More Than Words Guitar Tutorial - Full Walk-Through With TAB | Extreme Guitar Lesson

Hello everyone, I'm James from good

guitar

ist.com and in today's

lesson

I'm going to teach you how to play

more

than

words

in an

extreme

way. You know, one of the most classic and beloved acoustic fingerpicking songs you'll ever come across. We're going to learn it in the simplest way possible, we're still going to figure out how to do it like on the recording, but we're just going to go over it in a way where we work on every part and practice everything you know. than just saying "okay, next do this, do this, here's the song, you know, we're actually going to work on it and figure out how to practice this so you can improve if along the way you find something extra." Help, I have a free ebook, it's completely free for all my subscribers and covers all the basics of acoustic

guitar

.

You can check. I'll put a link in the corner; Otherwise, let's go straight to the first thing I want. To take a look, the first part of the song goes like this and that will be one of the most important things we will learn. We have two chord shapes, there's a g and then a c, add 9, which is like the g chord. except you just take these two fingers and you move them and the other really important element here is the string stroke and to do that we just strum the chord to make it sound something and then I'll just have my hand in the same kind of position to play the fingers where it normally would be and I mainly make my thumb hit the strings and nails.

You know, I basically have my hand in a very loose fist and I just let it come. down on the guitar, you know this is used in a lot of songs, so it's a really valuable technique that you know spend some time with, but that's it, you know the G chord, the extra C chord9 and that hit, and then we go. To put that together with a little pattern, my thumb is picking the thickest string and my middle index and ring are on the top three strings and that's going to be the case for almost the entire song, you know, my index is going to be on the G string my middle finger will be on the B string and my ring finger will be on the E string it's like everyone owns that string everyone is in charge of that string you know, so my fingers are on the top three strings and my thumb will go between the three thickest strings, depending on which chord I'm playing g, it's on the thickest string, we're going to hit, so thumb fingers hit, so work on that a little bit and move on . there we're going to move our thumb to the string with the same chord shape and we're going to pluck the index and middle thumb all the way and then we're going to pluck the top three strings and then we're going to hit it, so we're going to hit it, so we're going to work on that. and then we can let's put that together with what we have so far three falls and now we're going to go to our C chord add 9, we're going to do the same plucking pattern so that our index and middle thumb together and then the top three strings just our fingers and one beat and when we put all that together it's like sixty percent of what we do in the song just with different chord shapes, you know, so it's really worth spending time working on that, now, moving forward, we're still in our We follow the cadd9 chord, so we pluck just the thumb, then all the fingers and then just the index finger in the middle and then a beat, all in a row, and that's another one of those rhythms that will come up again, you know , so take some time with that, moving on, we end up on a minor seven and that's like a C chord, except without our ring finger, you know, we just hold down two notes and play, so let's break that down to start. do a pattern that we're familiar with with the thumb, index and middle, then these three fingers, then a beat and then, and that's pretty similar to what we did on the CD, except we have a little note that's changing, let's go with the thumb alone and then we add our little finger to the third fret of the The thinnest string we play it with all our fingers, we remove the little finger with all our fingers and then we hit it, so now, before we put all this together, one minor thing, Another thing I want to point out is that some chords will start right there. hit one and sometimes they start before hit one, it's called like a push, so you're like pushing into the early chord shape, um, so this minor seven is an example of that, you know, let's start with one and two and three and four and you know, we'll start at the end right before the one, we're playing the chord a little bit before, so keep in mind that now we'll play all of this in a minor one, two, three and four moving.

From there, we're going to hit a C chord, an old C chord, this time the same old thing where we hit the thumb and index fingers and now we end up on a D chord and we're going to continue to have our D chord Our thumb goes to the D string and we pluck all the strings together, all four, then just our index finger, which is always playing the G string, then we place our little finger on the third fret of the thinnest string to make a d sus4 chord and we play with just our ring and middle fingers, so treat this as a little bit, you know, like a little lick, let's all go together index dsus4 with the top two strings and then a stroke and that's the intro and the verse, we just repeat all that.

