I played as a strummer for many years so rhythm is ingrained in me and helps me with finger style a bit as it forces me to pay close attention to timing and touch so the music comes through rather than a stream of random notes. I'm learning finger style right now and I practice nightly. It's a battle but I am seeing improvement from week to week. It's slow but it's there. I play exactly how ljguitar just described in this thread. I learned that method online at guitar nick.com and I've seen it touted as the best way to start playing finger style.
I've seen videos of guys playing really well with just the thumb and finger #1 but I can't get the rhythm right playing with too few fingers. Last night I began learning how to use all five fingers in a song. I use the thumb for 5 and 6 and then the four fingers down the line for the rest. I thought it would mess me up from what I had learned before but I find I can transition between thumb and 3 and thumb and 4 quite easily. Hooray :-). Lastly, I love this type of music. I'll warm up strumming but 90% of my playing is learning the finger style songs.
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