Guitarist On The Brink Of FAILURE In Front Of 6,189 People

Have you ever wanted to fingerpick and strum in the same song?

It’s easy to switch between these two, when you have good systems for how.

But let me tell you story from yesteryear that led me to figuring out the best ways:

One of the first real gigs I ever got as a pro guitarist was with this Disney artist. She was 15, had a great voice, and was super talented.

Her manager ended up landing her a gig to open up for this kid named Jesse McCartney. (Another pop star of the early 2000s.) The gig was at what was called back then the “Universal Amphitheatre”, right by Universal Studios in Hollywood. Last I checked, it’s now called, the “Gibson Amphitheatre”.

This place is a killer venue that holds 6,189 people. In fact, I’ve see Clapton play there, Yes, and many other world-class artists. You should see backstage all the names written on the wall. It's pretty cool. But the show was on, and this was gonna be the largest audience I’d ever performed for. 

The plan was we would perform her set, mostly pop rock songs. But then at one point, in the middle of the show, we were going to pull out stools and play an acoustic ballad.

For this one, I had to start off with a little bit of fingerpicking, and then strum as the song built up. 

How did I navigate this? Well, I did something really DUMB.

My plan was to sit on this stool, which put my knees up like planks at waist level. Then I was going to set my pick on my right leg and try not to move so it wouldn’t fall off. 

Play the little fingerpicking part, then when it came to the chorus, quickly reach down, snatch up the pick and strum through the rest of the song.

WOW…a risky proposition.

I was super nervous too. You see, I’d never performed in front of that many people before.

Who was in the audience?

Well, about 99% teenage girls who were obsessed with Jesse McCartney. Remember were booked as the opening act. When we first went out on stage, for a moment, they thought we were the headliner. 

6,189 teenage girls immediately started SCREAMING at the top of their lungs in passion. It actually hurt my ears. Remember when the Beatles came out? The girls screamed so loud they couldn't even hear themselves playing onstage. It was like that.

So there I was, just a few songs later, trying to navigate fingerpicking and strumming all in the same song. On acoustic, with the rest of the band backstage waiting to come back on after this song. So any mistakes I made were going to be truly exposed.

I remember looking down at my Fender pick balancing on my shaky, right leg. Sweat was dripping down my forehead. My gut cinched, as I held on by a thread, hoping that pick didn’t slide off and hit the floor.

I felt like a circus stuntman balancing a sword on his forehead. One slip, and I’m TOAST.

Then what would I do?

Would I have to keep fingerpicking somehow and ruin the momentum of the song? Would I reach down from this giant chair and search around on the floor for my pick as the audience laughed at me? 

Well, thankfully, I balanced it. I grabbed it partway through the song and strummed to the finish line.

But I got lucky. It could have easily gone the other way. 

All this made me realize my techniques for navigating songs with both fingerpicking and strumming sucked.

Years later I finally developed bullet proof ways to navigate this. No more shaky legs, no more nervous gut, and no risk of ending up searching around on the floor for my pick.

If you've struggled with this, grab my free fingerstyle cheat sheet PDF guide right here and starting improving it now:   

Jon MacLennan