Hi welcome to LessonWithTroy.com. I'm Troy Brenningmeyer. You just heard Billy In The Lowground. That’s a tune we’re going to learn today. In the key of C. So if you have tablature go ahead and print it out, set it in a stand in front of you and let’s get going here with Billy In The Lowground.

So we’re zoomed in here on the left hand, let’s go and learn the first phrase. These are going to be measures one and two. So while I'm doing that measure one I'm pulling off one to zero on my fifth string and going back to one of my fifth string. And open fourth string, slide up one to two on your fourth string. And open third string, second fret on my third string, open second string. Okay that first measure again slowly as this.

Okay that second measure it sounds like this. What you're doing there is you're pulling off one to zero on your second string and going back to one on your second string, open first string, one to zero on your second string, two on the third string. Once again one to zero on your second string, open first, one to zero on your second, and two on your third string. So both those measures put together with the left hand sounds like these.

Okay, here’s the right hand for that first phrase measures one and two. Now once again, I'm using this rest stroke with my thumb to get some nice pick blocking to some of these pull offs. So the first one, you could try it on every time you use your thumb you can try it pick blocking. It’s great practice and good for your technique. Let’s start with thumb, index and then thumb, index, thumb and then index. That’s the first measure.

The second measure, check this out—see how I used those rest strokes. Every time I play my thumb and also if you have those tablature of those letters, T stands for Thumb, I for Index and M for middle—middle finger and um that’s written underneath the tab. I bring my thumb all the way through and rest it in the string in front of it.

What that does is when you tap that string the higher string that you just hit, see as my thumb come through it and you touch that string. It really cleans up your playing a lot. So both measures together slowly sounds like this. Really watch for this pick blocking that I do with my thumb. That’s also what’s called a rest stroke with your thumb when you bring it through the string and rest it on the string in private.

Okay let’s move on to the A minor chord.