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Uncle Bob's Guitar Lessons
Lesson 8 - Finger-Picking
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Learning Finger-Picking

Finger-picking is, quite literally, an art. Similar to when you are using a pick and choosing a strumming pattern, there a great many things to consider when finger-picking. For example, how many fingers on your right hand are required to play are particular passage? Should you use an alternating bass pattern with your thumb? Which style should you use? (e.g. Classical, Flamenco, American Finger-style, etc.)

All of these create a number of options that you need to consider. The best way to approach this is to get started with some simple patterns and try to adapt them to songs that you already know or are currently working on.

A few great books that I would recommend for learning finger-picking are:

• For Classical:
  • "Pumping Nylon" by Scott Tennant
• For Finger Style:
  • "The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking" by Mark Hanson
  • "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking" by Mark Hanson
  • (The truth is, probably anything by Mark Hanson will probably be great.)