I am fairly new to fingerstyle guitar. i was wondering if there was base patterns for different strums that is usually followed? i am having difficulty knowing how to do it in general. Taking a church hymn book does the music written in the book kind of show you what strings to pick? is there a way of finger picking the guitar by music or do you basicly only have tabs to follow on this? for instance a hymn book has bass, tenor, alto and saporano. i know the melody of the song follow the saprano notes but does the harmony for fingerstyle follow the other notes?
Hi Walt,
Your harmony in fingerstyle would generally follow what's in the book.
What's your musical background, if you don't mind my asking? Are you coming to the guitar from, say, piano? If we have some context, it might help us help you. 8)
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
The guitar is the only instrument I play. I am a rhythm player mostly with little experience in lead. I understand basic music theory as in chord formulas, chord progressions, major and minor scales and the chords that form them, key signatures, basic modulation, just the basics in theory. I would love to play fingerstyle guitar but honestly don't know where to begin. I play traditional gospel hymns mostly. I am the only player and just accompany singers. The only music heard is what I make. I am looking to add more than just chord strums with a few fills. Don't know where to begin.
Here is a lesson right here on GN that is a great intro into the concepts...
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/house-of-the-rising-sun/
Im sure there are many others also, but that looks like a good jumping off point.
Paul B
guitarwalt,
Hi! I was where you are a little over a year ago, both in musical knowledge and strumming. I don't pretend to be an expert, but will share some things that really helped me when it felt really awkward. One was to just start with the thumb playing the bass note and one finger playing the 5th note, simply alternate on the beat. The other is to start real slow and easy say do an E5 chord with thumb plucking the open "e" 6th string and then the middle finger plucking the open 2nd "b" string. Could do the same for A5 with the thumb on the "a" 5th string and ring finger on the 1st "e" string. Set aside a few minutes a day to practice at first. Get that down then work your way up to fretting, then more fingers. The trick is to burn one pattern at a time into muscle memory, then you will pick without thinking about it. If you PM me I can give you a book recommendation.
Andy
While there is strumming in finger-style guitar, the style is such so that you are playing individual notes and not just strumming chords. While you can always study Giuliani's 120 Right Hand Studies, there are 8 main patterns that I focus on with my students when they are learning finger-style:
PIMA
PIAM
PMIA
PMAI
PAIM
PAMI
PIMAMI
PIMIAIMI
P=Thumb I=Index M=Middle A=Ring
To just focus on the right hand, you can play these patterns with an open E Minor chord.
There's also plenty of videos online of proper finger motion and music for finger-style. I recommend these classical guitar lessons.
