If you’re past simple strumming and picking, you might try finger-style guitar. Any tune you want to play can be done picking the melody and accompaniment right out of the chord shapes with finger style guitar!
Finger 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). Finger-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. Fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. The terms “finger style” and “fingerpicking” also applied to other string instruments such as the banjo or ukulele.
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. 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.
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. 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. Some fingerpicking guitarists also intersperse percussive tapping along (Tommy Emanuel!) with the melody, chords and bass line. Fingerstyle is a standard technique on the classical or nylon string guitar, but is considered more of a specialized technique on steel string guitars. Fingerpicking is less common on electric guitar. The timbre of fingerpicked notes is described as resulting in a more piano-like sound; I have heard it sound like also a flute other wind instrument. The possibilities with fingerstyle guitar are simply limitless.
If you’d like to try fingerstyle technique, reach out. Based on our conversation, we’ll choose a tune and tailor your lessons specifically to your interests and playing level! Contact me
How does this work exactly?
You’re probably interested in playing a particular song. I’ll break it down into manageable sections* and we tackle it one piece at a time – at a comfortable speed for you. During the online lesson I’ll help you figure out any parts you’re having trouble with. Split screen video show both hands and my face, so you can hear and see just what I’m doing. I will record any video you might find helpful and post it up to YouTube after the lesson.
* how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!