Whether you realise it or not, many fingerpicking songs are based around one pattern known as the clawhammer technique. I created a lesson on the
basics of this common fingerpicking pattern for guitar that I highly recommend you check out first, before dealing with what we will cover in today’s lesson.
That said, what we will look at now are variations of the clawhammer fingerpicking pattern. While it appears in many, many fingerpicking songs, there are differences, albeit small little nuances, when this pattern is used in one song compared to another.
In learning these variations, you will truly master the clawhammer fingerpicking pattern, and in doing so, gain the ability to play thousands of fingerpicking songs.
Better yet, upon learning the examples presented in today’s lesson, and mixing and matching them, as I will also demonstrate, you will be able to ad lib with this pattern in your guitar playing.
Much like you can strum along to songs without having to think about it, you will also be able to fingerpick your guitar without having to think about it, applying all sorts of cool patterns to the chord progressions you play, in real time, without having to prepare anything before hand.
This is what I call true fingerpicking freedom!
Clawhammer Fingerpicking Pattern Variations
So let’s get down to it and look at some cool variations of the clawhammer fingerpicking technique for your guitar playing.
Clawhammer Variation 1
At the beginning of the video that accompanies this lesson, I was demonstrating the clawhammer fingerpicking pattern along with some chord extensions. This adds a melody component to your pattern which is a really nice touch.
Let me show you this variation here applied to our C chord:
Clawhammer Chord Extension Example 1
And again with a 5 4 6 4 bass pattern:
Clawhammer Chord Extension Example 2
Watching the video will give you a more detailed breakdown of this approach, which I think you will agree sounds really cool!
Clawhammer Variation 2
This variation involves plucking two notes at the same time in our clawhammer fingerpicking pattern. I will pluck the root note along with a higher note, on the first beat of the chord, like this:
Clawhammer Pinching Example 1
I like to refer to this technique as “pinching” notes together, in this case the root of the chord and the octave of that root, on the 2nd string.
A further variation to this would be to pinch notes on the 2nd beat of the bar like so:
Clawhammer Pinching Example 2
Both examples above provide a nice variation to the clawhammer pattern that you will often hear in songs.
Clawhammer Variation 3
Another variation combines the pinching technique with a 5 4 6 4 pattern on the C chord, like so:
Clawhammer Pinching Example 3
This is a little more challenging to play, so take your time with it.
Clawhammer Variation 4
Yet another variation is to change the rhythm of the pattern slightly. In this example I am playing a straight 8th note rhythm:
Clawhammer Rhythm Variation 1
I was almost doing this with all previous variations, only now instead of a quarter note on the first beat, I am plucking 8th notes. A small difference, but a significant one, and mixed with other approaches helps make this pattern sound much more musical and interesting.
Here is the same variation with a 5 4 6 4 bass pattern:
Clawhammer Rhythm Variation 2
Take this idea and come up wth your own variations of higher strings being plucked. Any combination will sound fine, as long as the bass remains on the beat throughout. The bass is your reference point, and makes up a very important part of the clawhammer fingerpicking technique.
Clawhammer Variation 5
Another variation to consider involves the order in which you pluck the higher strings of the pattern. Up until this point in time I have been doing the same thing by plucking a specific combination of the 3rd and 2nd strings.
The following variation changes this up by plucking the 2nd, 1st, and then 3rd strings in-between the bass notes:
Clawhammer Pattern Variation 1
Here is the same variation only with the bass pattern of 5 4 6 4 being applied:
Clawhammer Pattern Variation 2
Applying The Clawhammer Fingerpicking Pattern Variations
Below is an exercise I created that integrates the variations of the clawhammer fingerpicking pattern that we have just looked at in today’s lesson.
As important as it is to mix and match and get use to creating variation upon variation of this technique, you must first be familiar with each variation in isolation. So don’t skip this very important step.
Upon doing so, an exercise like the one below is very effective in getting you to a point where you can mix and match variations of the clawhammer fingerpicking pattern, and come up with all sorts of cool sounding music.
Clawhammer Fingerpicking Piece
Be patient, take your time, and have fun with these fingerpicking pattern variations for your guitar playing. The time you invest into this will pay you back again and again, as you come across these and very similar fingerpicking patterns, in song after song!
Check out these
easy to play guitar fingerpicking patterns that sound advanced