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Learn Guitar Fingerpicking

Posted by: Learn Guitar on October 14, 2008 Under: Learn Guitar Techniques |

Guitar fingerpicking (also referred to as finger style) is an interesting alternative to using a pick for anyone that wants to learn guitar. Unlike using a pick, the strings are played directly with the fingers. A skilled guitarist can use fingerpicking to sound as though he is playing two separate instruments at once, which can create some very compelling and interesting solo arrangements.

Guitar Fingerpicking Start Position

The picture below shows the starting position of your hands when you are fingerpicking.

For the correct fingerpicking hand position you will use your thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers.

• Your thumb will pluck the 6th (E), 5th (A), and 4th (D) strings, the top 3 strings of the guitar.
• Your index finger will pluck the 3rd (G) string.
• Your middle finger will pluck the 2nd (B) string.
• Your ring finger will pluck the 1st (E) string.
• The pinkie finger is not used, and usually just follows the ring finger to keep it out of the way.

Sometimes your fingers will have to pluck other strings (there are always exceptions especially with complicated arrangements) but this should be our default fingering position.

Simply pick a chord and cycle through the fingers, see how much more interesting the basic chords sound simply by playing through the strings one at a time rather than all at once. Once you are comfortable using each finger to strike the correct string, try combining the fingers and then mixing between one and multiple strings at the same time. By playing around with the picking arrangement, some really interesting parts can be created.

Exceptions to Basic Rules for Guitar Fingerpicking

There are a few things that may crop up which violate the basic rules as to what finger strikes each string.

One common exception is for the index finger to play the D or even A strings, if the thumb is occupied on a lower string. Sometimes that middle and ring finger will also shift up to high the next lowest string as well when this happens. With practice and experience these situations should be more easily recognizable.

Tremolo picking is another of these exceptions. This is a technique used to rapidly play the same string multiple times in a row. Rather than trying to use the same finger over and over again, the guitarist will cycle through the index, middle, and ring fingers continuously through the passage. Quite often the thumb will also be playing notes during these passages on other strings as well. This can be a more difficult technique to learn, but once mastered, it opens many possibilities that would otherwise not been available.