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Fingerpicking - what's that?
An Introduction with Examples.

There have been several attempts to define the term “fingerpicking”. A layman could interpret it as a way of playing guitar with the fingers of the right hand instead of strumming it with a flatpick. But this would include the different kinds of playing guitar like classical pieces or flamenco.  Annother definition I once read said, that fingerpicking meant playing guitar with the fingers of the right hand in a way that there is a bass accompaniment (played with the thumb) and treble lines or chords (played with the fingers of the right hand) where the bass accompaniment and the treble move independently. Well, this would include classical pieces too. You just have to remember the “Bourre” of Bach. There seems to be something special with what is called “fingerpicking”. I would describe it as

1. A way to play the guitar with the fingers of the right hand
2. including bass lines and treble lines or chords that move independently
3. Usually (but not necessarily) played on steelstring guitars
4. with some typical elements such as a bass line playing constant quarters or eighths as a backing and syncopations of the treble

As all attempts to define something that’s called a “style” the definition given above sucks in a way. All definitions are usually too narrow for a phenomenon as colourful and rich as music. There is a huge number of great guitarists. Many of them play styles that have elements of fingerstyle (as defined above) but are different on the other hand.

Fingerstyle can be utilized as song accompaniment. This way it often only contains dissectioned chords. In my opinion this was one of the first purposes of fingerstyle playing: Getting a smoother more delicate accompaniment for singing. But already a “simple” fingerstyle containing fractioned chords has those elements like an alternating bass line and syncopated treble or – in other words – bass and treble moving independently.  But in a way it is annother way of playing chords using one or more “picking patterns”. Guitarists like the early Sam McGee, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore (and so many more) contributed to the development of that style away from playing patterns. There are pieces that contain bass lines played with the thumb of the right hand and treble melody lines played with the fingers of high complexity and, judged from any point of view, highest difficulty.

How do I get into Fingerstyle ?

1. Guitars, The way to hold the guitar, your right hand and the sad story about wear and tear of fingernails:

 a) Guitars

For I always used to play on steelsting guitars, I'm gonna describe what has turned out to be useful and OK for me, playing steelstring guitars. My first guitar was a Hoefner 12-string. I admit that I used it as a 6-string most of the time. Nevertheless: There are some significant differences between the nylonstring guitar and the steelstring that have led to some deviations on how to hold the guitar and appropriate ways to hold and use the right hand. 

Most of the steelstring guitars have the "Dreadnought" shape that was developed by the C.F. Martin company in the beginning of the 20th century. Steelstring guitars - wether Dreadnought or not - usually have a far bigger body than classical guitars (following the "Torres" model of the 1860s). Annother point is that the necks of most steelstrings have it's joint to the body at the 14th fret, while the joint of classical guitar's necks is at the 12th fret. Necks of steelsting guitars are narrower than the ones of classical guitars on most steelstring guitars. Fretboard width at the nut usually measures 45 mm, developing up to 52-55 mm at the 12th fret. Steelstring fretboards are more or less convex, while classical fretboards use to be plain. And last but not least: Steelstring guitars are strung up with steel strings with the low E, A, D and G strings wound with bronze wire.

 b) This affects the way the player holds the guitar

 The classical way to hold the guitar - resting the guitar on the left upper leg - done with a dreadnought would lead to a situation where the player could hardly reach the lowest frets. 

This doesn't work well, so I use to hold the guitar on my left leg. The classical player lifts the neck of his instrument until the headstock has app. shoulder height or even higher. This also is not very good when the guitar rests on the player's left leg. So the neck of a steelstring usually remains level or with the neck slightly downwards. I must admit there are players holding the steelstring (even dreadnought size) in a way, a classical player would hold his guitar (Jack Lawrence for instance), but I think they are an exception from the rule.

Classical player's way to hold the instrument Drawing by RB 2002 Show image maximum size	Steelstringer's way to hold the instrument Drawing by RB 2002 Show image maximum size
c) The position of the right hand The result up front: When I play guitar, my right hand's position differs from the ideal of a classical guitar player or teacher. The classical player's right hand should almost rest at an angle of 90 degrees to the strings. With the guitar turned around by lifting the neck, this is not much of an effort. The nail of the right thumb has a position that it can be utilized for striking the bass notes. As I said above, I do it annother way and - as I could observe  - many other players too, for several reasons: It begins with the leveled position of the instrument's neck and strings. Annother reason is the big body of the steelstring guitar. Holding the hand in a natural and not artificially bowed and crooked way, the fingers and the hand show an angle of about 45 degrees to the strings. If I would use the nail of my right thumb to pluck the bass notes, I would have to turn the thumb backwards. So I started playing the bass strings with the left front  edge of my thumb.	Classical ideal: almost 90 degrees
	Ragtime-wise: Somewhere between 110-130 degrees

