One Finger Etude – Mini Lesson: 009

Helpful Tips

This beginner-friendly fingerpicking etude can be played with one finger on your fretting hand. This piece has two melodies: A and B. The form of the piece is ABA.

Rhythmically, it’s simple. You’re playing steady eighth notes in all but three measures. For your picking hand, you can use either a three or four-finger approach.

There are a few tricky aspects to this piece. The first is that it jumps up and down the neck. I’d recommend using your fret markers as a guide for navigating the fretboard. Check out Mini Lesson #2 for help with this.

Second, there is one measure in the piece where it’s best to use two fingers to play a passage with your fretting hand. If you look at measure 12, the last three notes are played on the A string using a pull-off lick. I’d recommend using your middle finger to play the 3rd fret and your index finger to play the 2nd fret, while the final note, the open A, requires no fretting.

Finally, there are four strums of an A minor chord at the end of the B Melody (in the lesson version). Matt jazzes up this part by strumming the first three hits with triplet strum technique. If you’d like to keep it simple, you can use basic down and up strumming.

Part 1 – Performance & Free Lesson

Tab Play Along