Taking the above into consideration, and studying the picture carefully, get your right hand into the correct position for fingerstyle guitar playing.
The pinky can be used, and is in styles like flamenco, but in general fingerstyle guitar playing it usually isn’t. When playing fingerstyle guitar, you primarily use the thumb (p), index (i), middle (m), and ring (a) fingers of your right hand to pluck the strings.
Refer to the picture on the right throughout to get a clearer idea of this as it is crucial to having a great fingerstyle technique. Your forearm should be resting lightly on the top side of the guitar as it normally does when you are playing. They go from being at about a 45 degree angle to the strings, when using a flat pick, to more of a 90 degree angle when playing fingerstyle. The reason for this is that it gives you more power when plucking the strings with your fingers. When playing fingerstyle guitar, the wrist of your right hand needs to be higher above the strings than it is when you are using a pick. I will refer to it as the right throughout this lesson. The technique of fingerstyle guitar is all in your right hand, or if you are a left handed guitarist, your left hand. This will then make it much easier for you to play songs that use this style of guitar playing. The aim of this lesson is to save you loads of time from the outset, and get you on your way to a great fingerstyle technique. There are so many amazing things you can do with this style of guitar playing that you simply cannot do with a pick alone.Īs with any guitar technique, there are right ways and wrong ways you can go about it. This is commonly known as fingerstyle guitar playing.
Fingerstyle Guitar Technique - How To Play Fingerstyle GuitarĪ great way to play your acoustic guitar is to use the fingers of your picking hand in place of a pick.