[McNasty7]

I don't know where or how to post a question, so excuse me if this is in the wrong forum or thread or whatever. I just have a few questions:

1. I enroled in a "beginner guitar course" at my college, but it says in parenthesis flamenco. What is falmenco?

2. I'm above all most interested in fingerpicking, and in Kurt's lessons- even the easy ones- I don't really understand which finger hits which string. Am I correct in assuming that the thumb generally hits the top 3 strings (E,A,D), and the index plucks the G; the middle finger plucks the B, and the ring finger plucks the last?

3. Lastly, I have several guitar chord books and posters, and I've seen the "A" chord shown 2 ways: either leading with the index finger on the D string second fret, or not using the index, and instead using the ring finger and also using the pinky. Which is right?
Also, the "F" chord is confusing. Do I span two strings with the index, or do a kind of barre chord?

If anyone could help, that'd be great!

[allthumbs]

1. Flamenco is a Spanish guitar style. Finger picking with strumming. Very precise finger patterns.
2. That is correct if it is the most comfortable way for you to do it. Nothing is written in stone for guitar playing. Go through the basics here.
Brand new to playing the guitar?...read this first.
Brand new to playing the guitar?...read this first. - Guitar For Beginners & Beyond Forum
3. There are many ways to finger the same chord. It depends on your comfort level as well as where you are moving to next in a musical passage.

[Matty22]

1) Flamenco is a style of guitar playing, its that kinda spanish sound (i think its spanish)

2) I use whatever fingers fit where i need them to be. But my picking sucks. I think the basic moral of the story is to do what feels right and achieves what you want to achieve. The general idea is Thumb plays EAD and the index middle and ring play the GBE strings.

3) Chords can be fingered in a ton of different ways. After you have been playing for a while you'll find different ways to play all the chords.
Barre chords are tricky and take a lot of practise to get them smooth. Basically you play an F as
Index finger barring 1st fret E BE
Pinky or Ring on A string 3rd fret
Pinky or ring on D string 3rd fret
Middle on G string 2nd fret.

depending on where im going to/coming from, it gets played either way. Same goes with a Bmin.