If you're just starting out with fingerstyle guitar and would love to learn Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, I've got something for you this week. BUT FIRST... If you're a beginner — or you've been playing for a while but feel like your fingerstyle playing has become a little stuck — take a look at my pinned post about the Back To Guitar September Challenge. I'm running a series of free live fingerstyle classes designed to get you up and running with fingerstyle guitar. We'll start with the basics, gradually build your skills, and by the end of the short course we'll put everything together so you can play your first complete fingerstyle song. Everyone is welcome, so check out the pinned post if you'd like to join us. 🎸 Anyway... Back to Hallelujah! One of the biggest problems when you're learning fingerstyle is finding songs that are actually at the right level for you. So with Hallelujah, I've created four different levels of the same song. The idea is that you don't have to jump straight into a difficult fingerstyle arrangement. Level 1 starts with the recognisable melody played one note at a time. Once you can play that comfortably. Level 2 adds bass and harmony notes, and from there you can continue through the more advanced versions until you're playing the complete fingerstyle arrangement. Once you've learnt these entry level versions you can move onto the normal easy and full version. (All four videos are attached so you can see the progression) This is better than other methods becuase instead of learning exercises for months before tackling the songs you actually want to play, you can develop your fingerstyle skills while learning a song you love. And this week, I'm giving you Hallelujah Level 1 completely free. You'll find it waiting for you in the Free Weekly Fingerstyle Tab Bundle in the Classroom. Want to See How Far You Can Take It? Once you've mastered Level 1, you can access all the other levels of Hallelujah inside my Fingerstyle Guitar School.

Hey, I had a play around over the weekend with a couple of Dolly Parton songs. The problem I have with female singers especially, is that there vocal range can be really wide and it makes it a nightmare to play on fingerstyle guitar. So there's been a slight change of plan and next week I now plan to have Jolene and 9 to 5 available for you to play. Thanks Jack

Hey, I've been looking through the bios of people joining this group, and I've noticed something that comes up again and again... A lot of you used to play guitar, have fallen out of the habit, and now want to pick it up again and finally have a go at fingerstyle guitar. So I thought September would be the perfect time to do something about it! I'm starting a 3-Week Back to Guitar Challenge, with two completely FREE live guitar classes every week. The classes will take place on Zoom, so you'll be able to follow along with me from home. And don't worry — you don't need to turn your camera on, show your face or play guitar in front of anybody! You can simply grab your guitar, watch me and play along from the comfort of your own home. 🎸 What are we going to learn? We'll start right at the beginning and gradually work towards playing a proper fingerstyle arrangement. Lesson 1 — Get Your Fingers Moving Simple exercises to get your fingers working again, followed by something musical to put them into practice. Lesson 2 — Open Chords & Arpeggios Refresh your essential open chords and learn how to turn them into beautiful-sounding fingerstyle arpeggios. Lesson 3 — Famous Chord Progressions as Arpeggios We'll take some familiar chord progressions and use them to practise different fingerpicking patterns. Lesson 4 — Introduction to Travis Picking Learn the basics of alternating bass and start building that classic Travis picking sound. Lesson 5 — Easy Fingerstyle Melodies We'll move onto playing simple melodies and develop the control you need to play them cleanly. Lesson 6 — Turn a Simple Melody Into a Fingerstyle Arrangement Finally, we'll take an easy melody and gradually add bass notes, chords and fingerpicking until we've turned it into a complete solo fingerstyle arrangement. 🗓️ When are the classes? We'll meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:45pm Spain / Central European time for three weeks. 🇬🇧 3:45pm UK & Ireland 🇺🇸 10:45am Eastern 🇺🇸 9:45am Central

Hey everyone, This week's new fingerstyle collection is ready, and I've picked two of the new tabs to give away here in the free group: 🎵 Love Me Do – Full Version — FREE THIS WEEK ⭐ 🎵 Brown Eyed Girl – Level 1 — FREE THIS WEEK ⭐ You'll find both in the Free Weekly Fingerstyle Tab Bundle in the Classroom. But there's something slightly different about this week's collection that I think is worth explaining. 🎸 What happens when you're ready for the next step? With Brown Eyed Girl, I've created two beginner levels. Level 1 is the version you can download here. We strip everything back and concentrate on playing the distinctive melody one note at a time. Then in Level 2, we take that same melody and begin adding bass and harmony notes. It's a small jump in difficulty, but it starts turning that simple melody into something that sounds much more like a complete fingerstyle arrangement. And that's really how I think learning fingerstyle should work. You shouldn't have to jump from "beginner" straight into a difficult arrangement. Start with something you can play. Get comfortable with it. Then add another layer. This week's complete collection Inside the Fingerstyle Guitar School, you'll find all of this week's new material: 🎵 Love Me Do – Full Version ⭐ Free here 🎵 Love Me Do – Easy Version 🎵 Brown Eyed Girl – Level 1 ⭐ Free here 🎵 Brown Eyed Girl – Level 2 🎵 Please Mr. Postman – Full Version 🎵 Please Mr. Postman – Easy Version And that's on top of the 400+ fingerstyle arrangements, exercises, arpeggios and courses already waiting in the School. But the real benefit isn't simply having more tabs. It's having somewhere to progress. If a Full arrangement is too difficult, try an Easy version. If you're just getting started, work through Level 1 and Level 2. If there's a technique holding you back, work on the exercises and courses designed to improve it. The aim is to help you gradually become a better and more confident fingerstyle guitarist, while learning songs you actually enjoy.

Hey everyone, This week's free fingerstyle exercise is based on Heart Of Gold by Neil Young. For those of you who are new here, my Playalong Arpeggios are a little different from my normal fingerstyle tabs. Rather than learning a complete solo arrangement, you'll play fingerstyle arpeggio patterns while playing along with the original song. It's a great way to improve your fingerpicking, rhythm and chord changes in a musical way, and it's one of the best ways to build the skills you'll need for full fingerstyle arrangements. This week, the Easy Version is available to download free. Just head to the Classroom tab at the top of the page and open the Free Weekly Fingerstyle Tab Bundle (the second classroom). Make sure you download it before the end of the week. Once it's replaced by next week's tab, it won't be available as a free download again. If you'd also like the Full Version, plus instant access to my entire library of over 400 fingerstyle tabs, exercises and courses, you can take a look inside the Fingerstyle Guitar School with a 7-day free trial. The Fingerstyle Guitar School is the premium version of this community and membership comes with every tab I've ever written (and every new one I release). I'm also turning all of my course books into full step-by-step video courses, starting with the Travis Picking Course. Those lessons will be available exclusively to Full Members. You can start your 7-day free trial here I hope you enjoy playing Heart Of Gold, and let me know how you get on! Jack 🎸