that the large knuckle on your first finger remains slightly angled and does not ‘lock’, as this can cause pain and potentially damage the finger.

The first few times you practice this technique, you may find that the strings do not ring out clearly. Persevere, it can take a while to build up the finger strength required for this technique.

The second function of the left hand is to provide percussion. To do this, bring your left hand up to the guitar body, and hit the curved part above the guitar neck. Experiment with different permutations of hitting with fingers or palms – this will give you different sounds, and different guitars have different woods, which will have different sounds.

Finally, put both techniques together. This is important, because it helps you judge the distance between the chord and the body. Practice very slowly at first, then gradually build up speed. Use this rhythm to play the pattern:

1 2 3 4

(Chord) (Hit) (Chord) (Hit)

When you can play this comfortably, move on to the next lesson on right hand technique.

Lucy Osborn
Professional Guitarist and Guitar Tutor
07716587032