[wombat]

Hi everyone,
I found this site tonight and I was very excited to find some plain english fingerpicking tips. I'm very, very new to guitar, and know nothing about music. However, I love the sound of songs that are fingerpicked. The first song I learned was a very easy version of Scarborough Fair and I love to play it over and over. However, I'd really like to expand my repetoir and learn a few new songs. More than that, I'd like to actually understand what I'm doing.

I've picked up a few books on learning to fingerpick, but they all seem to assume that you already know the chords and how to strum songs before you want to learn to fingerpick. I don't know those things, do I need to figure them out first? I have a very hard time getting the rythym (gosh, I can't even spell it!) right when I try to strum a song, but I can hear the song perfectly when I pick it. Therefore, it's not very reinforcing to try to strum songs and learn them that way.

I'd love some guidance of where to find more lessons in fingerpicking, and what I need to know to understand the books, etc.

I really really want to learn to play this way, but so far all I've gotten is my friends teasing me for buying a guitar that I never play. I'd appreciate any help you can offer!

Thanks!
Michele
wombat125@hotmail.com

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi wombat. You must be an Aussie with a handle like that.

Learn chords. Period. Chords are everything in music, they really are the most important structures and rule setters in any piece of music. Scales are the raw ingredients, the bricks, but chords are the constructs. They actually make music out of the scale notes.

Every chord can be fingerpicked. That really is the essence of fingerpicking: picking a chord's notes separately in a rhythmic pattern, so the more you learn about chords and where to find them, the more you'll be learning about fingerpicking, in a round about way.

I will be adding to these pages, and more finger picking patterns are on the list. Meantime, though, experiment as much as you can with your own variations. Remember, there is no wrong or right in this kind of thing. If it sounds good to your ear, then it has validity. Work on what YOU like the sound of. Music is simply organized noise; your own taste will lead you on to your eventual "sound".

[hello]

Finger picking is a playing technique where the fingers are used to pluck the strings instead of a guitar pick. This lesson will cover some tips for finger picking.
When reading music that uses finger picking, you may see the term "PIMA" or the initials P, I, M or A used. PIMA is an acrostic for the thumb and the first three fingers of the right hand. This is often used to indicate which fingers to use in picking.

These letters are abbreviations of Spanish words which are:Finger Pickin'