Fingerpicking guitar | Fingerstyle guitar

Once players of the guitar have learned the basics of flatpicking, they may wish to take the next step in widening the array of styles with which they are proficient.  One way to add stylistic possibilities to your repertoire is to learn the art of fingerpicking or fingerstyle guitar.  This style offers more freedom than flatpicking, or playing with a pick, and typically results in and/or is characteristic of more complex songs and riffs.

The reason fingerpicking offers the possibility for greater complexity is that it uses four to five fingers, rather than a single guitar pick, thereby allowing players to strike notes more quickly or to strike multiple notes at once.  Also, because players can pluck their guitars’ strings with their fingernails, the flesh of their fingers, fingerpicks made of various materials, or some combination of all of the above, guitar finger picking patterns and techniques offer a much wider variety of sounds that can be made with each note struck.

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An important first step for anyone thinking about learning fingerpicking or fingerstyle guitar is to learn how each finger is labeled.  The fingers are labeled, starting at the thumb and moving to the ring finger, with the following series of letters: P, I, M, A.  These letters can be used as notation to help in learning or remembering the picking patterns of songs that use the fingerpicking technique.  The little, pinky finger is most commonly used to keep the picking hand anchored to the guitar, but on the rare occasions this finger is used for picking, it is typically labeled with a C, an X, or an E.

Once a player knows which fingers are used to play which notes, it is simply a matter of perfecting his or her plucking technique.  It is important to keep the wrist as straight as possible with the hand above the strings, fingers curled inward.  Beginners usually feel compelled to push their fingers under the strings and pull outward.  However, this can result in a harsh sound.  Unless this harshness is desired in a particular part of a song, the pad of the finger should be placed against the side of the string and then rolled gently off to produce a clean, pleasant sound.  It is important not to put too much force into this motion, as doing so could result in a harsh twang.

While fingerpicking or fingerstyle guitar is most commonly associated with nylon-string, classical guitars and soft, guitar-dominated music, this style of playing has been used in many types of music, ranging from classical to metal, and can be used with any kind of guitar, electric or acoustic.  The effect that fingerpicking, as opposed to flatpicking, has on the sound of the song being played is that the sound produced is typically softer and possibly quieter, depending on the strength with which each note is plucked.  Practice with this technique is recommended for any player seeking to expand his or her stylistic range to include the delicate speed allowed by fingerpicking.

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