Guitar Essentials: Rhythm Method—An Introduction to Fingerpicking

It’s easy to feel intimidated at the thought of playing “fingerstyle” guitar. For some reason, it makes the average guitarist think of classical guitarists and a repertoire of pieces for the most advanced players.

Somehow, the term “fingerpicking” sounds more inviting. It evokes thoughts of classic folk-style players like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell or, at most, eclectic finger stylists like Chet Atkins.

Whatever you want to call it, fingerpicking technique should be in every serious guitar player’s arsenal of techniques.

In this lesson, we’ll examine the fingerpicking techniques commonly found in pop, rock, folk, country, and other genres. Most of these examples—all of which are arranged for a steel-string acoustic but are certainly playable on other axes as well—are structured around a C-G-Am-F progression, in order to demonstrate the different techniques and approaches at work.

THE BASICS
In proper fingerpicking technique, the thumb (p) usually picks strings 4-6 (the wound strings), while the remaining fingers (i = index, m = mid­dle, and a = ring) pick the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings, respectively. (The pinkie [c] is rarely used in traditional fingerpicking; it is, howev­er, called upon in flamenco-based approaches, which we’ll look at later.)

For a warm tone that really projects, most fingerpickers use a combination of fingernails and fingertips. To properly groom your nails, use a high-quality file to shape them into ovals, with each nail extending one to two mil­limeters past the fingertip. Once your nails are filed, you might even apply clear nail polish to both sides for added strength; this will help protect them from being shredded when you’re picking on steel strings.

PIANO-STYLE ACCOMPANIMENT

For acoustic ballads and mellow pop-rock offerings, guitarists often cop piano­-style accompaniment patterns, both in open (FIGURE 1A)