Let’s concentrate on the essential information to learn how to play fingerstyle guitar quickly and easily.
If you want to start playing fingerstyle guitar, I have put together 9 steps to get you going. But if you already know how to play guitar and want to branch out into the fingerstyle guitar genre, here is what you need to do.
Although you can start playing any style of guitar, playing fingerstyle requires that you become proficient at both reading guitar music, or tablature, and playing guitar without a pick.
You don’t have to be a perfectly fluid music reader—indeed, many fingerstyle virtuosos learned entirely from recordings and claim to not be able to read sheet music at all.
But you must be able to pluck the strings comfortably without a pick, and we’ll get into more detail a little later on into exactly how to accomplish that.
- 9 Steps To Learning Fingerstyle Guitar
- 1. Learn to read music
- 2. Learn the correct playing position
- 3. Learn to tune the guitar
- 4. Learn to pluck the strings of the guitar
- 5. Learn rhythmic strumming without a pick
- 6. Develop finger independence
- 7. Learn to play with fingernails
- 8. Learn different picking patterns
- 9. Work on memorization
9 Steps To Learning Fingerstyle Guitar
To help you play fingerstyle guitar with confidence, I’ve created a simple, easy-to-follow 9-step process. When you learn these nine steps in this order, you will progress logically from the fundamentals to more advanced techniques.
These steps will help guide you if you are a beginner at guitar and want to start immediately with fingerstyle. Or, if you are already proficient in another style of guitar playing and you want to branch out into fingerstyle, you can skip over the steps you've accomplished and concentrate on the specific skills that you need to improve.
1. Learn to read music
Unlike with classical guitar, with fingerstyle guitar you don’t have to learn standard musical notation without the tablature, although I recommend you at least understand the basics.
You should, however, learn the ins and out of time values, or rhythm, in musical notation. I see so many problems that could be avoided if the player had some understanding of rhythmic notation and how beats are organized or broken down inside the measure.
So, before you start learning fingerstyle guitar, if you haven’t already, do become proficient in understanding how beats are organized inside a measure of music.
2. Learn the correct playing position
If you start out playing fingerstyle on an acoustic guitar, you’ll likely have the guitar resting on your right leg. This is fine for most people, but you should always check that the position you’ve adopted is the most comfortable for long-term playing.
Holding the guitar correctly first involves the correct seating position, on a flat chair without arms or adjustable stool. You can place the guitar on your right leg, or use a guitar strap to slightly elevate the instrument.
You may also find that placing the guitar on the elevated left leg, like the classical guitar position, works well for you. This will involve raising the left leg by using a footstool, or raising the guitar with a strap or support.
3. Learn to tune the guitar
If you are not proficient with tuning the guitar by ear, having an electronic tuner, and knowing how to use it, will greatly simplify your progress with fingerstyle guitar.
Although the majority of your guitar playing will occur in standard tuning, you may come across a song or piece that involves an alternate tuning. This is especially true for modern fingerstyle songs, which make use of extended techniques like harmonics and percussion that are simpler when the guitar is in an open tuning.
Therefore, if you are serious about fingerstyle guitar, this makes it all the more key to have a guitar tuner on hand for quick adjustments.
4. Learn to pluck the strings of the guitar
When playing fingerstyle, or finger picking, you will learn to use a combination of one or more fingers along with the thumb to pluck the strings. Learning to pluck the strings with each finger of the right hand, being sure to use proper right-hand technique, is a crucial step in your journey to learn fingerstyle guitar.
This includes being able to pluck both the individual strings as well as guitar chords properly. When plucking guitar chords, don't let the strings "snap" against the fretboard as this produces an unpleasant sound. Instead, keep the hand stationary and use the finger movement to set the strings in motion.
When playing guitar in this fashion, you can play more complex harmonies, including melody and a bass line simultaneously.
Difference between playing rest stroke and free stroke
You may have heard that flamenco guitarists who have developed very fast finger picking speeds using rest stroke. For example, Paco de Lucia rose to fame with his characteristic and constant use of rest stroke, which involves plucking the string and letting the finger stop or rest against the adjacent string after the plucking motion.
The rest stroke motion is in contrast to free stroke, where the fingertip goes underneath the hand and does not enter in contact with anything else after the string.
Free stroke is the default technique used when finger picking, and I recommend you stick to this technique. Just remember that alternating fingers in free stroke generally cannot pluck as fast as when using rest stroke. Fast single note soloing is still possible, however, without using rest stroke or a pick.
5. Learn rhythmic strumming without a pick
When you began learning guitar, you likely started off by strumming chords with a pick, which improves your rhythm and teaches you proper hand position. But did you know that you can strum guitar chords with the fingernails using the flamenco strumming technique? In fact, flamenco guitarists can play the guitar quite aggressively in this fashion.
Learning to strum the guitar without a pick will help you with songs that mix both plucking technique and chord strumming without hybrid picking. If you are using only the thumb to strum chords, strum down with the flesh of the thumb and upwards with the fingernail. If strumming with both thumb and fingers, strum down with the fingernails of the right hand and strum back up using the thumb.
When doing this technique, I prefer to keep the hand in an ‘open’ position in order to control the force and resistance of my fingers on the strings.
6. Develop finger independence
One of the most important aspects of fingerstyle guitar playing is playing consecutive notes using alternating fingers. To work on this, first start by switching between your thumb and other digits when picking, alternating between a bass note and a treble note.
Additionally, remember to use free stroke and make sure to keep your picking fingers close to their respective strings to minimize unnecessary movement.
Finally, you’ll want to practice playing two or more consecutive notes on the same string using alternating fingers. For example, play the first note with the index finger and the second note with the middle, and do not use the same finger repeatedly.
Matteo Mancuso has figured out how to use a combination of three fingers: thumb, index and middle fingers, or index, middle and ring fingers to play consecutive notes on the same string. By using his three fingers to pluck consecutive notes, he is able to play guitar solos fingerstyle, without using picks. By organizing your left-hand fingering around three-note-per-string patterns, it’s possible to play very fast single note solos on the guitar without a pick.
7. Learn to play with fingernails
Most classical and flamenco guitarists pluck the strings using their right-hand fingernails, letting the side of the nail come in contact with the string.
On the other hand, some steel-string players use the flesh of their fingers to pluck the strings, and do not rely on long nails to pluck the strings. Both approaches are valid ways to play fingerstyle, but playing without nails is rare in classical guitar and basically nonexistent in flamenco.
I recommend using fingernails when you start playing fingerstyle, as this will give you better control over the sound that you are producing with the guitar. If you find growing long nails difficult or problematic, consider using finger picks or playing without nails.
8. Learn different picking patterns
You have likely noticed that there are many different fingerpicking patterns to choose from, ranging from simple to complex. A popular fingerpicking pattern for fingerstyle is the Travis picking pattern, much popularized by Tommy Emmanuel.
But before you go playing complex arpeggios, start by learning to play a very basic melody, such as "Freight Train" or "Brother John". I recommend playing the melody in first position, where the fingers fall naturally on frets 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Once you get comfortable with the melody, you can add in the bass part with the thumb. If you have trouble at this step, first try playing the bass notes with your thumb without the other fingers playing the melody notes, and then combine the two lines.
9. Work on memorization
Because fingerstyle guitar involves both plucking several strings with the right hand while simultaneously forming complex chord shapes with the left hand, you’ll occasionally need to devote your concentration to what your hands are doing, rather than on the sheet music.
How to memorize music quickly
If you have difficulty remembering a passage in a fingerstyle guitar song, you can use the chord shape visualization technique, by analyzing the shape that your fretting hand fingers make. Observe the shape that the fingers of your fretting hand make and take note of the top finger of the chord.
Next, practice moving from one chord to the next. Play the notes that occur on the beat and ignore the other melody notes in that measure that occur off the beat. Always use the top finger of the next chord as a guide, and place that one first.
Once you have mastered playing the section as block chords, begin to add in the melody notes and other effects such as percussion.
Remember, when you draw a blank, move back a couple beats from where you stopped and start playing again. If you draw a blank once again, don't immediately look at the tabs. Instead, try to visualize the shape that your fingers are supposed to make, and place them down on the guitar neck.
Your next steps in your fingerstyle guitar journey may involve learning some songs or more advanced techniques.
