Freight Train Advanced Tab - Fingerstyle Guitar

In this lesson of Guitar Tabs from Ultimate Guitar OnLine we will show you great solid intermediate fingerstyle version of the classic Elizabeth Cotton song Freight Train. Chet Atkins also made a great arrangement of Freight Train that you should have in your collection. This was one of my very first fingerstyle guitar tunes that I learned. The version here is a very basic version of the way that I play this song, but it still sounds great and you can use this song as a foundation to build your fingerstyle picking.

More of That Guitar Country - Chet Atkins: This CD is full of classic Atkins fingerstyle guitar and contains the original version of Freight Train that I learned so many years ago. Chet plays this on his Gretsch Electric Guitar, but it is easily adaptable to the acoustic guitar or even the classical guitar.

Freight Train, A Little Bit of Blues, Nine Pound Hammer, Dobro, Kentucky, Vaya Con Dios (May God Be with You), Winter Walkin, Guitar Country, Sugarfoot Rag, Gone, Copper Kettle, Yes Ma'am, Yakety Axe, Back Up and Push, Cloudy and Cool, Alone and Forsaken, Old Joe Clark, Catch the Wind, How's the World Treating You, Understand Your Man

Freight Train Advanced Tab - Guitar Pro File - Note: This is a free download for you!

Freight Train Advanced Tab - PDF File - Note: This is a free download for you !

All of these files were authored in eMedia's Guitar-Pro. This is the favorite tab and notation authoring software for us here at Ultimate Guitar OnLine. It is filled with features and is simple to use - even without a manual. It is compatible with PC and Mac. We use it on the Mac here and it is a pleasure to use. To see a full review click HERE. Otherwise if you would like to try a free copy of it, you can download the demo HERE and use it for 15 days.

If you are not familiar with reading Guitar Tab, click HERE for a quick tutorial. If you are not familiar with reading notation click HERE for some online lesson material we have put together. Otherwise will be give you hints along the way by hovering your mouse over certain keywords in this text.

Having trouble with Fingerpicking technique? We have some great articles on fingerstyle guitar in our Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons Section. We will constantly adding content to that section, so check back often.

Here is the second break of Freight Train. We depart from the standard alternating bass style just a bit to add some flavor to the tune. In this lesson we will work on the introduction of fingerstyle arpeggios to the first half of the break. These are played primarily with the RH thumb, index and middle fingers. You will really need to work on the smoothness of this section which spans from the 2nd through the 8th measures of the piece.

There are some great exercises that will help you develop this smoothness borrowed from classical guitar lessons. One of the best you can get is the 20 Etudes by Fernando Sor played by Andres Segovia. Concentrating on these studies will help you develop your smoothness and concentration for right hand technique.

Once you have this song practiced to a point where you can play it smoothly without any breaks in rhythm, try to what I call, humanize it a bit by varying the syncopation just a bit and removing the strict timing that the Guitar Pro file exhibits. (note that you can select the humanize tool in Guitar Pro to do this as well).

Guitar Pro has a really cool feature called speed trainer. you can set a loop of accompaniment chords to be played and after each loop the speed increased by a percent that you specify. I love this feature and it gives you milestone very clearly as to you speed conditioning.

Each quarter note = one beat in the measure so there are 4 quarter notes in just about every measure.

Make sure to memorize your songs. What is the easiest way to do this? Unless you have perfect pitch, you will have to learn one section or measure at a time. Once you can play flawlessly move on to the next measure and add it to what you have memorized. Continue this and make sure you can play the first half of the song, including the second ending.

Once you have the first half memorized, move on to the second half, doing the same thing with the second half of the song.