Lets dissect these guitar fingerpicking techniques a little bit, to give you some insight to my style.
The Index Fingernail Pick
You’ll see a lot of this in the video. There are some real benefits to the techniques involved in using a pick and I definitely didn’t want to lose these (right hand muting, alternate picking, pinch harmonics etc).
I compromised by holding my index and thumb together as though I was holding a pick, however I play the string with my index finger nail. I find that I can do pretty much anything that I was able with a pick, just with this one technique.
(Well, apart from maybe scraping the pick down the strings, – that tends to leave grooves in the nails!)
Hybrid Picking
This is identical to hybrid picking with a flatpick.
Double Stop Picking
This is slightly different to the above. I hold my index and thumb together as before, however I put my middle finger on top of my index finger. This way I can play 2 strings simultaneously with up and down strokes.
Give it a go, you’ll find it sounds different to just following through 2 strings with your index finger nail, or pick.
Alternating Index and Middle Fingers
This is the staple of fingerstyle bass players, as well as classical and flamenco guitarists. There are 2 different techniques that can be applied here. These are called “Tirando” or free stroke and “Apoyando” or rest stroke.
Tirando (free stroke)
With this technique you play the target string with your finger and do not touch any other string afterwards. Of the two, this is the most natural way of playing.
Apoyando (rest stroke)
With this technique, you play the target string with your finger, and allow it to follow through, coming to rest on the next string down. This is a much more powerful way of playing and you can get significantly more volume using this technique on an acoustic instrument.
Both techniques have their place and both have their own unique sound.
Finger Flicking
Instead of playing the target string by pulling your finger towards you, you can flick your finger straight, and hit the string with the back of your nail.
You can alternate down and upstrokes like this, though I tend to use this for the sound it creates.
Also, interestingly you can create pinch harmonics like this, by catching the string with the fleshy part of your finger as it rolls off your nail.
Tremolo
You’ll see I use a lot of this over the faster passages. This is a great way of picking very fast passages effortlessly (though obviously it’ll take a bit of practice to acquire the technique).
The Tremolo technique I use is derived from the Classical and Flamenco techniques. Basically I roll through my thumb, ring, middle and index fingers over and over again as I move through the run (I go into much more detail, and include exercises here).
As you develop this technique, you’ll find that you have a great control over the timing of the run as thumb will be striking one note in four so 1/16th notes are easy to time and maintain.
Continue reading about these techniques here…
Let me know if this is useful to you, feel free to add a comment if you have any questions.
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