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** As featured in issue 19 **

In this fingerstyle guitar lesson we will be looking at another composition of mine simply called Study n. 10, which was specifically written for Guitar Interactive. This piece includes a few different acoustic guitar techniques such as the use of double-stops, triple-stops, syncopated bass line, natural harmonics, but also extended harmony, most of which gravitates around the A major key, with the occasional modal interchange (borrowing chords from the parallel key A minor and more).

Being the time signature ¾, the bass (normally the root note of the chord) is placed on beat one, the harmony on beat 2 or 3. The theme follows three melodic shapes, as it will be evident in section A, B and C.   

The first challenge is to memorise the following fingerstyle permutations, consisting of:

INTRO:

‘p’ finger playing bass while ‘a’ finger plays the first string on beat 1.

‘p’, ‘i’ ,‘m’ fingers playing simultaneously the D, G, and B strings (on the 2^nd beat)

A section:

‘p’ finger playing bass while ‘a’ finger plays the first string on beat 1.

‘a’ finger plays an open high E.

‘p’, ‘i’ ,‘m’ fingers playing simultaneously the D, G, and B strings (on the 3^rd beat)

B section:

‘p’ finger playing bass while ‘a’ finger plays the first string on beat 1.

‘i’ and ‘m’ fingers plays the G and B strings (on the 2^nd beat).

‘i’ ,‘m’ fingers playing the E string (on the 3^rd beat)

C section:

‘p’ finger playing bass while ‘m’ finger plays the 2nd string on beat 1.

‘p’ and ‘m’ fingers play the D and G strings (on the 2^nd beat).

‘i’  and ‘a’ fingers playing the G and E string (on the 3^rd beat)

Make sure you can play the above-mentioned patterns with accuracy, emphasising the notes played with the ‘a’ finger when playing the theme.

Next we are going to look at the left hand part:

(Please note E=low E string, e= high E string)

Bar 1: Beat 1: Open A and e string. Beat 2: Middle f on fret 6 of D, ring f on fret 6 of G and open B.

Bar 2: Beat 1: Open E and e string. Beat 2: Middle f on fret 6 of D, ring f on fret 7 of G and open B.

INTRO

Bar 3: As bar 1.

Bar 4: Beat 1: Open E and e string. Beat 2: Middle f on fret 7 of D, ring f on fret 7 of G and open B. Beat 3: While the other notes played in the previous bar keep ringing, the index f plays a G#, on fret 6 of D.

A SECTION

Bar 5:  Beat 1: Open A, ring f on fret 7 of e, then pull-off to fret 5 of e with index. Beat 2: open e. Beat 3: Middle f on fret 6 of D, ring f on fret 6 of G and open B.

Bar 6: Beat 1: Open E, middle f on fret 5 of e, then pull-off to fret 4 of e with index. Beat 2: open e. Beat 3: Middle f on fret 6 of D, ring f on fret 7 of G and open B.

Bar 7: Beat 1: Open A, ring f on fret 4 of e, then pull-off to fret 2 of e with index. Beat 2: open e. Beat 3: Middle f on fret 2 of D, index f on fret 1 of G and ring f on fret 2 of B.

Bar 8: Beat 1: Open E and e string. Beat 2: Middle f on fret 2 of D, index f on fret 1 of G and open B.

Bar 9:  As bar 5

Bar 10:  As bar 6

Bar 11: As bar 7

Bar 12: Beat 1: Open A ring f on fret 5 of D, middle f on fret 4 of G and index on fret 3 of B. Beat 2: Open e string. Beat 3: little f on fret 5 of e.

B SECTION

Bar 13: Beat 1: Open D, little f on fret 9 of e. Beat 2: Index f on fret 7 of B and G. Beat 3: Little f on fret 7 of e and pull-off to fret 5 with index.

Bar 14: Beat 1: Barre on fret 4; index on fret 4 of A and e, followed by middle f (or ring f) on fret 5 of e. Beat 2: Index still on fret 4 of G, Middle f on fret 5 of B and ring f on fret 7 of e. Beat 3: Index still on fret 4 of e.

Bar 15: Beat 1: Barre on fret 2; index on fret 2 of A and e. Beat 2: Index still on fret 2 of G, Middle f on fret 3 of B. Beat 3: Index on fret 4 of e.

Bar 16: Beat 1: Open A and e string. Beat 2: Middle f on fret 6 of D, ring f on fret 6 of G and open B. Beat 3: Index on fret 5 of e followed by ring f on fret 7, same string.

