Salam and good night/morning.

I started learning the guitar recently. I know chords and how to strum but I was wondering, how do you know which string to pluck while playing a chord? I wanted to play a certain song but it's by fingering, not by struming. Unfortunately I get confused on which string I should pluck first and so on. I tried googling the matter but for some reason I kept on finding sources that tells you to use your thumb for the bass strings and the other three fingers (not including pinky) for the 3rd-1st strings. I knew this already and I still can't get an explanation on which string to start. Do help me out if you could ok?

Thank you.

this is simple mathod i can come up with, hheheheh

maybe some otai can explain better than this,

1st u plug the bass for each chords, example, for AM

plug the 5th sring, yes its a open string, and contionue down stroke to the 3rd string, 2nd string after pluck the 1 string, continue with the up stroke with the same string, 2nd & 3rd Stirng and hit the bass again., and continue the same plucking,

many type of pluckig style, maybe u can change the arrangement for the plucking, be creative abit...hehheheeh

hope thats help you

This post has been edited by Al@n2rock: May 17 2009, 09:32 PM

no exact rules..
just pick it the way you want it to sound..

ditto, it's a very subjective matter. if you have a tab for the song, just follow it. if you want to diverse a bit, just use your imagination. usually it's the bass 1st, followed by the higher notes(in your preferred order).

i googled ditto..
I tot it's a kopitiam word..huhu

Always somewhere - scorpions is a good song to start with



This post has been edited by CyberianHusky: May 18 2009, 02:53 PM

Wow. Thanks. I'm taking guitar classes and my first assignment after I've finished learning techniques is to play an Indonesian song. The instructor gave me the chords and I have to figure out the tabs on my own. I'm guessing this will help train my ears. But it's so hard am still crawling at it. Learning to play the guitar is so so hard =( Thanks guys!

"Word History: Ditto, which at first glance seems a handy and insignificant sort of word, actually has a Roman past, for it comes from dictus, "having been said," the past participle of the verb dcere, "to say." In Italian dcere became dire and dictus became detto, or in the Tuscan dialect ditto. Italian detto or ditto meant what said does in English, as in the locution "the said story." Thus the word could be used in certain constructions to mean "the same as what has been said"; for example, having given the date December 22, one could use 26 detto or ditto for 26 December. The first recorded use of ditto in English occurs in such a construction in 1625. The sense "copy" is an English development, first recorded in 1818. Ditto has even become a trademark for a duplicating machine."

The best way to find chords for any song (My Way la) hahaha , try to find the bass 1st, easy to find the bass 1st, and then u convert the bass notes into suitable chords

yup. i agree.

first, find the right note (eg. A, on the bass string, in this case, 5th string) then work it out by plucking/strumming the full chord.

practise on some esay songs will help u a lot.

i thought there are various method for plucking.

for me,u got to train your ears first.that's the most important thing just like how you tune your guitar by ear.then you will know which string to pluck and which note you need to hit.
im a noob anyway.but that's how i got to play most of malaysian indie bands songs.(most of the songs are easy to play.i.e:nitrus-resah and tentang kita-couple)

by the way,what song that your teacher ask you to learn?mind to share with us?

Most of Malaysian song are easy to play, compare to all the great2 oversea band....

Back to the topic on the plucking,

Just train u self with one type of plucking only(For now la), u will learn more when u get used to it

Good luck bro..........

Did your teacher teach you basic right hand finger plucking pattern? You should have learned the right hand only plucking pattern on your first or second guitar lesson. You got the chords for the song right? So u just apply what you have learned from the plucking pattern. 1st, you need to know the "count" the song.. most common is 4 counts.. we count the beat as 1234-1234-1234-.... So, from the plucking pattern that you have learned, choose the 4 counts plucking pattern, you won't go wrong.If it's 3 counts song, 123-123-123-...., use 3 counts plaucking pattern.

Hope this help.

Just find plucking lesson on you tube

sure u can get clearer pic ()

depends on
your song. just try out afew patterns. good luck.

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This post has been edited by marsalee: Nov 10 2010, 02:33 PM

OTH fans? There are lotsa good songs in there to learn

But yeah, no harm experiment around with the pluckings. Whatever that sounds nice wins!

you can try learning about plucking aka fingerstyle from this site's beginners' lesson : http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/house-of-the-rising-sun/

house of the rising sun's quite a classic. the chords are all quite easy (basic beginner chords) also & i find the explanation quite clear for someone who doesn't know fingerstyle yet...or someone who hasn't played a guitar in a while, like in my case.

^ Thank you for the link .

Has anyone watched Mamma Mia? The song 'Our Last Summer' is damn nice but mostly plucking. I can't find a tab for it. It's not so easy for me to play by ear . I can do strumming patterns (most of the time) but not plucking.