You don’t Need the Ring Finger …

HERE’S THE PROOF!

Hey guys, welcome to another fingerpicking guitar lesson. Today I want to show you this four strings fingerpicking pattern played with three fingers only. In fact, we are going to pluck the strings with the thumb, index and middle finger only leaving out the ring.

I can hear the question already … “How can we pluck four strings with three finger only?”

The answer is simple “We are going to play two strings with the thumb”.

This is a trick that I use a lot especially when I want to add more rhythm to what I play. Bouncing with the thumb on two strings really change the rhythmic feel of what you are playing. We could play the same picking pattern with the ring finger but trust me, it wouldn’t sound the same (at least rhythmically).

Enjoy the lesson then and let me know if you like it 🙂

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The Video

The Fingerpicking Pattern

In this lesson we are going to completely ignore the ring finger.

Now, I come from classical guitar so I am used to use the ring finger all the time and when I first tried this new approach with the thumb it wasn’t feeling natural at all. The thing is, once you are used to plucking the strings with the ring, your brain will automatically assign this finger to the strings when necessary.

Today though we are going to explore a different plucking pattern which will definitely open up new rhythmic possibilities.

The plucking pattern goes as follow: Thumb, thumb, middle, index, thumb and index (P P m i P i ).

Chord Progression

Another think you should learn before you start practicing this piece of music is the chord progression.

One of the main characteristic of this fingerpicking lesson is that each chord has different voicing. For example, the first G major chord starts as G major than changes into C/G and back to G major. This transitions are necessary if you want to give more dynamic to the chords.

The chord progression goes as follows:

Section 1: G – G/B – G – G – G/B – G D/F#
Em – Em6 – Em – Em – Em6 – Em D
C – Em – D

Phrases Between Chords

One of the most challenging aspect of this lesson is the phrases between chords. You will have to spend a little bit of time working on each phrase before you move on to the next one. Those phrases add a lot of musicality to each chord and they are really beautiful to play.

About Fingerpicking Technique

Fingerpicking guitar or fingerstyle guitar in a unique way of playing guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingernails as opposed to the strumming or solo guitar where you play the strings with a pick.

One of the most amazing thing about fingerpicking guitar is that we can combine chords, melodies, rhythm and other elements such has hammer on, pull of, slide and tapping in everything we play. Most of the time you will play a melody with the chords and bass combined simultaneously. There are also many examples of guitar players only playing chords or just playing a melody using the fingerstyle technique.

There are also other techniques such as tapping and percussive guitar but honestly I am not a huge fan of this type of playing.

There is a lot of material that you can watch to learn more about the fingerpicking technique on YouTube.