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Fingerstyle Guitar Tip 1
Fingerstyle guitar began with classical guitar style. Folk and
rock music spawned new fingerstyle guitar heroes and techniques. In this tip, learn
the basic technique and notation for playing fingerstyle guitar.
Fingerstyle Guitar Basics
Hand position
Fingerstyle is the act of plucking the guitar strings using a combination
of the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers. In order to play
fingerstyle correctly, the player needs to use the proper right-hand
position.
The guitar player's right hand should almost look as if he is holding
a baseball bat. The only exception is that the thumb should be straight
and pointing away from the hand.
Fingerstyle Guitar Technique
In order to pluck the guitar string, do not move the entire finger. Move
only the top half of the finger from the large knuckle to the finger
tip. When plucking with the thumb, however, the entire thumb moves.
When you first start with the fingerstyle technique, the fingernails
should be short and neatly clipped. Once you are more comfortable
with fingerstyle guitar, you can try grooming the nails a little
longer so that you pluck with the finger nail.
fingerstyle notation
The right fingers are abbreviated this way:
p=thumb
i=index
m=middle
a=annular (ring)
Now that you know the basic finger position and finger notation,
let's start with a basic fingerstyle exercise.
Fingerstyle Exercise 1
You need to know the G chord (below) for this exercise.
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- Don't move the hand
- notes should be at equal volume
- keep desired hand position while picking
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Fingerstyle Exercise 2
You need to know the C chord (below) for this exercise.
After you feel comfortable, try these exercises with the metronome
slowly. Also, try playing G, C, G, C, etc..
HAVE FUN AND LOOK FOR A NEW TIP
EACH WEEK!
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