Better fingerpicking

Put down your pick and give your chord playing a new lease of life with TG’s fingerstyle workout

Fingerstyle is a fantastically useful technique, which you can use in all manner of styles, from acoustic folk and country to Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler-style expressive lead guitar. We’re looking at the former approach here, with picking patterns that you can adapt to fit other chord shapes.

The first example this month is a simple arpeggio using the thumb to pick the fourth string and three fingers playing the top three strings. This is a good place to start as it will give you a feel for which fingers are already strong and which ones are weak. With repetition over time your fingers will become more independent.

The following examples will help you develop independence of movement in your fingers, allowing you to play simultaneous bass and melody lines similar to the likes of Chet Atkins or Ben Howard. Generally, your thumb will pick the three bass strings and your first, second and third fingers will play the third, second and first strings respectively.