[Beth Hess]

In Lonesome on the E chord full strum:   Do you pluck the 6th or the 5th string as the first beat (Folk Pattern)? TX

[Jonathan]

Hey Beth. For the E chord, you pluck the low E string as the first note.

If ever you are in doubt, the first note that doesn’t have a minus sign on the chord chart, will be the 1st note of that chord.

So, since we start the strum from the top (the low/deep pitched strings), you need to look from the left to the right of the chord chart. So for G, there are no minus symbols, which means the low E will be your first note. For Am7, the low E has a minus symbol, which means don’t play it. The next string has a dot, which means you don’t have a finger on it, but you will play it. So that string becomes the 1st note of the chord.

I hope that helps make more sense of it so you are able to decipher that issue in the future. Let me know if you have any other questions!

You never fail until you quit!

[Beth Hess]

Thank you.