Some folks are inspired to learn guitar to strum and sing easy guitar songs for friends around the camp fire. Others people want to become blazing fast bluegrass players. Yet others are attracted to the solo guitar playing of people like Chet Atkins, Tommy Emmanuel, Pierre Bensusan, and Andy Mckee. Its this last category i want to talk about.
Playing non classical music with your fingers on guitar is often referred to as fingerpicking or fingerstyle guitar. It can encompass alot of different types of music. Country, blues, celtic, and contemporary styles are just a few of the examples.
Alot of professionals take different approaches to picking with the right hand, or the left hand if you play a guitar left handed. Some use their bare fingers, some a thumbpick with bare fingers, others use their nails, and some a fingerpick on each finger. Lets look at the options.
Some players pick entirely with bare fingers. This approach can be tough at first as your fingertips will need to build up callouses. You don’t get as much volume this way, but the tone can be nice, warm and round due to all the skin contact with the string. Plus there is the added advantage of no finger picks to mess with or nails to worry about. Just pick up your guitar and play.
Alot of players will use a thumbpick in conjunction with bare fingers. Guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel plays this way. The thumb pick gives extra volume and drive, especially when playing in an alternating bass style. The thing you have to be careful when playing like this is that the thumbpick on the bass strings does not overpower the bare fingers on the treble strings. Be mindful about developing an even attack between the thumb and fingers.
Another way to fingerpick involves a thumbpick but also picks on the index, middle, and ring fingers. Some players will pick with the index and middle fingers and thumb only. Finger picks are made out of brass or steel and usually sit on the underside of the finger. Some newer models are made of plastic and slip over the top of the fingernail, such as the Alaska Pik. You generally get more volume with fingerpicks and can dig in harder than with bare fingers or nails. The downside is that they may take some getting used to, and its takes practice to get rid of scraping sound the picks will produce against the wound strings. Plus if you dont have your picks you may not be able to play as effectively.
The final way that people play fingerstyle guitar is with a combination of flesh and nail. The nail may be natural or an acrylic one that is glued over the existing nail. The string contacts the flesh of the fingertip first, then slides along the fingernail. The flesh provides warmth and fatness of tone, and fingernail gives it crispness and volume. Depending on your hand position when you play, you may have to experiment with the shape of the nail so that the string glides effortlessly off it, without any bumps or snags. Most players will use a diamond nail file, followed by a series of nail buffers till it is as smooth as glass. As far as nail shape many players will follow the classical guitar example and file the nail in a ramp shape, with the lowest point of the ramp being where the string first contacts the nail.
Playing with nails is often pretty easy to get used to, and offers a nice warm tone but with volume and brightness as well. Plus your picks are always on you. The downside is that maintaining the correct nail shape takes daily attention, and if you break a nail you might be out of playing for a few days. Some folks whose nails are to thin will have acrylic overlays applied. The cure very hard and offer great volume and tone. Your natural nail underneath will become very thin, so if you decide to have the acrylics removed it may be a few weeks before the natural nail is thick enough for fingerpicking.
So those are your options when it comes to fingerpicking guitar. The quest for the ideal tone and attack is a long process, so try out some of these different approaches, and see what works for you.
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I really like the style and layout of this page? Would you tell me which wordpress design your using or is that this some thing one has developed from scratch?
This is a nice summary of the possibilities open to fingerpicking guitarists. It’s good that you gave some advice on playing using the fingernails.