The hands of a beginning guitarist are like a couple learning to dance, with one member of the team always straying ahead of the other.
Every guitarist knows that the fret hand gets the brunt of
The hands of a beginning guitarist are like a couple learning to dance, with one member of the team always straying ahead of the other.
Every guitarist knows that the fret hand gets the brunt of the workload at first. It’s not until a fair share of chords, scales and melodic patterns are learned that the picking partner gets its due attention.
Guitarists in the classical tradition get a good jump on using both hands equally, but if you’ve begun your musical promenade as a flatpicker, years may go by before you put the plectrum down and begin fingerpicking.
We’ll, let’s not let another dance go by. The clock is ticking, and your pick hand awaits.
FOLLOW THE FINGERPRINTS
Just as dance studios lay out footprints telling you where to step, fingerstyle music notation often adds clues to inform your fingers. Using abbreviations from their Spanish names, the thumb is identified as p (pulgar), the index as i (indice), the middle as m (medio) and the ring as a (anular). These letters will appear beneath the appropriate notes.
The notes played with the thumb are written with the stems pointing downward, whereas those played with the fingers have their stems pointed upward. The rhythms of each part are frequently written separately, as it often helps to consider each rhythm individually.
GREET YOUR PARTNER
To get comfortable with aligning the fingers and the strings, let’s start by working with FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1
Begin by assigning your index finger to the 3rd string, your middle finger to the 2nd, and your ring finger to the 1st. The thumb will play any of the three lower strings. For the first measure, align