

Tip #4 – Break down your habitsĮvery player has a unique, personal set of habits, and knowing that you can control them might just make the difference needed for improving your fingerstyle technique. Working on your accuracy might take some time, but it's absolutely crucial for your fingerstyle technique.Ĭonsider practicing "melodic" parts as if they were standalone parts – pay attention to details, adjust your technique so that every single stroke is executed in organized, controlled fashion.

On the other hand, the melody parts involve more control and precision. As we’ve already mentioned, the thickest string should be played with your thumb, and you should try different variations before you decide how it’s best to achieve the optimal tone.įor instance, you could pop it like bass guitarists do, or you could gently graze it, but make sure to do it strongly enough so that it feels and sounds heavy and deep. Tip #3 – Accentuate the bassline and melody partsĮssentially, the bassline and melody song segments are vital, so being able to recognize them and accentuate them in turn will heavily improve your fingerstlye technique. Groove just happens to be one of its most important parts. Employing the use of fingerstyle technique means that you’re willing to put in an extra effort for the sake of better quality of your sound. If you’re asking “why is groove so important”, then the answer is quite simple. There are lots of variations with which you can improve your groove, and these are just some of the recommendations. Practice separate song segments if need be, slow the tempo down a bit, or even improvise for the sake of your groove. Generally, the songs which appeared easy might prove to be quite hard if you want to play things by the book. This leads us to another common mistake beginner fingerstyle guitarists make – getting “sloppy”. Basically, you’ll want to play familiar notes with the fingers you feel the most comfortable with, and practice your accuracy along the way. To do so, you have to work on the “groove”. The best way to stay “in tune” with your fingerstyle technique is to synchronize your fretting and picking hands. Consult “fingerstyle & fingerpicking tablature notation” for more information.

Professionals state that each finger has a specific role – for instance, the thumb should be used to play the bass notes on the E1 (the first, widest string), the ring finger should be used to play the G string, and so on. You’ll have to get accustomed to the gaps found between each string on your acoustic guitar, and the best way to do it is by using the fingers you’re “comfortable” with. Namely, your “picking hand” (if you’re a right-handed type of person, your right hand is the picking one) will be able to pluck a note or two after which confusion ensues almost without an exception. There’s a number of mistakes beginner fingerstyle guitarists tend to make, but most of them revolve around the guitarist rushing to grasp the technique without paying much heed to the obvious lack of skill.įirst of all, you don’t have to use all of your fingers straight away. Tip # 1 – Start off slow and easyįingerstyle is easy to try out, but difficult to master appropriately. Namely, it’s safe to assume that the “fingerstyle” technique is a bit more difficult than the standard pick method, as you’ll be using all of your fingers.īe it as it may, we’re here to simplify this playstyle and point out some of the most common mistakes so that you can get a hang of it more easily. That’s not the only reason why fingerstyle guitarists like this particular technique – a significant boost of control over the played notes is acquired, alas, at the expense of accuracy. Simply put, guitarists that use their fingers instead of picks produce notes that are characterized with substantially different tonal qualities when compared to the notes plucked with a guitar pick. 5 Tips For Improving Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle TechniqueĮssentially, the “fingerstyle” is a playing style that is held in high regard by a majority of acoustic guitar players.