We have learned so far and it is important to note that when we repeat it, you will know that once we get to the end of everything we just learned, we will go back to the beginning, to g, but we will move forward. that G chord, so we're actually going to play the first beat early, so at the beginning of the song we play the G chord on the first beat, but in every subsequent repetition we play it early, you'll see what I mean because I'm going to play this now a few times in a row nice and slow, we can even play it together or you can just watch and see what's happening one, two, three, four, push, push, push, push, so you keep repeating. that over and over again and that gives us the intro as well as the first eight bars of the verse now from this point we'll play the same thing but right after that little d d sus4 thing we'll head into an e minor chord so we're pushing towards that e minor , it's just an old E minor chord my thumb is on the thickest string my fingers are in the same place they will be in the whole melody and we go with the thumb and fingers together the fingers strike from there our thumb changes to a string , we're still in the same way, we go with the thumb, the index finger in the middle and then our fingers and then a tap, you know, that classic

more

than

words

pattern that we keep playing over and over again, so everything. from the E minor part remember we pressed it on and just before one one and two and three and four and one and two and then we're going to go to a seven in A minor and it's the same as before, so we have I already worked on That, then we're going to go into a d7 chord and a d7 shape looks like this, so my index finger is on the c note, which is the first fret of the B string and then my middle finger is on the second fret of the A.

G string and my ring finger is on the second fret of the thinner string, it's like a mirror image of the normal D chord, so we start by playing the A string and then play the D string together with our fingers. we hit and then we play those same four strings over and over again, so generally one and two and three and four and one and two and three and we hit, so let's go through everything from the E minor chord one and two and three and four and now here we are going to play a very common chord cliché, we are going to go G D over F sharp E minor, which is in thousands of songs, so we have our G chord and we are going to play with our thumb the thickest string and our fingers all together hit twice then we're going to D over F sharp and D over F sharp of our G chord we're going to leave our ring finger down we put our index finger on the second fret of the thickest string and our middle finger on the second fret of the G string and we're just going to hit the thumb with the middle index finger twice and then our E minor chord, the thumb and all of our fingers and then just our fingers, so it's always going to be two hits and then one hit, let's try this. nice and slow three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and now we play that E minor thing a minor seventh one more time, it's exactly the same thing we did before and here instead of going to g we' Let's go to go to G7 and G7, it's like a C chord, like if you made a C chord and then you just took these two fingers, the middle finger and the ring finger, and you just put them towards the thicker strings and then you take your first finger and you put it on the thinner string so it's like a C chord, but we just spread everything out and put the thumb on the thicker string and our fingers all together and then just our fingers and a beat, then I'm going to pluck the to. string with my thumb and then my fingers tap, then we go into a C chord and on the C chord we pluck the thumb on the A string and our fingers all together, then just our fingers and then a tap and then we go, which It's similar to things we did before, but even simpler because there are no note changes, so thumb and then thumb and fingers together twice and a beat, going from g7 to c one and two and three and four and here let's go into a c.

