[adamlong]

Fingerpicking or fingerstyle is awesome. There are a few things to take into consideration when trying to learn how to fingerpick or play fingerstyle:

First: starting out you should learn how to stay relaxed while you play, this will help you keep your fingers loose and. This will allow you to be more fluid and actually faster in the long run. It'll also help reduce the risk of problems with your wrist later on.

Second: Realize that you have 5 fingers with which to work. And they can go in both directions. So you have to work and PRACTICE towards finger independence. Now your ring finger and your pinky share the same muscle so they will never be completely independent of each other but you can develop them in that direction. Regarding the practice, it's all fine and good, especially at the beginning to learn tunes and stuff because you want to be able to play something. But in your practice make sure you do exercises that don't take into account melody. Practice mechanics. This site has some great articles and lessons to help you with that. I have written some stuff on my site as well, I'll put a link below to it.

Third: As far as right hand mechanics, think about right hand position (try to keep your wrist straight, not crooked or clawlike) and right hand attack, practice alternate picking between your thumb and index, then thmb and middle, then thumb and ring, then index and middle, then index and ring, and so on and so forth. Try to strike through the string with movement from the large joint of the finger and the hand, not the middle finger joint.

If you want a lot more info on this go to my site: