Kick Drum Finger Picking

We focus on fingerpicking and adding kick drum and snare percussive elements.

Exercise 1

The chords of this lesson include D5, Csus2 and G major.

In each bar:

• We use the first two fingers to pluck upwards to highlight the notes in the chord

• As we pluck and 'pull-up' we can use this momentum to play the kick drum sound using the heel of the hand.

As we practice this motion, it is absolutely fine to hear the chord and percussion separately at first, but slowly we can merge these sounds together as we get familiar with it.

After the first motions detailed above:

• We play the root note of the chord with the thumb

• Then, we slap the strings with the turning of the wrist for that familiar snare sound

• Another pluck of the root note

• A single kick drum with the heel

• Finally, one more slap of the strings with the thumb to play the snare