This month we begin a series of lessons
that focus on developing fingerstyle
chops. Whether you’re comping jazzy harmony,
plucking snappy blues riffs, creating
harp-like runs by alternating open strings
and fretted notes, wailing on slide guitar,
frailing modal licks over drone strings,
thumping out Travis-style alternating bass,
or adding sparkle to your chordal passages
with artificial harmonics, having a strong
fingerpicking technique opens the door to
a world of sounds and textures you simply
can’t get using only a flatpick.
In the fingerstyle world, variations in
hand position and wrist angle abound, and
in this series we’ll look at some of the essential
techniques and discuss how they work
and when they’re most appropriate. And
everything we cover will apply to both acoustic
and electric guitar, so you’ll get maximum
mileage from your efforts. Ready to roll up
your sleeves and get to work? Cool, let’s go!
Many fingerstyle guitarists have created
powerful and enduring music using only
their picking-hand thumb, index, and middle
fingers. This is especially true of steel-string
players: Traditional country and folk
blues, old-school ragtime, and Travis-style
thumbpicking are some examples of genres
that rely on a three-finger technique. If
you have any doubts as to just how far you
can take this approach, just listen to a hot
Scruggs-style banjo player, Dobro picker, or
pedal-steel guitarist. Typically, they’ll all be
using a three-digit attack.
However, classical and flamenco guitarists
have always used a four-finger picking
technique—thumb, index, middle, and
ring—and this allows them to approach
the guitar as a miniature orchestra. A four-finger
attack is essential to nylon-string
Brazilian guitar, as well. Laurindo Almeida,
Oscar Castro-Neves, Baden Powell, and
Charlie Byrd are among those who merged
the supple rhythms and wistful harmonies
of Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto
with a rigorous classical technique. (For an
in-depth look at classical right-hand technique,
check
out “Classical Nitro,” our interview with
Matt Palmer in the October 2011 issue.)
But the four-finger technique has not
been the exclusive property of nylon-string
players. In an effort to make the steel-string
electric sound more like a piano, such fingerstyle
jazz-guitar wizards as George Van
Eps, Jimmy Wyble, Ted Greene, Lenny
Breau, Martin Taylor, and Tuck Andress
have all embraced the four-digit approach.
And let‘s not forget Chet Atkins: By adding
the ring finger to Merle Travis’ steamroller
technique, he created an entire genre of
“thumbpick” guitar that’s equal parts country,
pop, and jazz.
If you want to develop orchestral fingerstyle
chops—which you can apply to
rock, jazz, country, and blues—it’s essential
to gain control of your picking-hand ring
finger, the weakling of the bunch. So we’ll
begin our odyssey by playing pattern-based
arpeggios that include the ring finger and
require it to perform alongside its stronger
siblings.
Fig. 1 shows a simple bluesy figure
based on an E7 arpeggio. Don’t freak out
over the waves of 16th-notes—just play this
passage very slowly and it will sound great.
or download example audio...
You’ll notice
p–i–m–a markings in the
music. These are abbreviations used by
classical guitarists to indicate pickinghand
fingering. The letters come from the
Spanish words for thumb (
pulgar), index
(
indice), middle (
medio), and ring (
anular)
fingers. When practicing the exercises in
this lesson, it’s important to adhere to these
notated fingerings.
For variety, develop your own drills
using ascending
p–i–m–a arpeggios. Keep
the fretting-hand part simple and listen
carefully to the volume of each note. Strive
for an even, ringing sound with a uniform
attack on each string.
The next step is to incorporate descending
arpeggios into the mix, as in
Fig. 2. We
also break up the rhythm just a bit, add an
alternating bass, and—this is an important
move—introduce a squeeze between the
thumb and ring finger, which happens on
the downbeat of each measure. Again, watch
the
p–i–m–a markings and also check out
the subtle B to D move on the 2nd string
in measure 3 (Em7). After several passes
through this phrase, craft a few variations of
your own, using a similar descending and
ascending picking pattern that incorporates
a
p–a squeeze and an alternating
p bass.
or download example audio...
So far, our well-mannered examples
have used rhythmic patterns that repeat
in every measure. Sometimes fingerpicking
is like that—a pattern cycles again and
again. But fortunately, music isn’t always
that tidy. When rhythms vary, you need to
have enough control over your fingers that
they’ll respond to your commands.
Fig.
3 is designed to break up any predictable
patterns, so your fingers can’t fall back on
muscle memory to execute each measure.
Such “freestyle” fingerpicking takes practice,
but can yield big dividends in your music.
As with the previous examples, once you’ve
got the hang of this, develop similar exercises
of your own.
or download example audio...
Now that all four fingers are warmed up,
it’s time to tackle a basic tremolo exercise.
In
Fig. 4, the ring, middle, and index fingers
play three notes against each quarter-note
thumbstroke. Here we have a descending
bass line against the rippling melody,
but you can also flip this passage around
and ascend on the bass. Try it.
or download example audio...
Next month, we’ll look at another aspect
of fingerstyle technique—developing
fretting-finger independence. See you then.
Andy Ellis is a veteran guitar journalist
and Senior Editor at
PG. Based
in Nashville, Andy backs singer-songwriters
on the baritone guitar, and also
hosts
The Guitar Show, a weekly on-air
and online broadcast. For the schedule,
links to the stations’ streams, archived audio
interviews with inspiring players, and more,
visit
theguitarshow.com.