Volume 1 Main Musical Piece

In this final lesson, we are putting our percussive ideas learnt over the whole course into a single piece.

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Section 1

The first 4 bars of this piece focusses on the kick drum technique above the sound hole.

The simultaneous strum and kick drum is a foundational technique that is relatively 'simple' once mastered but is a very effective technique to have in your Percussive Fingerstyle playing toolkit.

• Kick and strum A major chord together

• String slap using the thumb

• Open A note played by thumb

• Finally, kick drum and snare drum played one after the other to finish the bar

Repeated sequence for each chord change.

After repeating the 4 bars, end the section with a single flamenco strum.

Section 2

Chords: G6/A and A major

• Ring out the G6/A chord with a flamenco down-strum (fan the fingers)

• Muted downstroke

• Then, on the up-stroke keep the strings muted by relaxing chord hand but let the open A string ring out

• String slap using the thumb

• Finally, with downstroke, ring out the full chord once and then play again for the final beat of the bar

Section 3

See lesson video and the interactive tab for detail of chord structures and in-depth look into rhythms.

• Remember for finger picking: Use Thumb for E, A and D strings and First finger/Second finger for G and B strings

Section 4

This section is mostly based around an Asus2. Refer to the lesson video for chord structures and in-depth details.

• Start off strumming through the Asus2 chord but with first finger off the fretboard

• Then, hammer-on to the fret with the first finger to complete the Asus2 chord

Timing tips

• For each pull-off the kick and snare percussions are also played on the same beat of the bar

• Hammer-ons happen either side of the kick and snare beats as described in the lesson video

Using the ears to hear the parts and how they work together, along with a slow practice routine, will really help to build this section up into an accurate and well timed part.