Who else has switched from flatpick to fingerstyle

[NigelT]

I think that it's fun to do both and that it depends on the song and musical style.

[BluesyRob]

Originally Posted by kydave

Out of curiosity, and within the thread topic, do those of you who have switched from flatpick to fingerstyle tend to play with other people as much as you did when using a pick? Or is it mostly solo that you do this?

Thanks

I barely every play with people anymore. I had a church gig going for a while but that ended. I used a pick on that one, strumming chords to accompany the choir. I teach my beginner students with pick. When the time is right I introduce them to Fingerstyle.

[quiltingshirley]

Just so I get the terms you're using, I know what a flat pick is, does finger style mean just strumming with your fingers in place of a pick or just picking strings with your finger(s) with a pick on those fingers?

[Markini]

I find I am much more fluid and faster using finger style on an acoustic guitar.

I find I am much more fluid and faster using a pick on an electric guitar.

I do use a pick occasionally on a dreadnought for blues mostly. A pick tires out my arm after 30 minutes or so, and it takes me longer to warm up to speed and fluidity with a pick on acoustic guitars. Electric guitar has very little string tension, much easier to play with a pick.

[sam.spoons]

I too am, historically, an electric lead player but I've always played acoustic alongside so I hope I have a balanced viewpoint. I love fingerstyle but, realistically, I find it compromises tone and volume compared to flatpicking (there is no way you can achieve the same power with fingernails) so while I do play FS around 25-30% I find flatpicking is considerably better if you need to be heard (rather than be listened to)...... And I'm seriously into Gypsy Jazz these days so a big fat flatpick (and the right guitar) is essential to get that sound.

[LW Hastings]

I started out in the 1980's playing banjo with the plastic thumb pick and two metal fingerpicks. After a number of years I bailed out and in 2011 bought a Martin and started flatpicking bluegrass tunes. Other than occasionally using one just for strumming, I've gone to fingerpicking old blues tune (sans picks) in the style of MJH, Robert Johnson, Frank Stokes, etc. I feel this is my path. The years of banjo picking have given me a reasonably good head start!

[TBman]

I first learned with a pick, then when I was twenty I took lessons from a flat picker. Later on I started playing hybrid and then I stopped playing for quite a while. When I picked up the guitar again in 2005 I decided to learn finger style. I keep picks around and I have one in a thingamgig attached to my key ring. When I did flat pick it was Fender mediums.

[ohYew812]

Originally Posted by sam.spoons

(there is no way you can achieve the same power with fingernails)

There most certainly is a way...acrylics.

Not those 'Lee press on nails' but properly applied acrylics.

[kydave]

I asked, just thinking back to my own experience.

When I started playing in the '60s, it was on electric and I was soon playing in a rock band. So my formative years had a pick in my hand. In the '70s, I went to an acoustic, solo guitar/voice act. During that time and a bit prior when playing in an acoustic duo, I started fingerpicking some songs using thumbpick & two fingerpicks (Blackbird is not a flatpicking song, nor is Embryonic Journey... ).

In the '80s I left my solo act behind and started playing with bands again. At that point, other than on Dobro & pedal steel, I rarely fingerpicked anymore.

I've noticed that the few of my musician friends who primarily fingerpick, don't play with groups that much and when we get together at a couple of annual occasions to jam, the fingerpickers are much less comfortable in a group.

Just a couple of observations that prompted my question.

Thanks!

[BobbyBadd]

I finger pick/ finger style mostly solo. I flat pick when jamming. For my solo shows, I do both depending on the song and feel I want to convey.
I started as a flat picker, but time allowed me to put in the hours necessary for finger style. And, on guitar, I mostly play alone.

[fatt-dad]

when I started playing guitar, I both strummed chords and pattern picked ala Peter, Paul and Mary and campfire songs. I was in 8th grade or so. Maybe younger. About 40-some-years later, I met John Cephas and changed my focus to finger picking the blues - not pattern stuff, but playing thumb chords and index melody. In recent months though, I started learning more strum stuff. So, there were a few years where I rarely strummed and only picked. It's both now though.

I've carried the same two picks for 8 years - one for the thumb and one for the index.

f-d

[Reidclifford]

Started playing electric guitar when I was 14, with a pick of course. When I was 17 I got an acoustic, still used a pick.

When I was 18, I worked in a music store, and got into Dallas Greens playing around the same time. When I was at the music store, and someone wanted to hear an acoustic off the wall, I didn't always have a pick, so I learned to play with my fingers on acoustic atleast.

But in the meantime... Still playing electric with a pick (grew up playing punk, metal, hard rock). But when I was around 21, my band broke up... Sold my Les Pauls and Orange stack, bought a strat and got really into John Mayer. So I started playing more fingerstyle on my electric as well.

So at this point I was switching back and forth pretty often.

Fast forward to a year and a half ago. I moved in with a friend in a basement suite, and bought a thinline tele. It was too loud to play it with a pick at night, so I usually just used my fingers.

Ended up meeting a drummer last year, went to jam, didn't bring a pick, jammed, didn't even realize until after that I just did a full band jam without using a pick, and was intrigued by the fact. Started a band with him, and a female singer songwriter, and pretty much never used a pick.

I eventually got to the point where I realized I was playing my thinline like it was an acoustic... And I should probably get a nice new acoustic since I could finally justify paying for one, now that I'd actually use it.

I now own a 00-15m, and have brought my little fingerstyle techniques I've been using on electric and really expanded on them.

[justonwo]

I started as an electric player and still am, all with a flat pick. That was the first 15 years of my guitar playing experience. Only in the last 8 have I focused on and acquired fingerpicking skills. I'm still more comfortable overall on the electric guitar with a flatpick, but probably because I played in a band for so many years.

[healyf52]

I prefer fingerstyle. Arpeggiating chords, for me, is easier with fingers and my solo playing is better with fingers than flat pick. I use flat pick when I jam and gig, for volume reasons and lately have gone back to thumb and fingerpicks during rehearsals/gigs so I can use fingerstyle technique and get the volume necessary to be heard in the mix.

Bare fingers, no picks for 'sofa jamming'. I've been practicing 'alternate style' flatpicking lately and normally use this, not so much for soloing, as for striking individual strings rather than strumming entire chords.

All in all, fingerstyle is my preferred way to play.

[mlbman]

Hello all,

I am a relative new player to guitar........noodled when I was in teens but no serious learning.......then a year and a half ago I started to learn chords and sing a bit..........I now have a songbook of about 30 tunes I am comfortable singing and strumming. I since have wanted to learn Dust in the Wind by Kansas as it was always a favorite and so I have started learning fingerstyle on my Seagull S6 and have the intro to Dust In the Wind and am still learning.......it can be trying in learning a new style but I am hanging in there. I like both. I love learning fingerstyle and I still like to sing and strum. All is good!