How To Play Fingerstyle Guitar Percussion

In this percussive fingerstyle tutorial, I teach you the 3 most common percussion techniques we use in fingerstyle guitar playing. Download the free tabs / sheet music here: www.beyondtheg...
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percussive guitar lesson, fingerstyle percussion lesson, fingerstyle percussion tutorial, fingerstyle guitar lesson, classical guitar lesson
0:00 Intro and Rant
2:39 Tip #1
4:14 Wrist Thump
7:16 Thumb Hit On Strings
12:10 Thumb Hit On Soundboard

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Download the free tabs / sheet music for the example in the video here: www.beyondtheguitar.com/percussion

[@CalisthenicsMuscle]

huh. I wish I saw this video ealier, I learnt the hard way that I first had to strip the song of percussion, then when I could play the song well. I could then learn the percussion progressively

[@aasadeepsingh2812]

I think using percussion in an ordered way, really gives the arrangement life it needs to have, agreed?

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

100% like you said, IF it needs to have it. Percussion should serve the arrangement

[@aasadeepsingh2812]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy The value you are providing is great man! Thank you so much for your efforts! Are you able to use thumb slap for particular strings without using left hand muting? Is that possible?

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

It's possible but difficult, you just have to be really careful and precise with your strumming motion

[@aasadeepsingh2812]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy Experimenting with that in an arrangement, Thank you for your reply, means a lot.

[@robertcronin6603]

Yes...it definitely spices up a piece and adds more substance to it, for sure 🔥

[@xRICHMONx]

I've looked up tons of percussive tutorials and yours was the first to actually stick and make sense. This was very comprehensive and helpful. Thanks!

[@Alberts_Stuff]

Been a guitarist for 30 years, can’t play any percussion, but love love love! watching it 👍🏼

[@debzv8995]

i started learning tango pieces, and now i wanna to manage percussion technique and enjoy playing it more

[@mohiuddinshahrukh]

The tutorial aside, the intro rant was fun xD

[@mercedesescobedo6874]

Thank you for this video. Is very helpful. I do not know how to play guitar yet but I love the sound of the strings and use the guitar as a gentle drum

[@vermili0n9]

This deserves way more likes. It's very educational. I learned a lot. Thank you!

[@ACBeats09]

I like to slap the strings with my whole hand as a snare, it helps keep strings ringing if wanted

[@robertcronin6603]

Just found you - I'm a proficient fingerstyle guitarist but have only just began experimenting with percussion aside from the normal muted string strums...good stuff! 🔥- and definitely subscribed 👍

[@sophieandersson6106]

Totally agree with your opening comments. This is a technique I have never used, playing or attempting more classical, but eventually will move onto more contemporary pieces . It looks so simple yet this is going to be a technique that will take me personally a lot of work and effort. It is a technique that I will master as it makes a piece sound not only cool, but richer and fuller. Thanks the best tutorial on a internet for this.

[@dr.koupop880]

I'm no guitarist but I do them with midi with libraries in a DAW, when I do guitars, I like the percussive bits, I didn't think people hated em. I think all guitar stuff is awesome, praise to you guys cause all I can do is piano lol

[@chaidaro]

The most fun guitar technique. I can play both drum and guitar simultaneously 😊

[@edwardv4546]

thank you so much! I always felt like my RnB chord progressions were missing something. I definitely think it's the percussive feel. This definitely helps.

[@MrRony-up6el]

Thank you sir. It is very useful for me. You make videos where most students are stucked(like hit and play together in slow motion). Keep doing this unique thing. 😘 Love from India♥️

[@jwllong]

I totally agree . . . it’s a wonderful technique . . . I’ve tried and tried but I just can’t seem to get right . . . especially the kick simultaneously while playing a bass note. I love the sound and would sure save me a lot of time, effort and expense spent on looping pedals to try and compensate. Appreciate you sharing your technique and talent. I play local gigs usually in a one man band or duo format and always looking for ways to fill out the sound.

[@juststringsguitar]

FINALLY! Until now I learned the thumb hit on strings and wrist thump only by looking closely to videos... This worked out pretty well but now this was very helpful advice you share here!

[@Falconryder]

I remember an article many years ago from a classical guitar academic that was lamenting the overuse of tremolo in guitar music. He literally wrote that there were only three or so pieces in the entire repertoire that legitimately called for it. Pontificators are ridiculous people and barely remembered, while innovators are the names that survive throughout the generations.

[@CanavanOfficial]

Techniques are tools, and so are some of these people on these comments 😂, love it. I've never understood the hate on percussion, I think it's sounds amazing and sets pieces on fire. I'm trying to learn your arrangement of pixies - where is my mind, sounds so nice with the percussion, it carries the piece along nicely. But that's such a tough piece man!! I'm staying positive and consistent and I hope I get it soon 😁

[@AbdulwahabLOL]

I'm trying to add precussion to an arrangement of an egyptian song called Enta Omry by Om Kultoum. This video is really helpful, thanks!

