Fingersatyle as opposed to Plectrum playing

General
1

I retired last year (I’m 68) and I had decided to focus on learning to play my guitars. I have a Fender Strat Custom Shop and a Fender telecaster that I play through a Deluxe Reverb.

I finally mastered Louisiana Fairytale. What I like about knowing it note for note is I can concentrate on making it sound better and it does.

Last week I started on Ted Greene’s “Have Yourself a Merry…” I want to master it by the time my grandson arrives here in on the 22nd. He lives in Hong Kong with his parents. It’s a beautiful piece but I’m really struggling with some of the chord changes particularly some of the stretch chords but in the 4th measure going to that E7 open E arpeggio from the Dadd9. My fingers don’t want to cooperate. I am having to learn a completely different way of playing. Plucking chords is tricky.
Any suggestions about practice? How long? Any ideas on warm up exercises?

Merry Christmas!

2

It was challenging for me in fact I’m only through the A section and have been chipping away at it since Alex shared it. I would suggest just take it bar by bar just focus in the first bar until you get it. a shorter scale guitar might provide a little relief on the 4 fret stretches but you will get them with practice. I will say I’d consider this an intermediate piece so don’t be hard on yourself. One other tip if you are just starting out might be to play the tunes you know with your fingers. Even basic open chord G, C, D will help with dexterity. Best of luck