Video Lesson: Play It Now! John Butler Teaches Us to Play “Spring To Come”
I had the privilege of sitting down with John Butler recently as he went through the fingering and technique for his new song “Spring to Come” off the upcoming album Flesh and Blood.
John’s guitar is in an unusual tuning: C-G-D-G-B-D. This enables some interesting fingerpicking, and easily changing the bass from G to C changes the chordal coloring completely.
The fingerpicking pattern John utilizes incorporates a “double thumbing” technique, with the thumb playing the lower G and D tuned strings and the second and third finger covering the rest. Here’s the pattern.
John uses a double stop scale pattern up the neck for much of the song. He goes quite deliberately through the fingerings in the video, so watch it through. And here are the positions up the neck.
Check out the instructional video here.
And when you’re ready, play along with John as he performs “Spring To Come” live in the Acoustic Nation studio:
Find out what's next for John Butler at www.johnbutlertrio.com
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Laura B. Whitmore is a music industry marketing veteran, music journalist and editor, writing for Parade.com, Guitar World, and others. She has interviewed hundreds of musicians and hosts the She Rocks Podcast. As the founder of the Women’s International Music Network, she advocates for women in the music industry and produces the annual She Rocks Awards. She is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Positive Grid, making the world safe for guitar exploration everywhere! A guitarist and singer/songwriter, Laura is currently co-writing an album of pop songs that empower and energize girls.
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