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Neil says that when making a chord or notes on the fretted hand you should place one finger at a time. why is that?

I don't believe he means all the time, or in general.....

What I think he is referring to is when you are fingerpicking, or picking out individual notes, you should practice at getting one finger down at a time in order to let the other notes ring out longer and make the transition sound smoother. It is a difficult practice for some, myself at the top of that list..... B)

MJ

makes sense. thanks

It sure makes sence,,,when notes sustain longer everything sounds more musical,,Placing fingers in order you need them gives you also time to get that whole chord down(you don't rush ),,when going to one chord and then to the other you can let fingers on there place,,for example from Open C to Am you only have to move one finger,,,when you do a fingerpickin song and reading the tab the tab don't say anything a bout that sustain,wel most tabs!! there are tabs that are written just as you can hear but that can be confusing..

Where you working on??

Willem

I think Willem has it absolutely right. When Neil talks about placing your fingers to set up a chord he is often talking about getting the right fingers down in the order of the notes you need. So for example if you are playing a C-chord, you may need the bass note first (the low C) or you may need the high c first. So basically build the chord in the order that you need the notes. In finger picking especially you may not even need all of the notes in a chord, so you don't have to build the rest if the chord if you don't have time or if it will make it harder for you to get to the next chord.

Have fun.

Michele

thanks for such a quick reply all! @willem i am working on fingerpicking 101

You see every post is a bit diffrent and thats good for getting the most advise,,,,songs for fingerpickin if you don't now them allready are ''the house of the rising sun''( its a must),, ''blackbird'',,''landslide'' and maybe in that order too..''blackbird'' tought by Neil will get your thumb in shape and after that you should learn ''landslide'' for travis pickin and has also a nice solo in it,,

goodluck

Willem

Willem's made a good choice of songs, the best of those for building the chord one finger at a time is 'landslide'. The verse with the C G/B Am7 G/B progression is a great drill to make the concept very automatic.

Dean

Awesome

Great tip. Simple but it works.