Fingerstyle
Playing with the fingers of your picking hand; p-i-m-a names, arpeggios, rest and free strokes, and alternating bass.
Applied
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Playing with the fingers of your picking hand; p-i-m-a names, arpeggios, rest and free strokes, and alternating bass.
Applied
In fingerstyle you pluck the strings with your fingers instead of a pick. Each finger looks after one or more strings, so you can play a bass line, an accompaniment and a melody at the same time. It's the foundation of classical guitar and much of folk.
A C chord played note by note, from the bass up, then all four notes together:
The picking-hand fingers have traditional letter names: p (thumb), i (index), m (middle) and a (ring). The thumb handles the bass strings (6th, 5th and 4th) and the fingers take the 3rd, 2nd and 1st.
Step 1 of 4 · p
String 5, Fret 3: C3 · 1 · Root
Repeat the p-i-m-a pattern on each chord of a simple progression. The picking hand stays the same; only the thumb's string changes to match each chord's bass:
Rhythm & accompanimentChord changesChange chords on time, without pauses, inside the pulse. Metronome in sixteenths at 70 BPMIn alternating-bass style (popular in folk and country as Travis picking), the thumb alternates between two bass strings in steady quarter notes while the fingers pluck high notes in between. Over C, the thumb can alternate between the 5th string at fret 3 and the 4th string at fret 2. First automate the thumb alone; then add a high note on the offbeats.
In a rest stroke (apoyando) the finger plucks the string and comes to rest on the neighbouring string: it sounds fuller and is used to bring out a melody. In a free stroke (tirando) the finger passes over the neighbouring string without touching it: other strings keep ringing, so it's the usual choice for arpeggios. Build independence between thumb and fingers with patterns where they don't coincide, and alternate i-m on scales so you never repeat the same finger.