Fingerpicking may seem awkward at first, but once your fingers are trained they’ll move with the ease and grace of trained dolphins. You’ll see a marked improvement once your fingers have internalized the style, and your playing will look artless, as it should so that you can then concentrate on your style or your singing.
The four fingerpicking styles below, along with their variations, will open the door, giving you a foundation for learning more styles later. You don’t have to play chords while you’re figuring these out, but if you do want to use chords we recommend using chords with as few mute strings as possible, like G major, E minor, and E major. This will make learning simpler, and once you have the patterns down you can try them with the other chords.