Pink Floyd - Is There Anybody Out There? - Guitar Lesson

The Wall

1979 2:42

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About Is There Anybody Out There?

Few moments in Pink Floyd's catalogue feel as fragile as this one. "Is There Anybody Out There?" centres almost entirely on a delicate fingerpicked classical guitar passage, played cleanly in E minor at a steady 120 BPM. The right-hand fingerpicking pattern is the whole challenge here: it needs to feel even and unhurried, with each note ringing through clearly rather than getting clipped by a palm or a passing finger. In E Standard tuning, there is no retuning to worry about, so your attention can stay on tone and precision. Keep your fretting-hand thumb low and your fingers arched so the open strings sustain freely. The passage moves through some slightly awkward chord shapes, and the transitions between them are where most players stumble. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop those moments slowed down until the hand changes feel automatic, then gradually bring the tempo back up. A clean acoustic or a clean electric with minimal reverb will both work well for capturing the sparse, exposed feel of the part.

• The song is built around a fingerpicked classical guitar figure in E minor, demanding clean articulation and steady right-hand control throughout.
• Playing in E Standard tuning at 120 BPM, the part sits at a moderate tempo but leaves every note fully exposed, so precision matters more than speed.
• Practising the chord-transition moments in isolation, looped slowed down with the Practice Toolbar, is the most effective way to smooth out the fingerpicking pattern.