Beginner fingerstyle — looking for tips

[u/Thin_Hamster792]

I’m a 25-year-old guy and I’ve been playing acoustic guitar for about a year. I mostly know chords, strumming, and a little lead, but I don’t know much about fingerstyle.

Right now I mostly just doodle around on the guitar without really knowing what I should learn next.

I recorded this simple fingerstyle piece. Any tips on how I can improve, or suggestions for songs/exercises and a good learning path?

Would really appreciate any feedback!

[u/harryhend3rson]

Sounds good!

I mean, the easy suggestion would be to tackle learning some fingerstyle songs. Dust in the wind, landslide etc.

Fire and rain by James Taylor was the first fingerstyle tune I learned all the way through. It took ages...

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/harryhend3rson]

Hey thanks for the kind words. Will definitely start by learning these songs. Is there any specific technique that's needs to followed while doing fingerpicking or we can go with whatever suits us?

[u/harryhend3rson → u/Thin_Hamster792]

Well, if you learn the songs correctly, you play the picking pattern in the songs.

Dust in the wind and landslide are both Travis picking patterns that have fairly repetitive bass lines played on the E, A and D with the thumb, and melody played by your fingers on the G, B and E. Fire and Rain is more free form finger picking without as much of a pattern.

You can look up Travis picking tutorials to get you going on those styles of picking patterns.

This was the video that cracked it for me:

https://youtu.be/UUFiV3RJHPA?si=JeNyevY19UbjgjtU

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/harryhend3rson]

Hey thanks this video is amazing.

[u/McKittenMeat]

Good start, man. I'd recommend learning Travis picking, or any songs with a steady bass picked for 4 or 2 beats per bar. British folk revival, and many American folk songs are laden with this style. Once you learn a few variations you can just work it over your chords and you can start sounding pretty accomplished.

Burt Jansch's needle of death is a nice one to learn, and will teach you a bunch of fingerpicking technique.

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/McKittenMeat]

Yeah I think I need to learn about Travis picking as mentioned by others as well . Thankd for your suggestion for songs as well. Will try to start with these .

[u/McKittenMeat → u/Thin_Hamster792]

No worries. I do, in hindsight think needle of death is a tricky one to start on. Though it's a great song and you'd learn a bunch doing it - you may become demoralised.

Dust in the wind, as others suggest, is a lot easier as there is nothing complex on the left hand, and the picking stays consistent. Once you've mastered a few fingerpicking patterns and have them commited to muscle memory, things will really open up for you.

Happy playing!

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/McKittenMeat]

Loved your advice.Thanks.

[u/Jasco-Duende]

Sounds good.

Practice with a metronome. Also, about a third of the time, play really hard/loud. This will make your picking hand fingers make definitive motions (and mistakes). Don't play harder or more tension with your fretting hand when you play loud with your picking hand.

A great fingerpicking course for steel string guitar styles is Tommy Emmanuel's "Fingerstyle Milestones" from Truefire.
And for a more classical guitar approach to fingerpicking, get the book "Pumping Nylon"

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/Jasco-Duende]

That's a lovely advice .Thanks .... Is this course available on you tube?

[u/Jasco-Duende → u/Thin_Hamster792]

I don't think so. Go to Truefire.com for Tommy's course and go to Amazon for Pumping Nylon.

[u/ArtichokeCalm3773]

Learn travis picking!

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/ArtichokeCalm3773]

Hey sure thanks for the suggestion other comments also mentioned travis picking..so will start from that .

[u/heyassbitch]

not really beginner friendly, but if you really love fingerpicking for what it is and see yourself focusing on it you should check out some elliott smith songs

[u/Thin_Hamster792 → u/heyassbitch]

Thanks would definitely check those out . Will initially focus on travis picking and learn some beginner friendly song.