[@waddlepigarmy]

Coldplay’s The scientist is a very nice song and a toturial I was learning with used percussion patterns and I had never learned percussive guitar, so I looked around for a tutorial that could help me learn and now I’m here.

[@jlsm7746]

Do you teach all this amazing tips and more in your guitar Arrangement Academy ? Wondering when it will be open again for enrollment :)

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Yep :) Opening again first week in January!

[@Hadden-Thrasher]

I love percussion

[@juanortizyepez7253]

Great support! The Latin American country guitar styles like samba are plenty of guitar percussions. The llaneros or gauchos don't think about "breaking" the guitar, and drums are more antique and arquetipal for human kind than any classical style. Thank you for making impossible and difficult things simple and accessible for everyone.

[@hugoheintz]

Your instructional content has been very helpful to me, and I just wanted to thank you for putting the time and effort into helping others out! Right now I’m trying to learn your “how to train your dragon” arrangement and I really needed this video😅

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

happy to help! let me know how it goes

[@hugoheintz]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy I will!

[@debmills356]

Love watching you teach. And play. So there you go. That. Is. All.

[@shahnazbenazir6180]

i really love the batman background!! its exactly the theme i want my room to be. The bat theme with the beautiful guitar!!

[@SpookyRooster135]

Thank you so much, if there are any more precussion techniques could you do some more videos please. I love watching people using percussion but there just isn't anywhere to really learn it. I haven't seen any good videos yet. I love Justin Johnson too and would like to play like him when he's adding in the percussion bits or flicking his fingers down the body of the guitar.

[@callmerel2809]

only need the kick but stayed for the whole video coz ur such a great teach!

[@johntrentis_my_hero6667]

Percussion in finger style guitar kicks ass! Just like you, my friend!

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

[@AndorSolymos]

You are a god! 3M subscribers to Nathan at once!

[@Omarkiwi1]

As you said watching this video says enough 😂 I‘m trying to incorporate percussion with “careless whisper” fingerstyle. I have already mastered the song when i started playing guitar without the percussion part because I wanted to focus more on learning to play rather than waste my time on a technique, but now with percussion added to it, it sounds way more interesting and full.

[@suuuuuuu19]

I am coming from flamenco guitar background so YES to perc

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

yup you're no stranger to it then!

[@quantumimmortality551]

yay, and want to use percussion with my own arrangements

[@Enryu_CZX]

Josephine Alexandra covers are soo good she uses percussion very beautifully

[@DorothyOzmaLover]

Great notes about percussion and what can be performed on guitar. As a guitar composer playing original guitar themes for book trailers about comics, I agree that percussive effects give a much needed rhythmic punch especially for music that's lively and passionate. You're so right that learning the music/melody is most important to do first and then add in percussive sounds since one doesn't want to lose the melody and melodic sound. I did this when I played the Wonder Woman Theme by Christopher Drake from the 2009 film, the Batman Theme by Shirley Walker, the Red Sonja score by Ennio Morricone, the Captain Marvel Theme by Pinar Toprak, or when I play my original themes that represent Star Wars stories, Oz stories, and Archie Comics stories.

[@michal.morawski91]

I haven't watched the video yet but already love the title.

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

a lot of people have been waiting for this one :)

[@BrianJohnson-or5hw]

just found your channel mate...great! I am working on Eiro's Time.

[@priyanshparadkar8553]

well ive been trying to avoid this for a while now as i am a student and i dont have that much time to put into my guitar playing, and honestly fingerstyle without precussion sounded good to me anyways. but- ive always been so envious of them yt guitar players who could do that and i wanted to make that sweet-sweet skill mine. so here i am, wish me luck..

[@CalisthenicsMuscle]

I'm here to learn the wrist bump proficiently. my thumb is fairly independent no issues with slaps

[@lavinchi6709]

thank you &&&very good lesson

[@kconroyjoy]

Percussion, yay! Working on Sagreras Book 2, lesson 1 and adding a 4th percussion technique...fingernails on the soundboard. Thank you for the instruction Nathan!

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Oh cool! You're very welcome, Kari.

[@davereedclassicalguitar3518]

Currently learning a classical piece called Brian Boru's March. I wanted to add some marching band drum feel but had no idea how to start. Will definitely try this out.

[@rgreigjazzguitar]

I'm really excited about this video! I seldomly use percussion techniques apart from getting a hi-hat sound on 2 and 4 by either the thumb hit on strings or using my middle finger to strike the chord to create that percussion sound while playing a chord or melody note. I definitely need to bring out my classical guitar and get used to these techniques. Thanks for breaking it up the way you did! Very useful!