The minor and C minor chord is a bar chord and C minor comes from the A minor shape, so if you play the A minor shape with these three fingers like the middle pinky ring and then you go up one, two, three times and then you sweep the third fret with the index finger which gives it a C minor shape and our pattern goes so that the index thumb in the middle together, then just our index and middle fingers hit and then the thumb, the thumb and the fingers together and then the index thumb in the middle and a stroke so that the second half of the c minor all the part of C minor one and two and three and four and one and two and three and right from C minor we have to rush to a G chord you know this is probably the fastest change we have to make, we rush to our G chord chord and put our thumb, index and middle finger together, then our fingers and a beat, a pattern we are very accustomed at this point and then there's another type of chord that we have to play, so we start with a G chord that we pluck. our thumb on the thickest string and then we put our thumb and fingers together twice and then I'll release my middle finger, I'll put my index finger on the second fret of the thickest string, just that string and then we're going to go to a shape of my minor, but we are going to leave our pinky down so that it is E minor plus our pinky on the thinnest string at the third fret and we put our thumb and fingers together so that we all work together on the movements of this is one of those things that you have to do very slowly and just work on the movements at your own pace, like in stop motion time, and then eventually add some one and two rhythm to it and go from there once we get to that e. minor chord, we have to do something special with this too, so, in my opinion, this is the most difficult part of the song in the E minor chord, let's go, so we just come out of that riff and play all fingers with thumb and fingers. together then we are going to move the thumb to the a string and we are going to play the thumb and the fingers together we make a stroke, we move the thumb to the d string and we play the thumb and the fingers together the thumb returns to the a string and then a stroke so that the whole E minor part three and four and one and two and three and hit with the G part right before one and two and three and four, so I recommend taking your time with those two bars, you know, I know.

I had to prepare for this

lesson

, right, that definitely has very different things. You know, it doesn't really follow the pattern at that point. Anyway, whatever's left in the verse or pre-chorus, whatever you want to call this part of the song, um. We have a minor seven and we're going to strum it with our index finger, so I'm starting with the A string and I just follow it because i and then a D chord ready, no and the D chord just the top four strings. so I want to play the whole verse now so you can see how it all goes together one, two, three and four, and that's the first verse, the second verse is identical, except at the end, on that D chord, we go like this .

We play a D chord for beats one and two, one two and then we play a D seven flat nine chord which is the same shape as d7 but one two three, you know, so our ring finger lines up with the fifth fret. , so at this point we're about halfway there, then we have the chorus and the chorus starts off just hanging on a G chord with a pretty repetitive pattern. Come on, so it's like the G part at the beginning of the whole song, like the first thing we learned, but we just stayed with g instead of changing to c we added nine and so on, we hit our thumbs, then our thumb on a string with just our index and middle finger, then our fingers tap and then we push our thumbs onto the thicker string again, tap the thumb. middle index and then our fingers snap, so we just go between the thickest string and the a string and the pattern is thumb, index and middle fingers snap one and two and three and four and then we go D over F sharp and remember that we pivot from our ring finger to do iteasier and let's go so there's no punching here we're just playing the middle index thumb and then our fingers and then we do that again with a little bit of rhythm we go three and four and one and two and three and then from there we go to a chord of E minor, so our thumb and our fingers together, then a beat, then our thumb goes to the A string and just the index finger in the middle and a beat, then we go to the B minor seven and B minor seven chords. .

