What is Fingerstyle Guitar, and is It Good for a Beginner?

Have you ever heard one guitar player on an acoustic guitar sound like they were playing 2 or 3 guitars at once? You may have heard a bass line playing and above that a melody and maybe a harmony. It may have seemed impossible the first time you saw it or heard it. Or, you may have heard music like this and never realized it was one guitarists.

Fingerstyle guitar employs some of the techniques of classical guitar (please don’t think that classical is too technical, there are many easy pieces for a beginner), and banjo playing (though stylistically sounding very different). We’ll talk more about what Fingerstyle guitar is in a moment, but first here’s what it’s not.

Fingerstyle Guitar is Not…

• It’s not about strumming chords (for some of you this may be a big relief)
• It’s not necessarily complicated or difficult, but it can be
• It’s not limited to any particular style
• It’s not usually improvised, but can be
• It’s not played with a pick
• It’s not really appropriate to play on an electric guitar, but it has been done

Fingerstyle Guitar is…

And here’s what Fingerstyle guitar is or can be:

• It can be rhythmic and melodic at once (at it’s best)
• It can be used to play many styles of music (see below)
• It can be very powerful and driving, or it can be elegant and beautiful
• It is always a ton of fun

So, instead of strumming and plucking with a pick, your right hand will be plucking the strings with all of the fingers independently. Often in fingerstyle guitar the thumb will play an alternating bass pattern. Imagine: bump-bamp-bump-bamp, over and over while the other fingers play the melody. Together the it sounds like rhythm and lead playing at once, much like a pianist would play rhythm with the left hand and melody with the right.

Limitations Be Damned!

Are you limited to bump-bamp-bump-bamp? No way. This is just simple example. In reality playing basic fingerstyle guitar doesn’t necessarily require any additional skills in the left hand, if you’re currently comfortable with fingering basic chords, and for the right hand this is a third skill, it’s not strumming, and it’s not plucking out strings with a pick. Imagine each of your right hand fingers assigned to a string.

Sure, it takes coordination at first but it’s just a different kind of coordination; it’s not much more difficult than learning to hold and pluck carefully with a pick. In fact if you’re having trouble holding a pick, find yourself dropping it in the sound hole often, place it down to get up for a minute and then can’t find it ever again (I’m so guilty of this), or if you really don’t like the feel of that inorganic little plastic pest in your hand, then you’ll probably be right at home with the natural feel of fingerpicking and may even find it rather easy for your right hand.

You’ll find fingerstyle guitar to be rewarding. Sounding like a one man band can impress your friends and family. Even simple fingerstyle songs have a magic to them.

Update: Please visit back shortly because I’ll be posting a very cool YouTube video tour of different fingerstyle guitarists and styles that you won’t want to miss. Also, if you’re interested in classical guitar I’ll be showing you the key differences between classical guitar playing and fingerstyle guitar playing. In some ways they are very similar, but the differences are important to know.

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