[@ohuerichidubem7466]

I fully agree with you man....

[@davidwilliama.7296]

I'm late to this video, but thought I should watch it in case there were some new things I could pick up on. I do some percussion on guitar, but I'm not amazing at it. There are some good tips in this video that might help me. I do mostly a mix of the second one (the thumb hitting the strings) while strumming the rest of the strings while muting them. I don't usually do percussion at the same time I hit a note.

[@mikehollinger6190]

Been working on kick drum techniques for a while. Great video

[@wolfang08]

I love percussion! I am currently trying to learn blinding lights

[@CalisthenicsMuscle]

totally percussion +1

[@Joy_HariPutra]

Very helpful video,thank u sir.Love from India❤🙏

[@HeffZilla]

very helpful! thanks for sharing this! going to apply to City of Stars.

[@soulfulsawan]

pretty glad to come across this video 🙏

[@LowBudgetProdLtd]

Percussion add an extra layer of depth and complexity to solo fingerstyle playing. Those who hate the percussive technique do not know what they are missing out.

[@Dollarkat]

There’s no rules in music where I live. You’ll be better off, in regards to positive feedback, if you play in tune, have good timing and play it like you mean it.

[@minaerik9520]

Notifications team ❣️🔥

[@laurastackmusic]

This is great. Thanks!

[@PhilippSeidelGuitar]

Thank you so much! This is a great tool as addition for my arrangements. Sometime i missed something. Mabe the percussions. 😁👏

[@shridharkatkati3113]

Percussion are really cool and I really want to add percussion to ed Sheeran perfect

[@BluesIsDerBeste]

Percussion haters are exactly that one type of little child who will always get angry and yell that something "sucks and noone needs this!!" whenever it feels complicated or unfamiliar to them and they're not able to succeed at it right away..

[@revivalworship]

Thanks for posting this! How do you keep your picking nails in such great shape? I seem to have to sand mine down or I break them on something, break one then have to start all over. So sad breaking a picking nail (:

[@bernardogarcia1814]

Great one like always,😎👏

[@alextopliss6007]

Yessss needed this🙌🙌

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

[@Eli-yq7eq]

I'm always amazed how clean you play with this technique. I get frustrated when adding percussion to my arrangements because it ruins it. Really glad I found your channel! This really helps. Thanks for sharing!

[@g4guitarschoolsoxnardventu805]

Pride makes us stiffen up when something new comes along, especially when we can’t do it easily. Even Segovia hated tremolo because he probably had trouble with it. I believe he said that tremolo is an attempt to make the guitar sound like another instrument he didn’t see the point in doing that. Who knows what was actually going through his mind, but pride most likely was involved. Btw, maybe you could name the percussion techniques after the drum piece they emulate. “Snare” rolls off the tongue better than “thumb hit on the strings”. 😂

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Good point. And yeah I was wondering if somebody was gonna call me out on my lame naming conventions haha!

[@beckmanel]

yea

[@pynnehkuparsyiemlieh]

Thank u sir you r great😊

[@aimeewatts2111]

She Burns by Foy Vance! I just can’t settle on a rhythm and it’s driving me mad

[@Nae_Ayy]

To play a note and do a thumb hit on the strings, I've been doing a different method than you teach here, and I don't know if it's a common one or not. I barely slap the string I'm aiming for as I mash the lower strings with my thumb to make a snare/note combo. Do you know if this technique is known? I'm learning your technique as well and I barely notice a difference in sound, but that's probably because I'm not very good at it yet.

[@TimestampMaster]

This is great. Does the song you played at the beginning have a name?

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

It's part of my upcoming Spider-Man Miles Morales arrangement

[@CarlJohnson-ff6yb]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy cyka blyat (thank you in russia) i learnd so muxhcyka vlyat

[@greed7936]

Can you make a video on baselines used in fingerstyle guitar

[@briangary9772]

What is the arrangement called? I’d like to hear it

[@gizzmosaurusfpv35]

Do you have a video about artificial harmonics?

[@Alberts_Stuff]

Wow you so look like Luca in that thumbnail!

[@cookieicescream]

This video is everything i needed ❤️ Just discovered your channel last week and i love your videos!

[@fahimrafaonmoy5272]

yay

[@paulysguitarjournal]

Percussion only when it adds to the piece. Some percussion players are great at it, some are not. I find that the majority of players overdo the percussion (as in its to loud for the piece). I think it would work a lot better if it were played lighter and in even volume with the rest of the guitar (that’s gonna take practice).

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Yeah that's probably the hardest part

[@captainawesome4622]

I find it difficult to keep the volume of the thumb slaps consistent. It seems like if i slap my thumb on different string, i get different volumes. The obvious solution would be to only slap the thumb on one string throughout the piece to keep the volume of the slap consistent, but that's difficult when the thumb has to immediately play a different string after the slap. It's possible that I'm over thinking this and that variance in volume of the slaps is normal

[@shanks3750]

I want that particular part in "dusk till dawn" where the chorus starts...It's like and tryyyyyyyy....boom...I would bol...

