Tune-up

If your guitar playing consists mostly of strumming or playing single notes with a pick, it may be time to try another way to play. Picking the strings with your individual fingers and your thumb rather than with a flatpick is known as fingerpicking or fingerstyle. The great country blues guitarists were nearly all fingerpickers, while singer-songwriters and pop stars like James Taylor, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Suzanne Vega all use their fingers to create the interesting sounds that audiences love.

We'll start our foray into fingerpicking by assigning the thumb and fingers to particular strings and use this idea to learn some basic patterns. Then we'll learn how to switch between the various chords of a song while keeping the same fingerpicking pattern going.

Getting into Position

Let's start with a D chord. For our first pattern, we're going to use the index, middle, and ring fingers along with the thumb. Here's how these fingers are indicated in the notation:

p = thumb

i = index

m = middle

a = ring

"But wait," you say. "Thumb starts with a t, not a p. And ring starts with an r, not an a. What's all this p, i, m, a stuff about?" Well, it comes from classical guitar notation, where p stands for pulgar, i stands for indice, m stands for medio, and a stands for anular (the Spanish words for thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger). It takes a little getting used to, but this is how picking-hand fingerings are often indicated.

To start, rest your thumb on the fourth string, your index finger on the third string, your middle finger on the second string, and your ring finger on the first string.

Got that? Now, look at your fingers and thumb. You want to have your thumb about an inch closer to the fingerboard than your fingers, and your fingers should be somewhat curled up, without too big an arch to your wrist.

If your fingers and thumb are all bunched together, try sliding your thumb along the strings toward the fingerboard as you slide your fingers back toward the bridge.

Each finger is assigned to a particular string.

Your thumb should be closer to the fingerboard, and your fingers should be slightly curled.

For now, your fingers are assigned to these strings: you're always going to use your thumb for the fourth string, index for the third, middle for the second string, and ring for the first string. To get used to this, lift your fingers from the strings as a group, then drop them back down onto the strings again.

OK, now that you've gotten your fingers identified with the strings they're going to play, lift your hand up so your fingertips are hovering maybe half an inch above the strings. That's where you want to keep your hand when you play; if you leave your fingers resting on the strings, you'll keep those strings from ringing out.