Hand Placement

Nomenclature

Preparatory Exercises

Variations

Travis Picking

Create Your Own Variations

Finger Picking

Picking using the fingers is actually the original method of playing the instruments like the lute that later developed into guitars. Even though playing with a pick tends to dominate most popular styles of guitar playing, an accomplished player should be able to play simple patterns using the fingers. Classical style is, of course, all played with fingers.

Playing with the soft parts of the fingers is possible, but leads to soft and inconsistent results. Other options for picking include:

Nails

Traditional classical players work hard at keeping their natural fingernails longs and strong. Taking vitamins, using special polishes and treatments, and always being wary of damage is an essential process for those wishing to use natural nails. This type of finger picking tends to work best on nylon strings of a classical guitar. The steel strings of an acoustic guitar can tear up natural nails quickly.

Artificial Nails

Many artists who play a lot of fingerstyle guitar use artificial nails. James Taylor is one famous example. A quick trip to the nail salon might be necessary the first time to learn how to apply them. Artificial nails are semi-permanent, so men worried about having feminine nails on one hand might have issues with artificial nails. The nails also may interfere with other activities, depending on what day job or lifestyle the player chooses.

Metal Finger Picks

Banjo-style finger picks are a temporary solution for those not wanting to glue pieces of plastic to the ends of their fingers. The picks take some getting used to, but once mastered, produce enough volume to cut through a thick mix in a band. Build up the hand strength slowly to avoid straining the wrist.

Many players use metal picks on the fingers and a plastic finger pick on the thumb. Place the picks on the finger with a twist so that they cross at the same 30-degree angle recommended for traditional picks. Putting the picks on the most comfortable way usually produces string scratches, so rotate or bend them until no scratching occurs.

Disadvantages include the amount of time to put them on and take them off; switching between metal picks and a traditional pick is not as instantaneous. Also, some right-hand techniques such as rasgueado are impossible when wearing metal picks.

A common practice is to use a plastic thumb pick with natural or artifical nails for the other fingers.

Hand Placement

Placement depends on the style of the player. Two major warring camps seem to exist: those who use an anchor finger, and those who prefer a free hand. Placing a finger on the pickguard gives stability and help the player find the strings more easily. Three-finger banjo style picking, a la Earl Scruggs, with the pinky and ring finger on the pickguard allows for even more support and strength, but limits access to strings.

Nomenclature

To avoid confusion with left hand finger numbers or fret numbers, use the classical nomenclature when referring to right hand picking for right handed players. Taken from Spanish,

The thumb is p (pulgar),

the index is i (indice),

the middle is m (medio),

the ring is a (anular),

the pinky is c (chicito)

Preparatory Exercises

In most popular fingerstyles, the patterns work off the thumb on the string beats and the upper fingers alternating. Start by setting a metronome ate a slow tempo, and practice picking the thumb over and over on the fifth string.

Once the thumb is on tempo, clean, and relaxed, work on alternating the thumb and the index finger (on the third string)

Then repeat for the middle (second string) and ring (first string) fingers

p	m	p	m	p	m	p	m
p	a	p	a	p	a	p	a

(The pinky is so rarely used, practicing at this point is unnecessary.)

Fingering a C chord might make the exercise more interesting.

Once that is clean, in tempo, and comfortable, practice picking the thumb and middle fingers at the same time

Now alternate this double note with the index finger alone

In fingerstyle picking, the thumb does most of the work in the basic patterns. Try this pattern alternating the thumb between the fifth and fourth strings.

d-		p		p		p		p
a-	p		p		p		p

Now, cut the tempo in half, and add the index finger after every other fourth string.

g-			i			i
d-		p			p
a-	p			p

Now, add the doubled second string with the first beat.

b-	m			m
g-			i			i
d-		p			p
a-	p			p

(This one sounds good on an A Minor chord.)

This pattern is the first half of the most common fingerstyle pattern. The second half is a variation of this pattern

b-		m			m
g-
d-			p			p
a-	p			p

Practice this until fluid, then add them together

b-	m				m
g-			i
d-		p				p
a-	p			p

Variations on this basic finger pattern is the basis of many songs, including “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, a song that grew directly out of a finger exercise.

