There are exceptions to this, depending on how you would usually hold a pick, but for the most part it rings true.

Your fingers naturally want to curve even when holding a pick, and believe it or not, your muscle memory will almost always retain this open position of holding a pick even when you are playing in fingerstyle. This goes back to the availability when playing fingerstyle to provide a beautiful 'airy' sound as opposed to a methodical plectrum sensation. When playing fingerstyle, usually the strings you play on don't sound quite as harsh as they would when playing with a plectrum. Artists such as Lindsey Buckingham and Chet Atkins employ this method and it can be heard on songs such as 'Landslide' and 'Big Love' (Buckingham) as well as 'Wheels' (Atkins) to provide a beautiful non-plectrum-picked 'airy' or 'open' sound. So, we 'use what we have' in fingerstyle, allowing us up to five fingers at any given time to play multiple notes. Though there are times that you can do this, often when playing fingerstyle, it is much too difficult to 'string skip' in a way that is logical and easy to address. Using your fingers allows you to pluck or pick multiple notes that usually aren't 'pickable' using a standard plectrum.

A few key differences when playing with your fingers instead of a pick are: 1.

Though many artists will employ the usage of both, which we'll get into later on in this program, the idea here is to forget that you've ever even learned to use a pick when playing fingerstyle guitar. Flatpicking There is a major difference between using your fingers to pick and using an actual plectrum (pick) for many reasons. Bass, harmonic accompaniment, melody, and percussion can all be played simultaneously when playing Fingerstyle.įingerstyle Vs. Physically, “Fingerstyle” refers to using each of the right (or left) hand fingers independently in order to play the multiple parts of a musical arrangement that would normally be played by several band members. Music arranged for fingerstyle playing can include chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking.

If you have a pick anywhere NEAR your computer, hide it! Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (picking individual notes with a single plectrum called a flatpick) or strumming all the strings of the instrument in chords. Section 1: Fingerstyle 101 Techniques Exercises Beginner Songs

Fingerstyle gitar pdf