

The terms “classical” and “fingerstyle” are sometimes used to refer to different things.Ĭlassical might describe the style of the guitar, the style of the music, or the technique used to play classical music.

Fingerstyle is a standard technique on the classical or nylon string guitar, but is considered more of a specialized technique on steel string guitars. Some fingerpicking guitarists also intersperse percussive tapping along (Tommy Emanuel!) with the melody, chords and bass line. Often, the guitarist will play the melody notes with the melody’s accompanying chords and the bass line simultaneously, which can make for some beautiful and complex-sounding music.

Music arranged for finger style playing might include chords, arpeggios, artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off notes with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively (by tapping rhythms on the body), and many other techniques.

#Fingerstyle guitar how to
There’s something very cool about letting the guitar “sing” and accompany itself at the same time! If you like this kind of thing you’re probably a fan of Mark Knopfler, Chet Atkins, Les Paul and the great Tommy Emmanuel… and if you want to learn how to do it a bit for yourself, I’m happy to help. I have always enjoyed the idea of playing chords and single notes at the same time, and a lot of my own compositions seem to gravitate toward that kind of playing. The terms “finger style” and “fingerpicking” also applied to other string instruments such as the banjo or ukulele. Fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. F inger-style guitar playing is common in several different styles of music but employs completely different technique than most players use, especially for the guitarist’s picking/plucking hand. Any tune you want to play can be done picking the melody and accompaniment right out of the chord shapes with finger style guitar!įinger style guitar is a technique where the guitar strings are plucked directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to plucking individual notes or strumming with a pick (flat-picking). If you’re past simple strumming and picking, you might try finger-style guitar.
