Fingerstyle – Guitar Alliance

Fingerstyle Guitar

Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, finger-nails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (picking individual notes with a single plectrum called a flatpick) or strumming all the strings of the instrument in chords.

The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking. Music arranged for fingerstyle playing can include chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques.

Physically, “Fingerstyle” refers to using each of the right (or left) hand fingers independently in order to play the multiple parts of a musical arrangement that would normally be played by several band members. Bass, harmonic accompaniment, melody, and percussion can all be played simultaneously when playing Fingerstyle.