With folk fingerstyle, the general advice seems to be to use the third finger on the 6th string, second finger on the 5th and first finger on the 4th, with the thumb playing the bottom 3 strings.
In blues fingerstyle, there is a lot more playing with thumb and first finger only, or using the first and second fingers across multiple strings.
I was wondering whether there is a technical reason that this it the general starting point - e.g. certain patterns of notes that tend to occur more with one style or the other, or rhythm features etc. I get that its possible to make it work either way and maybe just do what’s most comfortable - just wondering if there is some underlying technical basis for one way versus the other that helps decide what’s going to give the best consistency for a particular piece.
Hey more experienced players, is “do whatever is easiest” the answer? I’m still trying to sort out when to play fingerstyle with the thumb and three fingers and when to play with just the thumb and mostly one finger. Maybe it’s just keep playing until you settle on what works well.
No set rules but remember that strings are number from 1 t 6 thinnest to thickest. So if sticking to a more traditional approach thumb plays 6 5 4, index 3, middle 2 and ring 1.
Unless you’re Justin Johnson who frequently picks with all 5 fingers.
I’ve found fast triplets easier to play with my first finger, rather than combinations of fingers or only the middle finger. Perhaps this example and similar “what’s easier” choices drive this difference?
In my limited exposure to classical guitar, two fingers play the same string during some runs. So there’s other possibilities too . Guitar is endlessly fascinating…
My approach so far is - try what Justin recommends for a while, then adapt if needed.
My exposure to playing the two styles is limited. But things seem a little more rigid when you’re playing repetitive patterns. Kinda makes some sense here. When you’re playing patterns like this, oftentimes you’re also singing so the point of the pattern is that you can play on autopilot and focus on more things at once.
And far less so when you’re playing melody lines or improv or whatever. And definitely agree about what I’ve seen of classical guitar and some other fingerstyle types (that are well beyond me) - they’re quite flexible with what each individual finger does at any given moment. Seems far less common to be trying to sing at the same time as doing some of this more complex stuff (and you’ll see commonly in blues where the singing alternates with the more complex playing).
Hi Sajid, I am playing a lot of fingerstile (all sorts) and have so for years and I was also told about this general advice to have the thumb control the three thickest strings and then one finger each for the three thinner strings. Over time I have come to see this as counterproductive. It helps you at the start of learning to fingerpick when you are sorting out how to control your fingers and when you have to spend a lot of time to go through repetitions of rigid patterns to build the muscle memory.
Once you are over the initial bumps (say a couple of months - depending on how committed you are to it) this general advice becomes more of a blocker than a helper and I would move away from it. Not just for comfort but also musical reasons. Yes, exercising your ring finger is a good idea, but if the key melody notes sit on the thinnest string then you should play the melody with a strong finger (index or middle), not your weakest one. As for the thumb it’s more important that it plays the key down beats of a bar to drive the rhythm and when the note for the 3rd beat of a bar is on a G or B string, then that’s where my thumb goes.
Just as questionable is the view that “blues fingerstile” should be played just with thumb and index finger, even though that’s what a lot of well known players are doing. But most of us are not Eric Clapton so you can get proficient quicker by using thumb+index+middle and not just thumb+index and you’ll most likely create a better sound, too.
Thanks Molly, that was a sensible explanation. I seeing how, once you have picking patterns you like to play into muscle memory, then you can focus on things like speed, transition notes, chord melodies, dynamics, etc. in your finger work. Endless possibilities…
Hi Molly, thanks for that great reply that makes a lot of sense to me, particularly around practical considerations like using strong fingers to play the melody and thinking about the downbeats.
Good to know why certain things feel better than using the “standard” when learning new pieces.
. Guitar is endlessly fascinating…