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Playing Stairway To Heaven

Thumbing My WayThumbing My Way Posts: 1,073
edited December 2005 in Musicians and Gearheads
Hey guys,

I've been playing for year now and am totally self taught but have progressed really really well so far.

I'm trying to learn Stairway right now and just wanted to know some tips??

First, i need to work on finger-picking, but i noticed that all finger-picking songs are based around a root chord i guess and different strings are plucked. Is this correct??

And second, do you barre the 5th fret to play that opening?? that seems easiest...

Once I get the chord progressions down i hope i can play it really well, it actually sounds alright now,

Any suggestions would be great!!! :)
"I Miss You Already!!!!!"

"Sorry is the fool who trades his love for high-rise rent, Seems the more you make equals the loneliness you get"

.NJD.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • StuffnJunkStuffnJunk Posts: 896
    peace be with you, my friend

    1) yes, barre the 5th fret

    2) i play a bastardized version where i use a pick....the parts that hit 2 notes on 2 different strings (that you need to fingerpick), i just hit the one note that is more crucial

    3) songs like this are fun to play, and you can pick up a lot of useful techniques by learning them, but if you never get the whole song down, don't worry......lets face it, of all the people that learn this song, not many ever perform it in public with their band or anything

    so have fun with it, and don't worry about the parts that you can't get to sound just like jimmy page
    "I'll tell you what: If all I had was Pearl Jam, and I didn't have another band in the world, I would not be worried. Because in there is the essence of making great music. You don't have to use it all at once, but it's there." - Neil Young
  • leethalleethal Posts: 134
    If you find finger picking hard then just use your thumb on the low strings and index ( and/or middle finger) on the higher strings rather then using a different finger for each string. (By high strings i mean high notes.) You only really need two fingers for Stairway.

    If you get good at this try Babe I'm gonna leave you
  • moster78moster78 Posts: 1,591
    leethal wrote:
    If you get good at this try Babe I'm gonna leave you

    Babe I'm Gonna Leave You isn't so hard. I learned it when I started learning fingerpicking in my lessons. Its basically, just a few chords fingerpicked. But then again I just learned the intro.
  • brain of cbrain of c Posts: 5,213
    read the sign


    no stairway
    d'oh!!!!!!

    http://www.myspace.com/brain_of_c
  • psycosmicpsycosmic Posts: 504
    brain of c wrote:
    read the sign


    no stairway

    haha, yeah... wayne's world...
    but everyone who learns the guitar plays this song at one point or other...

    i think you should fret the chords and not just the one or two notes that are played... this way you can improvise with the picking...

    leethal is right, you only need two fingers... i usually keep the pick in my palm with the other fingers or have it between my lips :D you'll need it for the rest of the song...
    you could try a combination of plec and fingerpicking... use the pick on the lower note and finger on the higher one...

    but i really don't know... i also play a bastardized version of the song...
    i think i'll have to check the led zep dvd to see how page does it... but he also never played a song the same way twice...
    in the end, just try different techniques and see what feels best for you...
    ~~~
    Some days you wake up and sit on a park bench next to an eighty year old Russian architect, and some days you don't. I think this is my new life philosophy.

    http://epplehausradio.blogspot.com/

    pearl jam @ the astoria, london, 20/04/06
  • surferdudesurferdude Posts: 2,057
    Am I the only one who does his fingerpicking while still using his pick as wel?. I use a sort of hybrid system where I hold the pick as normal (between thimb and forefinger) then use my remaining three fingers for fingerpicking. It's easier on acoustic than electric, but as long as I'm careful to use the pick gently I can overcome volume differences.
    “One good thing about music,
    when it hits you, you feel to pain.
    So brutalize me with music.”
    ~ Bob Marley
  • Oh, JimmyOh, Jimmy Posts: 957
    surferdude wrote:
    Am I the only one who does his fingerpicking while still using his pick as wel?. I use a sort of hybrid system where I hold the pick as normal (between thimb and forefinger) then use my remaining three fingers for fingerpicking. It's easier on acoustic than electric, but as long as I'm careful to use the pick gently I can overcome volume differences.

    No. Jimmy Page used the same technique. He used hybrid picking almost exclusively, when playing finger picked type stuff, if my memory serves me correctly.
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