Sub topic: Rest some part of the right hand on the sondboard or not
With a position of the right hand such as described above it looks just natural to many players, to rest some part of the right hand on the guitar top. I used (and still do) to do this for many years. I rested the palm of my left thumb somewhere between soundhole and bridge. Some players rest the pinky somewhere under the soundhole. If the hand is moved over the bass strings close to the bridge a nice and driving muting effect can be achieved. Some pieces, especially ragtime or blues sound more driving and clearer this way. Besides that there is no special reason to rest the right hand on the guitar. I used to do it because an "anchored" hand gave me some point of reference that made it easier to hit the strings more accurate. At least I believed that. I tried the method with the pinky too but it didn't work for me. This shows that everybody should try wether it is better to rest some part of the right hand on the guitar or not and how to do it. My ability to play did not suffer anyway doing it and there still are parts I can't play without resting my right hand on the guitar. But I am getting over this more and more for a certain reason: I recognized that my guitars produce a louder and better tone without my right hand rested. This seems quite plain to me: The right hand can work like a muffler, if pressed or seated on the soundboard, thus influencing the vibration of the top. 

d) Thumb work or how I got into using a thumbpick
The style of music called "fingerpicking" brings challenging work for the thumb. If the thumb ought to pick alternating bass notes this can turn out to be annoying when playing fast pieces. The thumb has to pick eigths or sixteenth notes and there might be many of them to be played in due course. There are people who can do this with the bare thumb. I tend to get an electrified feeling in the part of my thumb that gets into contact with the strings. The only remedy I could think of, is the thumbpick.

As it can be seen, those rings are constructed to match the position and direction of the right hand in an ideal way. Exactly at the spot the thumb would hit the strings, there is a strong fin. There's no more electrified feeling and the tone of the picked string is way clearer and (If needed) louder. My recommendation: Get yourself a thumbpick and get used to it. They are not expansive and every retailer of musical instruments carrys them. There are different sizes, styles, forms and materials. Some are made of plastic, some of tin.  Thumbpicks are great for carter picking too (alternating bass notes and bass lines are picked with a thumb and the treble strings get kind of brushed with the fingers). The intro and accompanyment of my recording "Traveller Theme" is played that way.

Nevertheless: Playing slow pieces I slip out of my thumbpick every now and then. The tone of the thumb is softer, less stiff and less dominant wich can be desirable sometimes. Additionally there is no typical thumbpick sidenoise, that "clickede-clack"-kind of noise. All of these effects suit some slow pieces better. It's almost like switching from an electric bass to an upright double-bass. An Example: "The Water is Wide"  was played with the bare thumb, and this is well audible, I think.  

e) Fingernails
Fingernails are a topic guitar players often discuss, classical players and steelstring fanatics alike. Even those  classical smoth-string-fretters holler: "How do I get my fingernails harder" and things like that. The steelstringer has even got a harder job. Some nights I played intensively my fingernails virtually got shred down to the fingertips. I belong to the lucky that own a hard nail on their index finger, and this is good, because I use it for the work other people take a flatpick for. But the other two nails often leave much too early. I have five remedy methods:

aa   Remedy 1: Fingerpicks - I slip my fingers into Indian sitar fingerpicks. They are made of wire and they are the only picks I can play without any need to get used to them. They felt comfortable from the first moment  I used them. The market offers a variety of other fingerpicks from the same manufacurers producing  thumbpicks made of plastic or tin. Once there was a time I was able to play with those picks, even when they were made of tin but this is a long time ago. I believe everyone has to try and to play around a little bit to see what is best for him. One thing is for sure: Don't give up too fast. The first time with picks can make an experienced player feel as if he had never played before. But it may only take one day or two to get used to picks and to benefit from its advantages. One disadvantage is the sidenoise, most of the fingerpicks tend to produce. Especially those sitar-nails cause the wound strings to utter "scrrpp scrrpp scrpp" every time the finger plucks a wound string. 

