Fingerstyle Guitar Basics

Learn to finger pick with step-by-step guitar lessons for beginners. You’ll learn professional concepts from the start! Our method is for modern players based on time-tested classical guitar techniques. So you’ll apply what you learn to both classical and modern music.

This course is a prerequisite for our other classical, fingerstyle and songwriting courses. It’s ideal for anyone who dreams of playing beautiful fingerpicking! It’s the basis for solo playing, songwriting, and playing with others in various genres.

We’ll focus on your picking hand. Develop finger independence, accuracy and smooth arpeggios. By the end of the course you’ll master the essentials of fingerpicking patterns and melodies. You’ll read notation and not just rely on playing by memory! You’ll perform simple classical and modern pieces to solidify your technique.

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Course Overview

Syllabus

We will cover the following topics:

Acoustic guitar types for fingerstyle
Choosing the right guitar type and size
Sitting in the classical guitar position
Classical guitar techniques for the fretting hand
Introduction to the picking hand
Progressive exercises for the picking hand
Alternating thumb and finger pluck (Alternating bass fingerpicking)
Exercises and songs with alternating bass
Building your first arpeggio picking pattern
Progressive arpeggios in picking patterns
Easy classical guitar pieces
Easy modern guitar pieces
Easy fingerstyle accompaniment
Playing scales and melodies with fingerstyle
Basic solo guitar playing — bass and melody
Basic solo guitar playing — chords and melody
Basic solo guitar playing — melody in the bass
Finger independence
Clarity and speed
Tone, Dynamics and expression
Final Project Assignment
Goal setting workshop
Practice routine and work-ethic

Prerequisites

This is a Level 1 course
Prerequisites: Acoustic Guitar Basics (Preparatory Level) or equivalent experience.
Learn more about Gentle Guitar™ Levels

Tuition Information

Duration: 24 weeks (6 months)
Tuition Type: 60min live online lessons. Weekly class with four students per class.
Tuition Cost: $45 USD per week. Billed as a 6 months plan, charged weekly or monthly.

Requirements

A nylon string classical or fingerstyle guitar (Consult with our instructors before you buy a guitar)
Classical guitar footstool or guitar support (Such as the ErgoPlay Professional Guitar Support)
Music stand and appropriate practice chair (Any firm chair without arm rests. Preferably with adjustable height)
Guitar tuner and metronome (available as free and paid apps for smartphones)
Meeting live on a video call with your instructor
Time to devote to guitar study. About 40 – 60 minutes a day for guitar practice.

PDF worksheets are included in the lessons

Our step-by-step worksheets cover a lot of material. We’ll go through it slowly with clear explanations and examples.

Elise (USA)

I’d attempted to learn fingerstyle pieces prior to taking this class, but, since I didn’t know what I was doing, I ended up inventing new technique for each piece. This became frustrating, took forever, and I never felt like I was playing proficiently. I knew I wanted to pursue fingerstyle rather than pick playing. I really enjoy songs that are more intricate and pieces where I can play both melody and bass.

The plucking techniques I learned gave me good habits and structure that I’ve used to quickly learn pieces that I wouldn’t have been able to tackle before. I also became more comfortable using a fingerstyle footstool and learned how to hold a guitar with classical posture. Although it felt uncomfortable at first, I now prefer classical posture–it makes it easier to play fingerstyle comfortably and quickly (and safely!).

Also, before taking this course, I wasn’t very familiar with playing guitar from sheet music (although I had played flute for three years prior, I could only play very simple sheet music pieces with my guitar), and this course gave me good practice in playing and sight-reading guitar sheet music.

If you want to learn good right-hand technique, become comfortable holding a guitar with classical posture, and explore a beautiful genre of guitar playing, this is a great course for you. The courseload is challenging but completely manageable, and Gentle Guitar has great teachers that are eager to help you learn. — Elise (USA)