A Plucking Exercise

In this post, I will be showing you and exercise you can use to improve on your plucking. In one of my earlier post entitled "HOW TO pluck the guitar with your fingers", I showed how to place your fingers on each string, and also how important it is to use your other fingers when plucking, as opposed to what I see most beginners doing - using only their thumb to pluck.

It would be good if you read that post on plucking with your fingers because it is one of the basic things to know about plucking. So, please get into the habit of placing your fingers correctly and also using each finger to pluck the correct string.

Just like strumming, there are certain basic patterns you can use for plucking as well. I will just cover one plucking pattern that I use. The main aim of this post is to provide you with an exercise you can use to help improve on your plucking. Here's what you can do as part of the exercise:

1. Repeat the plucking pattern over and over with that same chord.
2. When you are more confident with the plucking pattern, you can move on to plucking other chords with the same plucking pattern.
   

So, this is the plucking pattern that you can use. Assuming you're playing a D chord in 4/4 beat timing (the numbers represents which string to pluck, NOT the frets):
4 3 2 3 1 3 2 3

If you're playing an A chord in 4/4 beat timing:
5 3 2 3 1 3 2 3

Notice the difference? Your bass note has to change depending on which chord you are playing. If you're playing an E chord, you will have to use the 6th string for your bass note etc. If you need to know the reason why, you can read my post on "HOW TO know which strings to strum for which chords".

When you are confident with the plucking pattern. Try to pluck these chords in sequence:

   D                Dmaj7             D7                G                      
e|--------2----------------2-----------------2----------------3---------|
B|-----3------3---------2-------2---------1------2---------3-----3------|
G|---2--2---2--2------2--2----2--2------2--2---2--2------0--0--0--0-----|
D|-0----------------0-----------------0---------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------3---------------|

  G?               D                Em                A               
e|--------3----------------2----------------0-----------------0---------|
B|-----3------3---------3------3---------0------0----------2------2-----|
G|---3--3---3--3------2--2---2--2------0--0---0--0-------2--2---2--2----|
D|------------------0---------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------0----------------|
E|-3---------------------------------0----------------------------------|

This will help you to:

1. Practice the plucking pattern over and over till it becomes natural.
2. Pluck the correct bass notes based on which chord you are playing.
3. Make use of the correct fingers to pluck the required strings.

I hope you will find this practice useful. Happy plucking =)