It's like that C minor chord, but we go down from one fret to the second fret and then we remove the pinky finger and for this chord we have the thumb and middle finger together, then the index finger and then the ring finger and the middle finger, so there's a little pattern here, you know, it's not the thumbs, we're actually breaking it down. a little bit the thumb and the middle index finger and then those two fingers on top and a beat and that goes into a C chord with just our index and middle thumb, so I like to practice just that part E minor B minor seven and C like a billion times I know that's another one of the really tricky points in this melody one, two, three and four and from here we're going to stay on the C chord for quite a while, just like we did with G before move to the index of the thumb and the middle. together then our fingers and a punch then that's the thumb and then our thumb and fingers together twice followed by a punch and then our fingers all together again twice and a punch and one more punch and then we're going to go through b so we just need our middle finger on the second fret of the a string and our little finger on the third fret of the b string and we go like this with the thumb on the a string and then our index and middle finger and then our minor seven chord with our thumb on the A string and all of our fingers, so that's another one of those little things that we would practice going C G over B a minor seven like this three and four and one and two and three and four and then here on this one chord of seven minor we put our thumb and fingers together twice and then we go as we have already done a few times and then we enter our D chord our thumb is on the D string the thumb and fingers together twice we hit the d7 chord chord clock we hit lock and then on our G chord we push it and it's the same thing we started with in the chorus so we just repeat the same thing so let's take a moment to put some of this together from the beginning of the chorus . one and two and three and four and then we would repeat all of that, but at the end, once we get to the D chord, we'll just strum it with our finger, so it's the same thing, but at the end we go So that's the biggest part of the melody, so you know, 99 of the difficult things that we have left now at this point are, you know, just completing some sections after everything we just played, we have an interlude that's like our introduction. except we're going to cut it off a little early by strumming a couple of chords so the interlude is like that, so we just replace the last two bars with a minor and, you know, just strumming them with our index finger from there we play. our verse again, we play our chorus again and then we play our intro twice and then we have our outro and the outro we start on a G chord and we're going to continue so we're doing a little bit more of an arpeggiated pattern here our fingers are still on the top three strings our thumb plucks the thickest string thumb index finger middle index and then middle ring index and then our thumb hits the thickest string again then we're going to D over F sharp and we're going to do the same pattern then D minor over f and that's pretty much the same shape except we're just going to move our index finger to the first fret of the thickest string, same pattern and then we go to E sus and there we go to Play an E minor chord with these two fingers and then we're going to put our ring finger right under it on the second fret of the G string so it's like an A chord but moved up or towards the thicker strings and Here we go, we're going to drag our thumb along of the three thickest strings, thumb, thumb, thumb and then index, middle ring, middle index, so we'll just go up and then back up a little bit, then we go to the minor seven. chord and we do something similar, but here we're going to start with a string, so with the thumb on the a string, with the thumb on the d string, then we index the middle ring, middle index and then we pluck the a string again and then we pluck the string d. we open up and we do something crazy like fingerpicking that you know I didn't learn and you know I might learn it in the future if there's enough demand, I'd put time into it, but it's one of those things that you know, it's like, um, yeah, I can't. play it, but you know it's like that, but a million times better than what I just did, you don't have to play it, although you can go, you know, just let a D chord sound wonder

full

y and then we'll go. to our G chord my thumb is on the thickest string for the first note, then I go to the D string with it and I go to the middle index ring of the thumb and I go down the middle index thumb I go to a C chord and I go to the middle index ring and the middle thumb so my thumb is on the index ring of the middle string then I make a G chord but I don't have to put my middle finger on the thickest string I just need the other three notes and I make the same pattern then I lower my index finger to the first fret of the string to the same pattern and then on the minor seven chord I'm going to ascend I have my thumb on the string to thumb on the A to thumb on the D then index finger on the center ring and then we do a little lick, we put our pinky on the third fret of the thinnest string and we slide it up to the fifth fret and then we play the third fret and then we strum a G chord so that the outro all together one and two and three and four and tap with our fingers.

This is how you touch more than words in the

extreme

. I recommend that at this point you take the time to work through each section just as we did in this lesson. This is one of those songs that you're going to have to break down, you know, learn little pieces. and then sticking it all back together and the way I laid it out in this lesson is conducive to that, you know, when I said, hey, let's practice this together, that's the kind of thing you just have to keep working on over and over again. again, if you want a

full

play where I play the entire song from start to finish, which is available on my Patreon page, I'll put a link below and also below you'll find a link to my free ebook. completely free for all my subscribers, as well as my fingerpicking mastery course, which is all about fingerpicking guitar, you know, it teaches you all the techniques, from scratch, it's a very friendly course for beginners, especially at the beginning and then we advance gradually. step by step into more intermediate and even a little advanced territory with tons of different techniques, you know, I basically picked a bunch of fingerpicking songs that everyone wants to learn and broke them down into all the fundamental techniques and put them down.

In order, it's worth checking out if you want to improve your finger style. Otherwise don't forget to like and subscribe. Leave a comment if you have any questions and have fun practicing. See you soon.