Fingerpicking Exercise 3


This exercise is taken from one of the Classical Guitar masters, Matteo Carcassi.  Carcassi wrote an Opus 60 with 25 Etudes in them.  Each Etude combines a classical technique mixed with a classical music idea.  If you take the time and work through all 25 Etudes you will be well on your way to mastering fingerpicking on the guitar.  This exercise is taken from his 2nd Etude and combines a basic arpeggio followed by 4 plucks of the same note on the same string.  Many fingerpickers only ever do variations on arpeggios.  This exercise is designed to get you used to finger picking the same string multiple 

Practicing Tips

This 4 measure exercise is taken from the first 4 bars of Carcassi's 2nd Etude.  The chord progression switches between A minor and E several times.  The chording is limited to the top 3 strings of the guitar making the fret hand chords fairly easy to play and transition between once you are familiar with the chords.  Each chord stays static and doesn't change for the 2 beats it is played.  Since there is no movement within each chord, the fret hand is pretty straight forward.

Your picking had should be assigned to the following strings for the arpeggio part.  Thumb on the A or 5th string, 1st finger on the G/3rd string, 2nd finger on B/2nd string and 3rd finger on the E/1st string.  Once the arpeggio is played you then can play the sequence of 4 notes using and alternating picking pattern with your 1st and 2nd fingers.  This will look like how a bass player plays with their fingers except you'll be using free strokes and not rest strokes.  Start slow and slowly speed up!

Carcassi Opus 60 Etude 2 - Intro

Carcassi Etude 2 Intro