Q: What do you struggle with the most (chords, patterns or melody)? We're working hard on fingerpicking skills over in the premium membership. Check out premium membership here: mybgi.net/2Inc2k1

I am now 76 years old and have been playing ragtime guitar all my life. Firstly let me say to all you beginners learn the alternating bass picking pattern as very few people play it these days and it transfers well to almost any genre of music. Playing this style makes you stand out. At first the style is daunting to learn but once learnt it can be used in thousands of contexts. Listen to and learn as many Mississippi John Hurt songs as you can this is the key to learning this type of music. Once you have learnt this right hand technique then work on the more elaborate chord sequences listen to Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Blake for that area. Learn to read tablature for guitar it will help to see exactly what notes are played. Good luck and stick with it as it is just like riding a bike it's difficult at first but it suddenly becomes second nature.

I have been playing for about 30 years and I still find this helpful....do you know how hard it is for an old man to learn new tricks? Its actually not that hard and I find these vids helpful. Thank you the upload and best to you and and yours.

I'm 55, and have been playing for a little over 2 years. I try to play every day, even if just a little. I find this "linear" video incredibly helpful and enlightening. Getting the finger syncopation down between the two hands is challenging to a new player like me, but the song is not out of reach. It sounds like music, even if it's not super polished yet. I love your easy approach and well explained steps. Kudos.

I have been learning how to play quite demanding classical music pieces so I was pretty confident about ragtimes blues to be picked up just like that, but this video keeps on giving my fingers brain damage, definitely basic is not easy, amazing lesson and just shows how infinite music can be, always learning. Thank you

I just gotta say that I love these lessons and they don’t cost me anything.....well, maybe my humility. Thanks!

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.

Thank you for this John, breaking it down makes it so much better and easier to target the tricky parts. Love the blues lessons too.

Wow sir! This made total sense to me after banging my head on ragtime and fingerpicking for over a year! Thank you for sharing this!

Your lessons are very good. I took 12 fingerpicking lessons about 40 years ago and haven’t learned much sense. I think this one is at the right level that I could probably learn to do it. Thank you very much.

Thanks mate! I dig it. Love having something new to play with.

ragtime is granddaddy of swing music and rock n roll

Very informative,am a flat picker.Looking forward to improving my fingerpicking skills.Thank You!!!

figerpicking kicks my butt!!!

Really appreciate your videos. I’m an old guy. Took up guitar in retirement. Been playing a little over a year now. I spent most of 2019 working on right hand thumb and finger control. So I guess I kind of neglected my fretting hand. What you have here is a very good exercise. 2020 is working on left hand technique and learning more about the fret board. Thanks dude!

This is a cool sound. The alternating bass is not the problem, it is when & how to insert the melody with the bass! Thanks

Melody is my challenge! Thanks for your lessons 👍👏👏😃

I love playing guitar, I was just playing metallica, now I'm having fun with ragtime.

Finger picking pattern is most difficult, to get that ragtime feel!

Thank you for sharing. Your videos are always very helpful as they are pitched just right. The thing I really struggle with is trying to finger the lower E string with my thumb as I have always used my index finger to make full or half barred chords. I know the former is a very common way of playing but to me it feels quite strange. Beautiful guitar, BTW.

Wow! 2 years later and I still can’t get exactly what’y’re doin’, BUT!!! I did c9me up with a pretty song! Lol It’s called “Walkin’ To That New Life Of Mine”. Thanks!

This is teaching me advanced picking technique in a way that I can digest in my own time so I think for me the toughest part will be adding in the melody. Just because it's all new! Thanks for the excellent content!

You slow it down pretty good on when to pinch and pluck each chord. I will just practice 1-2 chords over & over until it comes naturally. Reminds me of when i was learning "Blackbird" a vein in my head wanted to explode, but now it seems so simple.

thanks!

Thanks John for the ragtime blues lesson! Fun and enjoyable!

Thanks John, love your teaching. Extra notes are the most difficult for me. Cheers

Colter Wall brought me here. Thanks for the lesson!

Great lesson. I like how you take 4 simple chords and show how solid technique make them sound so nice. Thanks for sharing.

Very good lesson! Glad I stumbled across this.

love the teaching thanks again

Thanks for the lesson. The most difficult part for me is adding the melody notes on top. Easy to do if the melody note lands on the same beat as the bass but not as easy when it lands in between bass notes. And more difficult when it switches from landing on the bass notes and then switches back to landing in between the bass notes and if it gets syncopated as well.

Love lurking on your channel! Wish I had time for the Premium Membership program. The fingerpicking part would be the stinker for me.

Great lesson, very well explained. I'm still struggling a little playing this style but trying to put in the time.

Melody

Thank you for the lesson!!

Great

Great lesson. Love ragtime blues but believed to complicated. Your lesson is a great beginning but step 3 is by far the most difficult for me to master

What a cool lesson! Can’t believe I’m actually playing stuff like this! Lol Although I haven’t learned your picking pattern yet, I am having fun using these chords in barre positions! So cool! (If I do say so myself. Lol) I start with C in the third position then to A at the 5th fret then D7 at the 5th and then G at the 3rd and my pinky working overtime! Lol Thanks, man! (Seriously) Oh! And I resolve on a C on the 8th fret. Cool! (Or C in the 1st)

Great lesson! I'm pretty sure the chord progression is identical to Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacre as well.

Dude looks like Bill Paxton. :D Thanks for the tips bud

Good lesson John! I personally find finger picking patterns most difficult. ..

nice - helpful..keep it up - more tips on honing finger-picking please...drills etc

I’d have to say putting in the melody in along with the thumb notes.

Adding the melody is the hardest part for me. If you could tell us what beats those notes fall on it would be helpful.

Awesome. Thank you.🎸🎸

In my head, I am hearing the melody to Alice's Restaurant from these chords.

Cheers for that ,😎 Kev in the uk

Showing the Bass notes picking pattern FIRST would have been a good idea maybe ? Thats the key to this , keeping the thumb going but the video just tells us to "practice them " without actually demonstarting what they are Then it goes straight to the picking on the high notes?

Which step is the more difficult... What do you think Sherlock??? Ils like spliting one hand in two.

I can play a "folk picking" pattern (Gordon Lightfoot or John Prine) but can't seem to grasp the rhythm of ragtime or even John Hurt style blues. Is there any lesson you hve or will make to get this rhythm skill down? Thanks

Love the lessons you make them so easy to understand by explaining them so much better than the majority on here. Thank you so much Although I am struggling a lil, not with lesson or any of the three steps. I'm off my lil tities. I think I've taken too much Amphetamine lol

1:40 chords

Getting my thumb moving, it's lazy. Always wanted to learn Travis Picking though.

Picking pattern difficult you move to fast

music

Tab would have helped

My pinky does NOT want to reach to that 5th fret 😂😭

Talker

Talk too much.