Using the Right Hand Thumb and Fingers Together
You may encounter problems at first when playing a melody that uses both the bass and treble strings because you will be using a rest stroke on the first three strings and a free stroke on the bass strings. This may feel a little uncomfortable at first, especially when notes on the fourth and third string follow each other.
The next exercise uses the open fourth and third strings only. Before playing this exercise make sure your right hand is in the correct position. Keep your right hand steady and do not alter the shape of the hand as you change from picking with the fingers and the thumb. Special attention should be given to the suggested right hand fingering.
Now try an exercise that uses all the notes on the fourth and third strings.
Exercise 28 highlights all the notes studied so far.
The Three Four Time Signature
This time signature is called the three four time signature. It indicates there are three beats in each bar. Three four time is also known as waltz time. There are three quarter notes in one bar of ^ time.
The Dotted Half Note
A dot placed after a note extends its value by half. A dot placed after a half note means that you hold it for three beats. One dotted half note makes one bar of music in ^ time.
The dotted half note is used throughout the following exercise.
The Tie
A tie is a curved line that connects two notes with the same position on the staff. A tie tells you to pick the first note only, and to hold it for the length of both notes.
