Ragtime Fingerpicking #2

by Jim Burger OK, like all of these old fingerpicking things, this is actually much easier than it sounds at first listen. Most of the time, you're just picking the melody out of G, D and A fingerings. I should mention that this song is supposed to be capoed on the 3rd fret and everything played 3 frets higher than shown here, but personally I don't bother with the capo and I play it as shown below.

The best way to learn this (at least for me it worked) is first to pick up the melody on the high strings, which is fairly simple, then once you get used to the timing of the melody, work on sticking in the alternating bass. The secret to inserting the alternating bass is, of course, to start off REEEEAAAAL SLOOOW until you get used to it, then speed it up gradually. Check out the next page for a nice little bridge that you can stick in between verses.