Bar 17: As bar 13

Bar 18: Beat 1: Barre on fret 4; index on fret 4 of A and e, followed by middle f on fret 5 of e. Beat 2: Index still on fret 4 of G, ring f on fret 6 of B and little f on fret 7 of e. Beat 3: Middle f on fret 5 of e.

Bar 19: Beat 1: Barre on fret 2; index on fret 2 of E and e. Beat 2: Index still on fret 2 of B, ring f on fret 4 of D and little f on fret 4 of G.

Bar 20: Beat 1: Open E, ring f on fret 4 of D and middle f on fret 3 of G. Beat 2: Index on fret 2 of B. Beat 3: Index on fret 2 of e.

C SECTION

Bar 21: Beat 1: Barre on fret 4; middle f. on fret 5 of A, little f on fret 7 of B. Beat 2: Index still on fret 4 of D, ring f on fret 6 of G. Beat 3: Index on fret 4 of G and e.

Bar 22: Index f. on fret 4 of A and middle f on fret 5 of B. Beat 2: index on fret 4 of G and little f on fret 7 of D.

Bar 23: As bar 21 two frets down.

Bar 24: As bar 22 two frets down.

Bar 25: As bar 23 two frets down.

Bar 26: As bar 24 two frets down.

Bar 27: Barre on fret 2: Index on fret 2 of A and little f on fret 5 of B. Beat 2: Ring f. on fret 4 of D and index on fret 2 of G.

Bar 28: Barre on fret 2: Index on fret 2 of A and little f on fret 4 of B. Beat 2: Ring f. on fret 4 of D and index on fret 2 of G.

Bar 29: Open E and middle f. on fret 2 of e. Beat 2: index on fret 2 of G and ring f. on fret 3 of B.

Bar 30: Open E and e. Beat 2: index on fret 1 of G and open B. Beat 3: index on fret 5 of e, followed by little f. on fret 7 of e. (this happens only before taking the coda section)

The part above can be repeated twice with different dynamics and tonal colours.

CODA

Bar 31: Beat 1: Open D, little f on fret 9 of e. Beat 2: Index f on fret 7 of B and G. Beat 3: Index f on fret 7 of e.

Bar 32: Beat 1: Open D, little f on fret 9 of e. Beat 2: Index f on fret 6 of B and middle f on fret 7 of G. Beat 3: Ring f on fret 7 of e.

Bar 33: Barre on fret 9. Index on fret 9 of E and little f. on fret 12 of e.

Beat 2: index on fret 9 of D and G, with middle f. on fret 10 of B.

Bar 34: Index on fret 8 of E and ring f. on fret 10 of B. From the ‘and’ of 1: Play open D, G, B and then the same strings with your little f. executing natural harmonics on fret 12.

Bar 36: Barre on fret 2: Index on fret 2 of A and little f. on fret 5 of e. Beat 2: Index on fret 2 of G and middle f. on fret 3 of B. ‘And’ of 2: Index on fret 2, ring f. on fret 4 and little f. on fret 5 of e.

Bar 37: Open E and little f on fret 9 of e. Beat 2: index on fret 6 of B and D. Middle f. on fret 7 of G. Beat 3: open e (or the mordent as seen on the video)

Bar 38: Barre on fret 5. Middle f. on fret 6 of E and index on fret 5 of e. From the ‘and’ on 1: index on fret 5 of D and G, mring f. on fret 6 of B, then fret 5 of e and fret 6 of B.

Bar 39: Open A and e. Middle f and ring f. on fret 6 of D and G. Slide two frets upwards.

Congratulations, you have completed Study n.10!

As always, you will be able to download a transcription by selecting the menu option in this page.

I strongly recommend experimenting with a few picking variations, changing the chords as you wish in terms voicing (higher or lower), as well as trying the same picking pattern on a different chord progression, or using a ‘capo’ on fret 2 or for a brighter outcome.

When repeating any section twice or more, you may want to play ‘sul ponticello’, (closer to the bridge) or ‘sul tasto’ (over the frets) for a more contrasting result. Also, make sure you highlight the melody and the counter-melodies particularly in section C.

Please focus on minimum-movement approach, as this will help delivering the piece in a more accurate and consistent manner, while saving energy.

This will complete this fingerstyle and guitar composition lesson.

I hope you will enjoy playing this study piece and that this will give you some ideas on how to write your own solo guitar compositions.