[Stratrat]

One of these days I'm going to start working on some "chick'n pickin'". I really enjoy country/western music, and that's a staple of the style.

[Kevin Bowling]

I swing both ways from time to time but, even when I'm flatpicking I do it in a hybrid style. I like to use a thumbpick occasionally too. My main guns are bare fingers/thumb though. Why? Because I feel like it gives me more control. I seem to feel how the guitar responds to my touch. The less there is between me and my strings, the better.

One more thing. I tend to have a lot of excess energy and I always seem to be doing something with my fingers anyway so, fingerstyle helps to keep all my digits busy.

Kevin

[Chaotic Kittie]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

I like to feel the strings under my fingers.

I second that. Though I can't get the grip of fingerpicking... yet.
I think flatpicking will always be my preference, because of the styles I'm into, but I'd really love to be able to fingerpick or at least do hybrid picking. There's so much you can do there that you can't do with a flatpick alone.

[6stringlady]

Fingerpicking........offers more control,
sometimes use a thumbpick though.

[Chris C]

Fingerpicking for me. Although 'thumb strumming' is probably actually what I do most of.

I think it started because I could play a lot quieter with my fingers than with a pick. And I preferred being quietly bad to loudly bad!

But I do find that, like Allthumbs, I like to feel the strings under my fingers. It also seems more versatile. I can use the fingers in quite a variety of combinations and styles. Apart from being able to pluck more than one string at once, or using patterns like Travis picking, you can get different effects depending on which part you use. For example by using the fleshy ball of your thumb or fingers, or the side of the thumbnail, or downstrumming with several fingernails at once with a curled hand, etc.

[knight46]

I can not control a pick and strum with fingers, I am not good at fingerpicking but prefer it to a pick.

[Baldy]

Just been doin it for forty years.loved Chet I guess.Bluegrass boys I hang out with aren't happy bout it though.So I been doin a lot of flatpickin last couple of years.

[blackcat]

flatpicking most of the time, but am trying ,and improving, fingerpicking, when i see,or hear, someone doing fingerpicking i just think it adds something.

[damian]

I prefer fingerpicking... it's more natural to me I'm practising the hybrid picking though

[mike123]

A lot of my picking is after the kids are in bed. When I use a pick I tend to be louder, so most of the time I use my fingers.

[cossack]

i prefer to fingerpick, i suppose because that is how i was playing my acoustic guitarbefore i got my resonator

[starsailor]

Originally Posted by Baldy

Just been doin it for forty years.loved Chet I guess.Bluegrass boys I hang out with aren't happy bout it though.So I been doin a lot of flatpickin last couple of years.

I voted fingerpicking as I've been practising that a lot lately, I'm currently trying to learn I am a man of constant sorrow, the Soggy Bottom boys version, I've got it down as alternate tuning in DADGAD with a capo on the third fret but I'm new to alternate tuning is it best to do it by ear or will an electronic tuner be ok, any tips will be appreciated.

Cheers

Chris

[cshude]

I found early on that fingerpicking was a lot easier for me than flatpicking- might be that playing the piano first just made finding the strings easier. Plus, I could never keep track of picks in my early days of playing.

Chris- if you do a search for Man of Constant Sorrow on ultimate-guitar.com you'll find a nice version of it in drop-D. Lot less fooling around with tuning. It's written as the acoustic version that Christopher Thomas King plays in the movie when they first record it. http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/..._power_tab.htm

[Dewy]

I tried... couldn't pick one... not a matter of "which I prefer"... but rather what does the song call for?

Probably started fingerpicking one day with a statement like "Where the hell is that pick?" Never looked back... although I found the pick, and lost it, and bought enough to fill a dumptruck since then.

[eddiez152]

I voted for finger picking. Tried flat pick, but it gets stuck between the strings.
Although I would like to do both. I use a thumb pick all the time.