Tonefiend Forum

If fingerpicking anything feels awkward, I would start from square one.

Take a look at your right hand technique. Is your hand relaxed and your fingers in a natural curl? Classical guitarists will insist that you:

- initiate the movement from your knuckles (the joint where your fingers meet your palm)

- keep the first joint in your fingers relaxed and loose, so that when you pluck a string, it has the same relaxed movement of a paintbrush stroke

While there are exceptions to these rules depending on the sound you want and the style of music you're playing, they're a good starting point. Too much unnecessary tension will make any technique feel awkward.

Next, I would just practice arpeggiating chords, using one finger per string. Old finger picking warhorses like "House of the Rising Sun" are good, but really you can use the chords to any song. Like anything, go slowly and focus more on accuracy than speed.

After that, try chords with different combinations of fingerpicking patterns. Play two in a chord strings at once. The intro to "Stairway to Heaven" - as cliche as it is for a guitarist to practice - requires you to hit the top and bottom note of the chord at the same time in order to sound right.

I would also strongly recommend learning how to Travis pick (also called alternating bass or playing with a dead-thumb). I don't know what kind of music you play... if you play only technical death metal, it probably won't be that useful to you. But Travis picking is such an integral part of American music (as well as a lot of African guitar playing and for players like Joseph Spence) that learning it well can open a lot of doors for you.

My book of choice for learning this is "The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking" by Mark Hanson. Very student friendly, starts out very easy and gradually builds in difficulty until you're playing fairly complicated pieces. And getting all those patterns down will be a real finger picking workout.

Also, if you're playing with a pick, try experimenting with hybrid picking. It may feel a little awkward at first, but mastering it allows you to play certain ideas that would be either very difficult or impossible with a pick alone.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.

Great subject. And as a classical player turned non-classical player, I second a lot of what Dasein says. 🙂

Classical exercises are great — and I've been wanting to do a modern adaptation of Guiliani's 120 arpeggio studies with tab and alternate chord progressions. (You'll find them in many classical guitar books, including Scott Tenant's superb Pumping Nylon.)

But you don't necessarily want to apply only classical technique, because it neglects many important alternatives, like picking with your little finger, or playing individual notes with downward strokes. Also, classical technique emphasizes the ability to play equally strongly with all digits, whereas most folk-based styles rely on the naturally greater strength of the thumb and index finger.

Those of you that didn't notice - Joe published Fingerstyle Boot Camp on the front page.

Thanks Joe!