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Fingerstyle

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.

Finger Style Guitar Tutorials

Getting Started

  1. Basic Songs

Fingerstyle Guitar Technique

Travis Picking

      1. What Is Travis Picking
      2. What Is Syncopation
      3. Travis Picking In Detail

Slack Key

      1. What is Slack Key?
      2. Slack Key In Use

Percussive Fingerstyle

    1. What Is It?
    2. Percussive Fingerstyle In Use

More Fingerstyle

Slack Key

“Desperado” fingerstyle exercise

“Fire And Rain” by James Taylor

Finger Picking Tab

In Power Tab format. You can open these files with the power-tab editor. You can download it at this site:

http://www.power-tab.net

Chet Atkins (hard)

Classical

Blues

Flamenco

New Age

Rock

Basic Finger Picking Exercises

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Popular Finger Picking Songs

Musette by Bach

Imagine by Chet Atkins

Dust In The Wind by Kansas Intro

Dust In The Wind Verse

Stairway To Heaven by Led Zepplin

With Arms Wide Open by Creed