How do I start learning fingerstyle guitar? Which one is the best fingerpicking exercises for beginners?
Whether you want to become the next Singha Jung or want to be able to play your favorite fingerpicking songs the beginning looks the same for every guitar player.
You need to start by learning the basic fingerpicking concepts that will take you from zero to fingerpicking hero.
In this fingerstyle lesson, I am going to show you eight great fingerpicking exercises that you should know.
As there is already a ton of basic fingerpicking stuff online, I decided I would try to give you more practical and musical exercises. I will also talk about useful resources and fingerpicking books you should check out.
In these 12 lessons we will cover:
- Learn where your fingers should be.
- Classical fingerpicking arpeggios.
- Fingerstyle chords.
- Common fingerpicking chord progressions.
- Fingerpicking scales.
- Simple fingerstyle melodies.
- Popular fingerstyle songs.
- Fingerpicking technique exercise
- Simple Spanish melody
1. Learn Where your Fingers Should Be
The very first step to getting started with fingerstyle technique is to learn the name of the fingers and how to position your right-hand correctly.
When you read the music score in this lesson, you will notice four letters written at the bottom of the tab. The letters are P i m a.
Pima stands for thumb, index, middle, and ring finger. These letters come from the Italian/Spanish language.
- Thumb = Pollice, letter “P.”
- Index = indice, letter “i”
- Middle = medio, letter “m”
- Ring = anulare, letter “a”
We don’t use the little finger to pluck the strings, even though some guitar players do.
If you want to learn how to pluck the strings correctly, there are three golden rules you should always follow.
- Rule 1. Keep the thumb in front of the finger and pluck the strings with the side of the fingertip.
- Rule 2. Pluck the strings with the index, middle, and ring finger with a 45-degree angle.
- Rule 3. Keep the right-hand on top of the sound hole for better tone and dynamics.
2. Classical Fingerpicking Arpeggios
One of the best ways to getting started with the fingerstyle technique is learning classical fingerpicking arpeggios.
Classical music is mostly played on the Classical guitar. As you probably know, Classical guitar players are well known for their advanced fingerpicking technique, speed, control, and musicality.
Classical guitar player practices a lot of fingerpicking patterns that allow them to achieve an impeccable and fluid technique.
An arpeggio is a right-hand pattern that repeats itself. Think about the P i m a pattern.
If you are just getting started with fingerpicking guitar, you should practice these four fingerpicking arpeggios from the Mauro Guiliani guitar method called 120 arpeggios for classical guitar.
Practice each arpeggio slowly and speed up as you improve.
Fingerpicking Arpeggio #1 – P i m a
In this very first fingerstyle guitar exercise we are going to learn the first pattern called P i m a which is indeed one of the most common fingerstyle patterns on guitar.
Because this is the very first arpeggio you are learning, I decided to keep the chords very simple.
You will be playing a C major and G7/B chord. The tempo is set at 80 bpm which is a reasonably slow speed if you play two notes per click.
The right-hand pattern is written below the guitar TAB.
Fingerpicking Arpeggio #2 – P i m a m i
The next fingerpicking pattern is six notes long, and it is called sextuplet.
A sextuplet has six notes per beat. If you struggle playing it with the metronome, start with three notes per beat.
The chord progression is different. We are going to play Am | C | Dm | E |.
I use my index finger as a reference to the first fret, and it helps me with the chord change a lot.
This is the first time you are plucking with the ring finger. Take it step-by-step.
Fingerpicking Arpeggio #3 – P/i – m/a
In this fingerpicking pattern, we are going to pluck the strings simultaneously with thumb and index followed by middle and ring.
This is a common fingerstyle pattern in classical music.
The chord progression is similar to the one we used in the first example.
Make sure you keep the right-hand close to the strings.
Fingerpicking Arpeggio #4 – P i m i a i m i
One of the most popular classical fingerpicking patterns played with a group of two sixteenth notes. Each group is four notes per beat.
The chord progression sounds very classical. Am | E | Am | E7 | Am | E | A |
3. Fingerstyle Chords
With fingerstyle guitar, we can transform simple chords into beautiful sounding chord progressions.
