When you are learning to play guitar, you will usually choose whether you wish to learn to play fingerstyle or with a guitar pick. For many years, there was a distinct split between guitarists and bass guitarists, in that the former would be played with a pick and the latter fingerstyle.

However, the lines between when to play with a guitar pick and fingerstyle have become increasingly blurred through the years. While fingerstyle guitar is typically used to describe the playing of the guitar with the fingers, it is also its own unique genre of music, as evidenced by the popularity of the likes of Andy McKee and Don Ross.

To watch these successful fingerstyle guitar players, it is easy to get intimidated and think that you would find it very difficult to learn how to do this for yourself. Here are some tips to help you get started, whether you want to play guitar with your fingers or become a true fingerstyle guitarist.

Commit to Practicing

It is possible to become a self-taught fingerstyle guitarist, but you should commit to practicing for at least an hour a day. On top of this, if you can secure some private tutoring for yourself, even if it is just with someone who isn’t an official teacher but can play guitar to a reasonable standard, you will see some benefits.

Here are some ideas that will help you to get started, too.

Playing Your Guitar

The important thing to remember when you’re looking to play fingerstyle guitar is that you need to be set up to play each string individually. Many make the mistake of believing they merely need to strum all the strings at once. This is fine if you’re generally planning on playing chords only, but it isn’t going to help if you want to become a true fingerstyle guitar player.

It is best to set yourself up to play the sixth, fifth, and fourth strings with your thumb, index finger for third, middle finger for second, and ring finger for first. You should also set up so that you can use the palm/base of your hand to mute the strings when you need to. You can use your little finger if you want or if it feels more comfortable, but it is generally redundant.

Starting to Practice

When you start to practice, look to keep it simple. Begin by playing the strings with your left hand free, before gradually starting to play in different tunes.

A good way to get used to playing with the thumb and fingers simultaneously is to play 6-123 as a sequence repeatedly, followed by 5-123 and 4-123, before you start to mix it up some more.

Using YouTube

We mentioned McKee and Ross earlier, but there is a huge number of fingerstyle guitarists you can watch on YouTube as a means of getting inspiration and understanding how they play. Many have their own YouTube tutorials, too, which could be a great resource for yourself when you’re starting out with learning fingerstyle guitar.