Fingerstyle Guitar Tips

 

Hey, what’s up, guys. Today I feel I want to share with you a fingerstyle secret. This is a lesson that my old teacher gave me when I was a kid. I struggled a lot with fingerstyle guitar, so he gave me these three exercises that changed my life. Today I am going to share them with you. Just a couple of things before we start.

• 1 – Make sure you play “Safe”: I say that all the time, please, make sure you stop immediately if you feel pain or a burning feeling in your wrist, fingers, or forearm.

There is a pattern you can follow that will undoubtedly improve your fingerstyle guitar technique. I have been there! I was struggling a lot with this technique. Today I am going to give three killing exercises that are going to improve your fingerstyle technique instantly. Your right hand will improve faster, gain accuracy, and feel more natural than ever. You have to commit, though. You can’t improve your technique if you don’t practice hard.

The right hand’s thumb is the first thing you need to improve if you want to become great with fingerstyle. I am going to give you one exercise you must practice every day for five minutes. It is essential, though, you follow the rules and use the same fingerings and plucking pattern.

In this first exercise, you are going to change the position of your right-hand thumb. This little change will give you more control, almost straightaway. You might need a little bit of time to adjust to the new position, but I can guarantee you that your control and accuracy will improve instantly once you nailed this approach.

In this exercise, you are going to play a melody on the 2nd and 3rd strings. For each fretted note of the melody, we are going to alternate the first open string. The exercise looks like that.

The secret here is to keep the thumb on the adjacent string at all times. From bar 1 to 5, lean the thumb on the third string. On bar 6, move the thumb on the fourth string.

By changing this simple thing in your playing, you will reduce the movement of your right hand. You will gain more control, accuracy, and volume. Notice how I always alternate index – middle finger using a broad movement. This is voluntary. I highly recommend you overemphasize the movement (at least when you start) develop muscle memory faster.

If it’s easy, you don’t want it. If you’re going to improve your fingerstyle guitar, you need intricate patterns. By practicing the exercise I am about to show you, you will enhance your finger-style technique, speed, and accuracy. This exercise was given to me by my old teacher, and it is quite similar to a Villa Lobos Classical Piece.

The right-hand arpeggio is quite complex, so you want to make sure you practice one bar at a time. Speed isn’t important at that stage so, take it slow and focus on getting the right pattern.

• The right hand should always follow the strings as you go up and down with the arpeggio.

• Keep the thumb in front of the fingers.

Practice one bar at a time. Speed isn’t important at that stage.

Make sure you follow the right-hand fingerstyle pattern on the Tab. Notice that the thumb pluck quite a lot of strings. It takes time to get used to using the thumb like that. If you feel pain or a burning feeling, stop immediately, rest for a couple of minutes, and then try again.

Double down the speed for few seconds will help you to improve your fingerstyle technique faster. The third secret, the sprint, is a great technique. It’s usually used on electric guitar when you want to build speed. I have used the same concept on the acoustic guitar (you can apply it everywhere) for my fingerstyle technique, and the results are astounding. I am going to give you an example of the “Sprinting” approach with the next exercise.

Double down the speed for few seconds will improve your fingerstyle technique faster!