I'm often asked what type of time frame will it take to learn a particular style of guitar playing and while it's hard to accurately generalize there are a number of basic universal principals that each player should be aware and once they are understood the player will notice rapid progress in their guitar playing.
My three top tips for learning to play finger picking guitar
How To Guitar
Tip 1. - Picking patterns: When a non-guitar player watches a person playing finger style guitar they are usually astounded at how the guitarist can remember where to place their left hand fingers and which notes to pluck with their right hand; of course what they don't understand is that quite often the guitar player is simply playing standard finger style patterns with their picking hand; if you did not know this you would definitely think the player was a genius.
Here are the most common right hand picking patterns that every guitarist should know; in the following examples T = thumb; numbers = fingers of the right hand.
Essentially the thumb plays the bass note on either the fourth, fifth or sixth string depending on the chord being played.
Here is a table that will help you work out your bass notes; the first letter is the chord name and the number represents which string is to be played.
A = 5
B = 5
C = 5
D = 4
E = 6
F = 4
G = 6
The remaining right hand fingers play the strings as follows regardless of which chord is being played.
1st finger = third string
2nd finger = second string
3rd finger = first string
One bar in 3/4 = T 1 2 3 2 1
One bar in 4/4 = T 1 2 1 3 1 2 1
Tip 2 - chord progressions:
Once you have your picking patterns under control the next trick is to learn the common chord progressions that songwriters use.
I'll include some of the standard progressions everyone should learn how to play and recognize 'by ear'.
The following progressions are all presented in the key of 'G'.
Example 1.
G ///| C /// | G /// | D /// ||
Example 2.
G ///| Em /// | C /// | D /// ||
Example 3.
G ///| Em /// | Am /// | D /// ||
Example 4.
G ///| Bm /// | C /// | D /// ||
Example 5.
G ///| Bm /// | Am /// | D /// ||
Tip 3 - Bass lines: Strong bass lines are the backbone of your songs they can strengthen and add an element of surprise to even the most dreary chord progression.
If you are a singer/guitarist or play solo guitar it's always a great idea to re-think the chord progressions and create a powerful bass line that will support your vocals or chord/melody playing.
The best way to start developing your bass lines is to use the notes from the scale that your song is written in; in this instance we are in the key of 'G'.
G scale = G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G
Let's say we want to write a bass line for our first chord progression one way we could re-think the progression is like this:
Original progression...
G ///| C /// | G /// | D /// ||
Same progression with new bass part in the first bar.
G / G/B /| C / / / | G / / / | D / / / ||
My first bar is now played as: two beats on 'G' chord and two beats on 'G' chord with a 'B' bass.
I've used the 'B' as a bass note leading to the 'C' chord this works because the 'B' note is already present in the 'G' chord and is also in the 'G' scale plus it creates a sense of musical tension and expectancy when moving to the 'C' chord.
Bonus tip - reference library: Most importantly don't forget to listen to the best players for ideas and inspiration; players like Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed and Tommy Emmanuel are always fun to
listen to while you take a break from practicing your guitar.
How Long Does it Take to Play Finger Picking Guitar?