How to Play Guitar: Fingerstyle Basics

Let us talk about some of the basics here to prepare you for finger style. First of all, the first thing to remember is the thumb is King in all kinds of fingers to handle a guitar. Your thumb is what is going to keep time for you. A good finger picker does not need to fast. He does not need to be fancy, he needs to have a steady thumb. So, let us talk about what is going to make your thumb more pronounced.

First of all, I would suggest using a thumb pick. They make all styles of thumb picks. I use something called a Fred Kelly Slick Pick. They come in various sizes and shapes but they are great because they fit snugly on your thumb. Some thumb picks have these weird little appendages that make it tough to actually go and hit single notes. But with this, you can be picking along and getting this wonderful pronounced base line. [music playing]. Turn it around and grab it like a regular flat pick and go [music playing]. So, you got the best of both worlds.

So, it is not mandatory but I would strongly suggest using a thumb pick of some sort. As I said, Fred Kelly Slick Picks, I think are the best.

Now, let us talk about your right hand because if you have been a pick style guitar player up until now, you never really had to think about these fingers. In classical style playing, they use the entire right hand. We are going to concentrate on using your thumb, your index and your middle finger.

First thing to do is to get your right hand situated comfortably. What I usually do is that I place my hand on the bridge, then I anchor using my pinkie on the body of the guitar. And then – okay, I am playing a C chord here – your thumb is on the fifth string. Index finger is on the third string and your middle finger is on the second string. And, what I want you to do is just grab the chord like this [demonstration]. Notice how with my right hand, when I pulled away, I did not like [demonstration] like that. You want to keep your fingers close to the strings because that is going to keep you more accurate and just make things easier overall. So, try that again, thumb on the fifth string, index on the third, middle on the second and go like that [demonstration. Try that a few times and see how that feels.

And once again, there are variations on these. Some people do not anchor using their pinkie but try to kind of anchor your right hand comfortably.


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