Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas
In this video
Here's how to play my custom arrangement of 'I Believe In Father Christmas' by Greg Lake (R.I.P.) of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. This is absolutely one of my favourite Christmas songs! (another favourite being Fairytale of New York)
I demo this on 12 string, but the original is played on multiple 6 string guitars, hence my custom arrangement. My lesson focusses on how to play this on 6 string, but all the same things work just the same on 12 string.
Triad shapes
90% of this song is played using G, A and D major chords but only played on strings 1, 3 and 4. The chord shapes used are more akin to triad shapes, which you can learn here in my Intermediate Course.
Fingerstyle technique
Get more help with basic fingerstyle technique in this free video
Greg Lake - live version and hybrid-picking
The original recording uses a technique called 'hybrid-picking' - using a pick between thumb and 1st finger and using fingers 2 and 3 to fingerpick. My hybrid-picking isn't up to scratch at the moment, so I'm just using fingerstyle. But see how it is played properly using the fantastic clip below (clip begins 30 seconds in).
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