How to Play Fingerstyle Guitar

The term "fingerstyle guitar" originally referred to picking the strings with the fingers instead of a plectrum. However, this definition has narrowed so it usually refers specifically to finger picking on acoustic guitars with steel strings that are usually played with a plectrum. The following steps will show how to play fingerstyle guitar.

Instructions

1. Use the fingerstyle technique to play more than one musical element at the same time. The strings are plucked by individual fingers independently instead of with a plectrum that can only play one string or series of strings at a time.

2. Play folk or blues songs with finger picking (pattern picking). This is a fingerstyle technique used for playing rhythmically based music where the bass line is strummed on the lower three strings and the melody is picked with the fingers on the upper three strings.

3. Study Travis picking. This technique is a common type of pattern picking where the thumb alternates between bass notes while the index and middle fingers alternate between treble notes.

4. Practice the chord-melody style. This type of fingerstyle playing is used most often by the unaccompanied guitar in jazz. A series of chords is played under the melody and is most effective on an electric guitar.

5. Examine American primitive guitar. This subset of fingerstyle guitar developed during the 1950s and '60s in folk music and uses alternating bass notes with repeating melodic patterns. American primitivism makes extensive use of alternate tunings so that the same patterns may be used for different songs.