This pattern works well for chords with roots on the fifth string, such as A minor and C. For chords with a root on the sixth string, such as G, play

e-
b-	m				m
g-			i
d-		p				p
a-
e-	p			p

Note that many players choose the fifth string b rather than the open d here. I prefer to use the root-fifth combination when possible.

A D chord is problematic in standard tuning because the root is on the fourth string. Players approach D in different ways, including moving the thumb up to the third string, or incorporating a low F# on the sixth string by using the thumb of the left hand for fretting. I prefer keeping the root-fifth relationship using this pattern

e-
b-	m				m
g-			i
d-	p			p
a-		p				p
e-

Variations

Variations on these patterns are many, but the basic variations tend to follow the same form. The most common variation takes the initial doubled note and moves it to beat 2

a-
b-		m			m
g-			i
d-		p				p
a-	p			p
e-

This pattern often alternates with the original pattern

Travis Picking

Merle Travis popularized a style of picking with a more complex bass line. An example of Travis picking would be to alternate a sixth string g on the C chord pattern as follows

The third finger lifts off the initial c and then moves over to the sixth string to play the g. Travis picking is the standard basis for many fingerstyles.

Create Your Own Variations

In this style of play, the bass line rhythm tends to remain constant, and any of the other notes may play or not play depending on the whim of the player. Use the following chart to create your own patterns.

a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m
i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
		p				p
				p
p

Just circle the notes to be played.

Adding Scale Tones

If you have not studies slash chords and alternate bass notes, take a moment to read over the procedure. Walking these chords around using variations on Travis picking can be quite effective, and the basic process is the same whether using a pick or not. Try this pattern, taken from the slash chord section, but use the picking pattern above.

G G/D

G G G/A G/B

C C/G

C C C/B C/A

G G/D

G G F# E

D D/A

D D/C D/B D/A

(Repeat)

These are the slash chords necessary

G/B

G/A

②

③

C/B

C/A

①

②

③

②

D/F#

D/E

②

①

②

③

Adding Melodies

Adding scale notes to chords for melodies is the same process as discussed in the section on chord building adding melodies. Adding melodies to fingerstyle chords in particularly effective because the free fingers allow melody manipulation to occur with less changes to the underlying rhythm part. Try adding the scale tones to the chords and forming them into melodies. Add these notes to the C chord to find melodies.

o	o	o	o	o	o
1				1	1
	2	2	2
3	3	3		3	3

These notes added to the G and F chords also work for a I-IV-V chord progression is C. Refer to the Chord Progressions section to find the proper added melody notes for common chord progressions.

Hammers and Pulls

Hammer-ons and Pull-offs work great on fingerstyle, and can help with adding melodies. Hammers and pulls techniques are in a separate section.

Classical Techniques

Classical picking technique is an entire method in itself. Students who wish to learn classical guitar should get a knowledgeable teacher; unlike rock, self-taught classical students tend not to progress very far. However, a few classical tricks can come in handy for anyone.

A classical guitarist plays scales by alternating the index and middle fingers. After plucking the string, allow the finger to rest on the string just below it as a followthrough instead of hovering above the string like in standard fingerstyle. Christopher Parkening taught to alternate the index and ring fingers since they are on different tendons. Hybrid picking style (below) uses alternate middle and ring fingers. In any variation, the important process is to alternate fingers on scales, just as alternating flatpicking produces better results.

Rasgueado is a technique from flamenco guitar playing. Flick the nails of all four fingers across the strings.

Finger Tremolo is another technique. Flick a single finger back and forth across strings quickly.

Fingerstyle and Percussive playing go hand in hand. Percussive guitar is a separate section.

Hybrid Picking

Hybrid picking uses a flat pick along with picking strings with the free fingers. Patterns are similar, except that the index finger is holding the pick and therefore unavailable for finger picking. Hybrid picking techniques feature the best of both worlds of flatpicking and fingerstyle. Listen to “The Clap” by Steve Howe of Yes to hear amazing work in this style.

String Madness

The examples here are not complete. For a ridiculous amount of exercises, adapt the String Mahem tables to finger picking techniques.