Classical and folk
Nylon- and steel-string guitar played with the fingers, with arpeggios, alternating bass, open tunings and several voices at once.
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Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Nylon- and steel-string guitar played with the fingers, with arpeggios, alternating bass, open tunings and several voices at once.
Applied
The classical guitar uses nylon strings and is played with the fingers of the picking hand. Its repertoire runs from the Renaissance and Baroque to today, through the great composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Folk gathers popular traditions from many countries; on guitar it's tied to the steel-string acoustic, open chords, the capo and open tunings. Both share something essential: a single guitar plays bass, harmony and melody at once.
A fingerpicked arpeggio on Am: the thumb plays the bass and the index, middle and ring fingers play the treble strings:
A folk-style alternating bass on C: the thumb rocks between two bass strings while the fingers add treble notes in between:
In classical notation the picking-hand fingers are called p (thumb), i (index), m (middle) and a (ring). Usually the thumb takes the sixth, fifth and fourth strings, and each finger one of the treble strings:
String 6, Open: E2 · 5 · Fifth
Open tunings are very common in folk. Try DADGAD and listen to the open strings ringing under the chords:
DADGAD tuning Open G tuning Fingering & coordinationFinger independenceFour-finger permutations that make each finger move on its own.Classical guitar:
Folk:
Play only the alternating bass with your thumb for a minute without stopping. Then add a treble note on the offbeat of beat 2, then on the offbeat of 4 as well. The thumb shouldn't hesitate when the fingers change. That's the principle of folk fingerstyle as Traum describes it.
On classical guitar you think like a small ensemble: the top voice sings, the bass moves in its own line and the inner voices fill in. Noad suggests studying each voice separately before putting them together, making sure a long bass note isn't cut off while you play the melody. Reading notation helps you see those voices.