If you have been playing guitar for a while you probably already learned basic chords such as C major, A minor, D minor, E minor, G major, D major, etc. Most beginners only focus on strumming because it is a more straightforward way to get started with chords.
However, you can easily play all the chords you already learned in fingerstyle too.
How can you practice chords with the fingerpicking technique? Does fingerstyle make chords more challenging to play?
In this section, I am going to show you how to play simple fingerpicking chords and how to change chords quickly. Playing chords with fingerstyle will simplify the way you have been playing chords.
Let me show you five different chord exercises played with fingerpicking technique.
Fingerpicking Chord Exercise #1
We are going to work on a simple chord change such as C major and G major.
A lot of beginners struggle with this chord change because of the different chord shape.
With fingerstyle though chords become very simple to play.
The C major and G major chord look like this.
If you strum the chords, you have no choice but changing the C to the G as quickly as possible.
With fingerstyle though you can play one string at a time and make the chord progression very simple.
If you play the chords with the P i m a pattern, you can add one note at a time on the G chord as you perform the arpeggio. Also, you don’t have to play the full chord as you will only be plucking four strings.
Notice how the G major builds upon each round.
Let me show you a practical example.
Fingerpicking Chord Exercise #2
You can apply the same concept on all the chord progressions you struggle with the chord change.
When I first started the D major and B minor were always a struggle.
The chords look like this.
In this example, we are going to break down both chords.
So we will start by playing the bass note of each chord than add more notes as you progress.
4. Common Fingerpicking Chord Progressions
Some chord progressions never die.
Let me show you the most common fingerpicking chord progressions every beginner should know. The reasons why these progressions are so famous is because they are simple, beautiful and fun to play.
To make things more interesting, I also decided to show you how to play a few basic extended chords.
We are going to learn:
- Chord progression 1: Cadd9 | G | Am | Fadd9
- Chord progression 2: Gadd9 | Em7 | C | Dsus4
- Chord progression 3: Em9 | Dadd11 | Cadd9 | Dadd11
Chord Progression#1
Chord Progression#2
Chord Progression#3
5. Fingerpicking Scales
Scales are great for developing your fingerpicking technique.
Just like the classical arpeggios we learned earlier, scales are another powerful tool classical guitar players use a lot.
A scale is a progression of notes. The first note, called root, gives the name to the scale.
The most common music scales are Major scale, Minor scale, Harmonic minor scale, Melodic minor scale, Major Pentatonic scale, and Minor Pentatonic scale.
If you are a beginner fingerstyle guitar player, I highly recommend that you start practicing scales.
In this section, I am going to show you a couple of useful scales that every beginner should know.
#1 The C major scale
The notes of the C major scale are C D E F G A B C.
This scale (as well as any other scale) can be played in many different shapes and positions. This is possible because on the guitar the notes repeat on each string.
Let’s take a look at the note C for example. This note can be played in many different frets up and down the fretboard.
In this example, we are going to play the C major scale horizontally.
This is a great exercise not only for the fingerpicking technique but also for the left hand.
The fingerstyle pattern is i-m or m-i throughout.
Refer to the numbers next to the notes for the left-hand fingers. Number 1 is the index, 2 is the middle, 3 is the middle, and 4th is the little finger.
#2 The A Natural Minor Scale
The Natural minor scale is built on the 6th degree of the major scale. Because they are the same scale, they share the same notes.
The A Natural minor scale is the relative minor of C major. The notes are A B C D E F G A.
In this example, I am going to show you how to play an A minor scale
6. Simple Fingerstyle Melody
Beginners love melodies.
A great thing about fingerpicking technique is that it allows you to combine chords and melody. This is great for people who don’t want to sing but still want to play the theme of the song.
But how do you learn how to play a melody on guitar?
As always, we are going to approach everything step-by-step.
There are three music elements you must combine to create a fingerstyle melody. First, you need a melody. The second element is a chord progression. And last, but not least, you need rhythm.
How can we combine all these elements to create music?
This is step one.
How to Write a Melody
A melody is a progression of notes that sound good together. These notes come from the scale.
