Finger Style

For beginners, I would usually suggest starting with a pick, and this is for a few reasons. Firstly, it helps you pick single strings because a pick is thin enough to fit between strings. It also makes strumming a lot easier as a pick will glide across the strings.

When we look at finger style playing, we take the pick away and use each one of our fingers as a pick. This sounds a little scary to start with, but once you are comfortable with all of the strings and where they are, that is the hardest part done.

When we use our picking hand, there are 3 main things to look at.

1. The position of your hand
2. The bass notes
3. The treble (high) notes

When we look at the position of you hand, is should be comfortable and ready to play any of the notes nearby. If we have a look at how my hand is before we play finger style:

[insert pops ad side view of hand playing]

My thumb is on the A string, and my first 3 fingers are on the G, B, and e strings. I do this because of points 2 and 3.

Whenever I play bass notes, my thumb will usually play the main bass note, and on a guitar, the bass is usually covered by the E, A, and sometimes D string. We don’t usually play more than one bass note, but this changes when we look at the treble notes.

We can play more than one treble note, and we often do when we play chords. Having your fingers hovering over the strings means they are ready to play chords together or melodies separately.

A good place to start with finger style playing os to start with your thumb and one finger. That way you get used to the feeling of playing without a pick. Use your thumb for E, A, and D and your first finger for G, B, and e.

Start by playing this line and getting used to playing w

[finger style exercises 2 simple ones]

[2 advanced ones]

[2  exercises with 2 notes playing at the same time]