If you have a little experience as a flat-picking guitarist you have probably considered trying to learn some fingerstyle techniques. Finger picking is not difficult to learn as long as you are prepared to treat it as a new discipline and take it slowly.
Acoustic guitar finger picking is often taken up by guitarists who have been playing the guitar for a year or three who want to find out what finger picking can do for their playing. Sometimes a guitar player will make up his own finger picking techniques as an ad hoc measure to get a solo or accompaniment to sound good, but there's always the need to know the basic principles behind finger picking guitar styles.
There are many different finger picking techniques like classical, Travis Picking, chord melody and flamenco. One way to get into finger picking is to get hold of a book or DVD by one of the authorities on the subject. Mark Hanson is always mentioned as a great fingerstyle guitar player and teacher, as is Al Petteway. Pete Huttlinger has put out a info-packed DVD called Essential Exercises for Fingerstyle Guitar. Happy Traum also has a great deal of teaching material for fingerpickers on Homespun Tapes.
Unfortunately, no one finger picking style will give you a real introduction to all styles. Fortunately, you do not need to know a great range of playing styles to give you a general understanding of playing using the right hand fingers. As an example, a folk guitar player with some experience with finger picking patterns and scales will be able to play some pieces from the classical guitar repertoire but he won't necessarily sound much like a classical guitarist.
Some guitarists who have played using a plectrum are discouraged by the difficulty of trying to coordinate the thumb and fingers. The key to getting the fingers and thumb working as independent units is slow practice. Really slow. Put your metronome on a very low setting and play the bass notes of the chords, only adding an incidental note with the first finger when you are feeling confident.
Another question guitar players have about beginning finger picking guitar is on the choice of songs to learn. My advice is that there is no need to be too ambitious. Choose a song that is maybe a little below your technical standard and start with strumming the chords until you have the feel of playing along to the lyrics.
Once you have the general rhythm of the song, grab a finger picking pattern in the correct time signature from a guitar tutor or a free guitar lesson website and apply it to your song. The House Of The Rising Sun as played by The Animals is a good song for a beginner finger picking guitar player as is Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton. More Than Words by Extreme is another good, simple song, and when you are feeling more ambitious, go onto Stairway To Heaven. To give you a challenge for your left hand, look for tabs and YouTube video lessons on a classical guitar piece called The Anonymous Romance or Spanish Romance.
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