IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PICKING PATTERNS, CLICK HERE.

Hey, guys. What’s up? It’s Claude Johnson and, yes,
I look like a total wild man right now. I haven’t
combed my hair today, I haven’t shaven, but who
cares, right? Because guitar playing is more
important than shaving. So let’s get into today’s lesson.
Let’s continue our discussion of using single notes
in between the chords.

Here’s the same progression we used last time:
G, A minor, C, D. [unintelligible – 01:09].
So last time we talked about bass note runs
and now I’m using a technique which is basically
picking patterns.

The idea is that instead of just strumming the chord,
I can pick the notes individually. It’s a very basic
concept. I’ll just show you a couple of things that
I’m doing. First of all, I’m using the pick and pluck
technique which I showed a bunch of times in different
videos. What I’m doing is I’m using my pick to hit the
bottom string and then I’m using my other two fingers,
my middle and my ring finger, to pluck some of these
higher strings.

Now, the exact picking patten that you’re going to
use will depend a little bit on what song you’re
playing and of course your own individual preferences.
I’ll just show you what I’m doing here. Basically the
strum pattern, I’m starting out with a basic strum.
One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four; one,
two, three, four; one, two, three, four. So that’s
one strum on the 1 and 2, another strum on the 3
and then two strums on the four-and. One, two, three,
four-and. Again, I’m doing downstroke, two, three.
Downstroke on the 1 and 2, downstroke on the 3 and
then down-up. So it’s like down, down, down-up.
And I just repeat on every chord.

With the picking pattern I’m doing something like this.
I’m strumming the chord, hitting the low note and then
hitting the top three notes, descending. I’m strumming
with a pick, picking the low note and then plucking
the highest string, the high E string with my ring finger;
plucking the B string with my middle finger and then
picking the G string with my pick.

The rhythm that I’m doing is, I’m basically strumming the
1 and then I’m hitting that lowest note of the chord again
on the and of the 2. One, two-and. And then I’m going
three-and-four. One-and, two-and, three-and, four-and.
And what I’m doing is when I’m hitting that low note,
I’m hitting the lowest note of the chord.

Now, keep in mind, this on the G chord, this would be
the low E string. On the A minor, we’re hitting the
A sting. Hitting the A string again on the C chord,
the D, all the way up there on the D string.

You can combine these two feels, the basic strum with
the picking. So feel free to mix it up. There’s really
no magic formula to coming up with a cool picking
pattern that sounds good. Just use your ears and try
to come up with something that matches whatever strum
rhythm that you’re doing.

There is a lot of specific picking patterns in the
“Acoustic Mastery Course”, so check that out. It’s a
great course for all kinds of acoustic stuff, especially
picking patterns and there’s a lot more good stuff in
there. But this should help you get going with picking
patterns. We’ll catch you with another lesson next time.

That’s it for today, guys. Take care.