If, for example, I am writing a melody in A minor, I will have to refer to the notes of the A minor scale.
Let me show you the difference between scale and melody in the example below.
For the Melody in A minor, I also implemented different chords such as the F major, D minor, and G major. It is important to realize that we are only playing the root note of the chord (the bass note) and not the full chord.
This is a significant aspect of fingerpicking guitar, which is the ability to play the bass note of the chord with the thumb while the index, middle, and ring finger play the melody.
Melody #1 – Example on One String
In this example, we are going to learn a simple melodic pattern on the E string.
This is a straightforward way to get started with learning a melody because it is easier to determine the notes on one string first.
We are in E minor key. The notes we are going to use are E F# G A B C D E.
Melody #2 – Melody in One Position
Let’s try a fingerstyle melody in D major.
This time we are going to play the melody in one position only. The notes of the D major scale are D E F# G A B C# D.
The chord progression is D | Em |A7 | D |.
7. Popular Fingerstyle Songs
Fingerstyle technique has been around for a long time.
Over the years, a lot of songs and classical pieces have become the most popular songs to play with the fingerpicking technique.
Think about songs such as Spanish Romance and how you can easily recognize it after hearing just a few notes.
There are also a lot of modern songs such as Here Comes the Sun or Black Bird by the Beatles, Hotel California by the Eagles and More than Words by the Extreme.
All these songs are played with fingerstyle technique and inspired so many people. A lot of guitar players start playing guitar because of the one song that they love.
Let me give you a list of some of the most popular fingerstyle songs worth giving a try.
Classical guitar pieces:
- Spanish Romance – Anonimous
- Lagrima – Francisco Tarrega
- Malaguena – Ernesto Lecuona
- Asturias – Isaac Albeniz
- Studio in B minor – Fernando Sor
- Allegretto – Mauro Giuliani
Classical pieces rearranged for fingerstyle guitar:
- Fur Elise – Beethoven
- Four Seasons – Vivaldi
- Minuet in G – Bach
- Canon in D – Pachelbel
Modern fingerpicking songs:
- Don’t think twice; it’s alright – Bob Dylan
- Black Bird – Beatles
- The sound of silence – Simon & Garfunkel
- Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
- Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
8. Fingerpicking Technique Exercise
If you are serious about becoming a good fingerpicking guitar player, you should spend time practicing a few basic fingerpicking exercises.
For me, a fingerstyle exercise is a mechanical or symmetrical exercise that is designed to improve your technique, control, and speed.
Most of these exercises use repetitive patterns or numeric shapes. Think about the popular 1 2 3 4 exercises every guitar player play.
Let me show you my top five fingerpicking technique exercises and how to practice them.
#1 – Symmetrical Fingerstyle Exercises 1 2 3 4
This is one of the most popular exercises for both acoustic and electric guitar.
By plucking this symmetrical exercise, you will be able to improve not only your fingerpicking technique but also speed, control, tone, plucking, stretch, and dynamics.
I like to call it “The 1 2 3 4” exercise due to the numeric patterns involved.
The exercise is simple: Assign a finger to each number and come up with different finger combinations.
In this first example, I am going to show you the pattern 1 2 3 4 | 4 3 2 1. The exercise is played on one string, but it can be transposed easily.
2# Symmetrical Scale Pattern
Another popular fingerpicking exercise involves scale patterns up and down the fret.
A scale pattern is a set of notes from the scale that is repeated on two or three octaves.
The first pattern is played in alternate fingering i-m or m-i.
The second pattern is more stretchy and difficult to play. It can be hard on your tendons so, take it step-by-step.
Let’s Wrap This Up
Getting started with fingerstyle guitar is never simple. There are so many different techniques involved that it can be overwhelming and frustrating especially if you don’t know where to start.
In this article, you learned a lot about arpeggios, scales, fingerpicking patterns, and chord progressions that can be easily played.
When you learn something new, start slow. Learn one scale or pattern at a time if you have to.
Use a metronome to track your results and don’t be afraid to do your research.
I will be around on my social media so, don’t be afraid to ask questions if you need to.
Enjoy this lesson.
Marco.
