Guitar Fingerpicking Patterns

Video Transcript

"If we aren't using our pick, we've been using our thumb all along, or we just simply want to make a new sound with our chords. We can finger pick, using the tips of our fingers. A classical guitarist would be using their fingernails. If you don't have a long fingernail, that?s okay, you can use the tips of your fingers to create a sound too. Use your fourth finger as an anchor I'd still recommend. And now what you do is you assign your thumb to the lower three strings, the low E, the A, and the D. Then each finger can be assigned to one of these strings. So your first finger can hook under the G, second under the B, third under the E. You try to keep that fourth finger where it is, and let your fingers pluck up in return. A popular progression in three-four that you might have heard is one, two, and three. Something significant I do in changing there is from picking from there, I use thumb, thumb, and I continue that pattern, now, but starting my thumb on the D string, so I do pluck the G with my thumb on the way down. My first finger plucks the D; my second finger plucks the E. Now, on the way back, I double my high E; pluck it with my third, second, and first, so I change the pattern. I'm using the same finger pattern but since we run out of string, my fingers end up assigning themselves to new strings. Give this a shot at home."