Hi fellow twanger. All is well on Tamborine Mountain, Australia.

Mastering the art of playing with a flat pick is well worth the effort, there's no doubt about it, but to really take full advantage of the way the guitar was designed, you have to use your fingers to extract the music. Some players manage to incorporate both styles into their technique -- holding the pick with their index and thumb and using the remaining two fingers (the pinkie rarely comes into it) to grab other strings, but they're still one finger short of the player who just uses the fingers.

This week I've put together a mini lesson which should help develop both hands and also demonstrate once again that melody and chords and harmony are all one and the same thing. It's another movie/midi/tab lesson of a chord progression with a melody running through it.

Go to: http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fsl to get stuck into it.

It shouldn't take you long to learn, and it will help your right hand's fingers gain independence. The melody follows no particular pattern, and this is the kind of exercise needed to teach your fingers how to move only when required. Rolling, repeating finger picking patterns are great and often used -- therefore should be practiced -- but non repetitive, melodic lines need a bit more work to lock in, as the muscle memory required is spread over a longer time span. Eventually, you should be able to play any old line any old time without relying on muscle memory at all, at least not consciously.

If you're still wondering what the trick to being able to play along to any piece of music, the trick to seeing the music laid out the length of the fretboard, then drop into http://planetalk.thatllteachyou.com and read about my book PlaneTalk which reveals just that: the trick.

"...Hey Kirk, I can't say enough about PlaneTalk, its the best investment guitar-wise I've made hands down..."

is how one happy twanger put it to me via email yesterday. I have also set up a forum where we PlaneTalkers can discuss the simple but potent visualization technique.

If you're just starting out, visit http://www.guitarforbeginners.com. If you're into slide guitar, visit http://www.bottleneckguitar.com

Enough of the advertising, all the best, I hope you glean something from this week's lesson,

Twang on!

Kirk