bb Remedy 2: Artificial Fingernails, glued onto the grown nails with cyan acrylate glue. A friend of mine had one of his nails repaired this way and I said to myself: Why not give it a try. It works absolutely fine. The feeling is very natural and the tone of the picked strings is fine. Well as I told, he got it made by professionals, I got my nails and glue at the mart and did it myself. It worked, but people started looking at my right hand with compassion and one woman asked me what kind of accident had hurt my hand that bad. There's no need for me to carry on this way because I got a new source for indian sitar fingerpicks at the moment, so I went back to remedy aa. The artificial nails used to last for between three up to four weeks before they dropped to the floor without saying goodbye. Be careful while handling cyan acrylate glue. Read and mind the information given on the package!

cc Remedy 3: Strenghten the nails with a mixture of cyan acrylate glue and baking soda. I heard about this method from different sources and tried it. It seems to me as if it works and it is easier to do than method bb. A small amount of cyan acrylate is applied to the upper front of the fingernail from side to side. After that the nail is dipped into baking soda, wich has to be the filler. The procedure can be repeated. The mixture builds up a whitish layer that almost doubles the thickness of the nail. This will slow down the wear. Be careful while handling cyan acrylate glue. Read and mind the information given on the package!

dd Remedy 4: Playing without nails. As said before, some people do this, for instance the famous Leo Kottke to name one. He said in an interview, that he had been using picks the earlyer days. At those times, he said, he observed players who managed to play with the bare fingers jealously because he thought they had a broader bandwidth of expression. Some players hit the strings with the fingertips AND the (short) nails. I believe, that everyone has to see what's most comfortable for him. The only dogma is that there is no dogma.

2.       Playing

a) Patterns
Before I tell anything about patterns I will say this in advance: Patterns may be a good start into fingerstyle playing. One reason may be that patterns can be understood as fixed procedures of movement and those are more esasily learnt. The player who wants to play a chord progression in a complex and at the same time rhytmic and comact way, might find it satisfying to remain with patterns and to develop a growing pattern vocabulary. But if you want to play fingerstyle solo, patterns should be looked at as a transitional state of ability. Then there should be efforts made from the beginning, not to get stuck too much with patterns. When an  ability to play some patterns is achieved, try to play something with an independent melody line over an accompanyment on the bass strings. The style of playing this can be developed out of that pattern playing. I will try to give some examples later.

My perspective at the level I could play 1973 was: “That kind of picking must be annother way to play chords”. So I listened to fingerstyle players and tried to learn their way to pick with the right hand. I focused the right hand and thought, the left hand would have to do the same job as before. I understood from what I heard that there was an alternating bass and treble notes picked in a way that produced that exiting drive and sonority. And the first two lessons I learnt were:

1. Even understood only as “playing chords in a different manner” fingerstyle forced me to play the treble notes independently and
   
2. The first level of independence is on a rhytmical basis: Treble notes get syncopated.

After I had this in mind I sat several afternoons, fretting G, C and D, trying to keep my thumb playing an alternating bass. First there was an urge to move the fingers the same time I moved my thumb. I got over this by playing treble only every second beat. This was my first picking pattern: Pattern 1 Keep in mind that the alternating bass notes (the ones with the stem downwards) have to be played with the thumb and the other ones (stems up) with the fingers.  

As soon as I could play this I tried to syncopate the treble notes. If the first treble note in a measure is held a bit longer so that the second one has to be played between beat three and four you got the key. I still remember the day I tried and all if a sudden it worked by itself. Years later I read in a book “Advanced Country Guitar – Albert Lee”: “It may take some time to coordinate both voices but once you lock into the groove, the pattern will fall into place.” This describes the process perfectly. Never give up until “the pattern falls into place”.

Ok, here’s the next step: A pattern with elongated first treble note and a second treble note that fills the gap between beat three and beat four: Pattern 2

The patterns 2, 3 and 4 already provide nice tools for song accompaniment. The ability to play these patterns could and should be developed into combining different patterns or even mixing them within one measure. How this can be done, using the same chords and the picking patterns given above, I want to show with Example 5. It uses the patterns 1 (first measure), 2, (second measure), 3 (third measure) and 4 (fourth measure). As you may hear, it already sounds a lot more alive and interesting than just using one pattern through a whole piece.

What kind of pattern would form a nice folk context, like let's say "The Boxer" ? This is not as difficult as it seemed to me first (way back in the 70s). There is only a little difference to the examples 1 thru 5: All the examples show patterns that ar complete units within one measure. There is only one little step into the typical "folk-roll" pattern. If the bass notes are constant quarters and the high notes are quarters too, but delayed by 1/8 there you are: Example 6. This kind of roll was and still is widely used as accompaniment. The first measures remind to "The Boxer" by Simon & Garfunkel wich is not very surprising because Paul Simon uses a similar technique.

If you want to see more, step over to the next chapter by clickling the link below: 

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