[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by thechariot1x

So I've noticed that most guitar teachers and books do not use the 5th (pinky) finger for finger picking, they only suggest using the first 4. I've never found an explanation of why that was though (so maybe you all can tell me). Is it bad to use the 5th finger in finger picking? my thinking has always been why give up 20% of my picking potential, plus it just feels unnatural to me to not have my 5th finger doing anything.

Hi tc1x...

I had a student who played thumb-n-four and he was quite good at it. But he failed to demonstrate any advantages to it. I do not think it is bad, but I am certainly not ambivalent about the topic.

Most well voiced chords on guitar are well suited to a thumb-n-3 finger approach, but Thumb-n-four will get you a 5th note if you are playing complex jazz (and strumming will give you six notes simultaneously). It's also another digit to manage in the delicate fingerstyle dance and at times isn't necessary.

If you really think playing is about maximum fingers in motion on strings simultaneously then your 20% loss statement makes sense.

But if it's about playing great music, there are an awful lot of great thumb-n-two finger players in this world. I find that if I streamline chords and voicing in my arrangements (I write my arrangements), keeping things simple/pure/dialed-back a bit helps the melody tends to cut through better, and stays prominent.

Sometimes more notes just makes the sound muddy. Just my 2Cents worth.