Every beginner is encouraged to learn the fundmentals. What are some of the basic fundamental techniques I need to keep in mind while practicing flatpicking guitar?

In order to answer this question, we will provide you with a write-up Tim Stafford handed out to students at the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend last Fall. Here Tim introduces the "Five T's" and then gives you some tips to help you improve your timing, tuning, tone, taste and technique.

The Basics and Why They Are Important

I think it's very important to start with the basics. That way, you don't make any assumptions, and everyone can start at square one.

Michael Jordan was probably the greatest basketball player to ever shoot a hoop. In his recent book, Rare Air, he said that every honor he ever achieved, every championship, every scoring title, basically everything he accomplished in basketball was due to constant practice of fundamentals.

In acoustic guitar music, the fundamentals can be reduced to five things that all begin with the letter "T."

The Five "Ts"

Timing

Timing is perhaps the most important of all. If you don't have good timing, it doesn't matter what you play, whether you're in tune, or if you play with incredible taste and tone. Timing should be on your mind at all times when you're playing. You can build your sense of timing in a few well-tested ways.

Tuning

Tuning is almost as important. It's not as easy as it seems to get your instrument in tune, and sometimes it's even harder to keep it there. Do you depend on an electronic tuner? How do you tune by ear? Can you tell just by playing the strings if they're in tune? There are ways to improve your tuning ear also.

Tone

Tone is fundamental; it's how the instrument sounds when you play it. Is your tone thin, metallic and harsh? Or is it fat, warm and lush? Tone depends on everything from attack, to how you hold the pick, to where you hit the strings, to what angle you hit the strings, to what kind of pick you play with to. . .

Taste

Taste, which is hard to teach is that unconscious intuition that something is "right" to you, and playing it that way, regardless of how many notes or flash you could have inserted. It's the difference between music and noise, between flash and substance, between "licks" and what fits, between. . .

Technique

Technique as a means to an end or an end itself. Technique refers to what you actually play -- the notes in the break or a tune. Sadly, most students think of this as all there is to guitat playing. It's definitely the least important of the "Ts." It's also the easiest to teach, and we'll learn our share.

It's often said that a superior athlete or musician has "mastered the fundamentals" or is "very sound fundamentally." But that doesn't mean they've quit practicing the basics! The greatest musicians practice the "Ts" religiously--especially the first four, even if it sounds like they're practicing only the last one.

Timing and Ensemble Playing Tips

  1. Practice with a metronome. Use a drum track if you have one.
  2. Play along with really good records. Make up breaks where there are no guitar breaks.
  3. Practice playing rhythm at a very fast tempo, around 160-170 bpm, for around 15 minutes straight. Then slow the metronome down to around 75-85 bpm and play with that for 15 minutes.
  4. Listen to the group when you play rhythm; how can you make this sound better? Don't listen to what you're playing. Try something that you think will make the group sound more in time, better rhythmically. Listen for the difference in the group, not in what you're playing.

Tuning Tips

  1. Use an electronic tuner with a needle if you don't have access to a strobe tuner.
  2. Use the tuner to tune your ear instead of the guitar. Here's how:
    1. Tune the high E string on the guitar to the tuner. Get it straight up in tune, with the needle. Mute the other strings and play the E; now mute all the strings and start over. Is it still in tune?
    2. Tune the other strings to the E by ear. If a string is just a little sharp to the desired pitch, nudge the string gently with your right hand; this will bend it down without using tuners.
    3. Now check with the tuner to see how close you are. This should point out where you may have problems hearing certain pitches. Now tune the guitar up using the tuner. Can you hear the difference between "almost in tune" and in tune? If you know what it sounds like to be in tune, then you're going to have a better chance of tuning true by ear.

Tone Tips

  1. Use a good pick. Thicker picks give thicker tone, but less attack. There is a good balance to be struck between muddy, dull tone and bright, thin tone. Using the edge of a teardrop-shaped pick will help your overall tone for rhythm, but is muddier for lead. Using a sharp corner of a triangular pick gives you more attack, but is thinner for rhythm and overall tone.
  2. Downstroke. Consecutive downstroking at fast tempos is very difficult to do but produces superior tone.
  3. Play farther up away from the soundhole for certain songs. Move back close to the bridge for others. Explore how you can get different tones on the guitar simply by playing in different spots with your right hand.
  4. Explore getting equal tone from your upstrokes and downstrokes.
  5. When playing fast solos, try using pull-offs and hammers instead of picking every note; this helps your tone and makes the break smoother.