Working up to Andy Mckee's "Blue Liquid"

Question

Recently I discovered "Blue Liquid" by Andy Mckee while listening to music on Spotify. For whatever reason, I instantly loved the song and decided that I wanted to be able to play it before I died.

I have been playing guitar for over six years, but have only recently (over the past year) developed an interest in fingerstyle playing and percussive techniques and have always felt overwhelmed and unsure of where to start and where to look when it comes to finding resources on advanced guitar playing.

So I'd kind of been putting it off. When I heard "Blue Liquid", however, I decided it was time to get going and move forward in my journey as a guitar player.

What are the exact names of some of the techniques or types of techniques used in the song?

What are some good, well-written, and thorough method books or method book series that cover those skills?

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I took private lessons for a while many years ago, then stopped due to high school time demands. Now that I am going to college, I'd love to find a teacher and start lessons again, but I can't afford them.

Answer 1

I don't think there is a any "technical" terms that is used for percussive fingerstyle as they usually end up being nothing more than descriptors of what the guitarist doing (from my knowledge). Case in point, this individual points out the following techniques:

String Slap, Thump and thumb, Thump and nails, Nail Knocks, Drum and Strum, the Tap and Slap.

However, someone else might call the "slap and tap" polyphonic tapping that includes a rhythmic component.

That being said, my experience playing percussive guitar has been a lot of "monkey see monkey do" logic so perhaps I am overlooking terms.

As for book I have never used any for this particular style of guitar, but apparently according to one of my friends this book was quite useful for her.

Beyond this if your looking for a place to start and assuming your quite good with a more "regular" finger picking techniques, I would look at polyphonic tapping as that can be quite difficult learn especially if you never played piano if you did you'll probably find this somewhat easier.

Lastly, this should go without saying, but play slow as learning this style of guitar requires a lot of coordination.