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Everybody Hurts by R.E.M is a great song to learn if you’re new to fingerstyle because it’s not too demanding on your right hand and uses straightforward fingerpicking patterns throughout.
If you are new to fingerpicking and/or playing guitar in general, you may find that the bridge is a little difficult as it uses some barre chords. Perseverance and practice will get you to mastering this song.
Everybody Hurts is in the key of D major and in 6/8 time, this means that you play 6 eighth note beats per bar and count 1 2 3 4 5 6 throughout the entire song.
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Join The Mailing ListEverybody Hurts can be played fingerstyle or with a pick, it really makes very little difference. However, this being a fingerpicking website I encourage you to play it with your fingers.
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The bridge is certainly a little trickier than the rest of the song but this is only because of the two barre chords you have to play – F# and Bm.
If you haven’t played these chords before you will find it difficult to get all the strings to ring out cleanly and to change between the two chords. However, it is well worth putting in the time to get your barre chords mastered as so many songs use them and you simply can’t avoid them for very long.