[@madzster2008]

I love that Pirates of the Caribbean cover XD

[@jeffreyschwab5304]

Flamenco has always used percussion

[@deedd4401]

for some reason .... i can't stand the wrist thump, from a motion perspective.. it seems contra-natural and low in efficiency .. so i do the thumb thing alone or as hybrid ( hitting the bass string ) - the hybrid approach sucks if your composition does not fit the thickest strings... but that's the way it is. However; whatever floats your boat.... it's just how i feel when trying the movement. I would never dare to say anyone, "THAT THING YOU JUST DID THERE DOES NOT BELONG TO THE INSTRUMENT" ..... unless it's some really cheap obscenity ( but i would not possibly mind that either )

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Yeah there's totally room for communicating personal preference, and you're doing it the right way. And I'll agree, from a physical standpoint, the wrist thump is a pretty awkward motion.

[@deedd4401]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy whenever i think about the wrist thump my mind starts wandering towards feet ... midi... mini amps :D but in reality .. maybe some most simplistic (cleverly designed passive resonator) box that the player could stomp with foot would be the answer

[@mehdimoghaddam3358]

🐞🐞

[@lucabarchiesi5321]

I just noticed that you kinda look like Joel from the last of us... Anyway, I'm trying to play the theme from Paladins and I would really like to add some percussion in the middle of it but it's pretty difficult to incorporate them also because is an orchestral piece so... 😅😅

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

haha i'll take it! nice, let me know how that goes. it can definitely be tricky to balance everything

[@lucabarchiesi5321]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy It is! I'm trying my best to make the simplest chords for that part while focusing on finding a really nice vibe. It's going pretty well so far, I'll keep you informed on that! 😁

[@TerryDBlack]

Has anyone criticising percussion on a guitar ever heard of flamenco?

[@adhamhisham2133]

thank u so much such a useful video and BTW ur so handsome

[@darthvader6588]

Its always been a dream of mine to play this song ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6aodnitnMl0kNU ) Interstellar theme - by Eiro Nareth. But as i saw him including percussion and beats in his fingerstyle ive been searching all around the internet to find a good tutorial! I finally did!!

[@adrianskramusky]

Hi, is bartók pizzicato considered as percussion? Ps sorry for my english

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Yeah I'd say so

[@Ratcatcher_jpg]

I’m trying to play sunflower (spider verse) and trying to play bass notes, main notes and percussion is so hard

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

ooh good one!

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

How do you feel about percussion in fingerstyle / classical guitar? I get a LOT of polarizing comments about it. Some people really hate it! What's one of your favorite examples of great use of percussion in a guitar piece?

[@simonrobichaud6561]

I got to know the use of percussion in your Frog’s Theme (from Chrono Trigger). I didn’t understand it, my mind was blown for such greatness and how to add more than sound to guitar.. That’s my best example :p

[@glizzard1894]

I don't want to use just the strings. I want to use the whole guitar.

[@shanefraser1054]

As long as it sounds good then do it.

[@jlgandaalways]

i think i need more fingers

[@psolow4464]

Hello ... I’m so early XD, happy holidays to you all

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

wow you're fast!

[@psolow4464]

@@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy here to support, ur so very talented☺️☺️☺️

[@AaronWillmon]

Nathan rants!

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

sometimes you just gotta let it out ;)

[@bobbymcloughlin3452]

That is Playing Classical Guitar in the Style of Tanita Tikaram who was a German-Born Sarawakian Indo-Fijian Who got to England, Do Not Know Her, Because How Would You Americans Know Her Compare to the British, That is An Absolute Diversity

[@mikevokes2216]

The video starts like.8 minutes in

[@lasseharbitz9506]

Sometimes a guitar can identify as a Bongo drum

[@bryonguernsey9794]

I guess people will just take a hard stand on everything nowadays. How can you be a guitar player and decry the existence of techniques that you don’t (or cant) incorporate as non-purposeful? It’s so patently absurd to even have that point of view. I have many friends that claim to dislike the genres of music that they themselves cannot play. To me, it just reads like an ego self protective, knee-jerk statement. "I cannot perform that, therefore it is bad.” keep going with that people, see where you go. Keep closing and blocking off doors. I’m sure you’ll do just fine with that. By the way, Mr. teacher, what engaging Clickbait to even verbalize that disagreement. It worked on me.

[@apiratp.8289]

I'm trying to play , Spy x Family ending theme

[@Faegersten]

This channel is just an elaborate excuse for you to complain about dumb comments on your main Don't think I don't see you

[@BeyondTheGuitarAcademy]

Ya got me ;)