I want to play Fingerstyle...should I learn flatpicking first?

[michaelws]

I am a total newbie to guitar. I have a bit of bluegrass banjo experience so thumb and finger picks are familiar to me.

Should I continue to learn with a flat pick and then learn fingerpicking styles?

I really like the Tommy Emmanuel and Doyle Dykes styles.

And if there are courses for this can anyone recommend one for a 74-year-old beginner?

I am currently doing the Justinguitar lessons. Really enjoying my two-week-old journey with him.

Thanks for any help with this.

[rstaight]

If you are already familiar with fingerstyle from playing banjo start with that. Then after a short time start flatpicking.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I would make sure I'm smooth on changing chords before I dove into anything more.

[reeve21]

Since you already have some experience with your left hand might as well jump right in the deep end of the pond.

If you like books/recordings Mark Hanson has several. Intro to Travis Picking is where a lot of us started.

If you are a video learner Toby Walker has a good intro to finger picking lesson on his website.

You are going to get tons of suggestions. These were the 2 I used for my first 7 months or so. Then I found a teacher for one on one lessons. That is your best bet if it is doable. Good luck, it is a long road but doable and very satisfying.

[tbeltrans]

These threads can get quite long, with many many suggestions. However, in this case, this thread has provided all you need in those first few posts. So, my suggestion is to heed those posts and just do it. You could spend weeks reading through pages of thread and then end up wondering which is the best way to go. Forget that and run with what has already been presented.

Tony

[phydaux]

"I want to play Fingerstyle...should I learn flatpicking first?"

Why would you bother, if it's fingerstyle that you want to learn?

Tommy Emmanuel has a few instructional videos on youtube. He gave a Ted Talk called "My Life As A One Man Band." He has a few others. Google those and watch them. It will get you pointed in the right direction.

[jazzereh]

Just do fingerstyle as has been said above.

I'm your age but have been playing for many years - that doesn't imply that I'm good - and I find that I need videos to follow along with when I'm learning a new tune in fingerstyle. Youtube is a good place to go with many good videos [and many not so good].

But I'll also mention TrueFire that has many really good lessons. Not free but well worth the price for what I work on. Tommy Emmanuel is there, for one.

Enjoy the ride

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Since you already have some experience with your left hand might as well jump right in the deep end of the pond.

If you like books/recordings Mark Hanson has several. Intro to Travis Picking is where a lot of us started.

If you are a video learner Toby Walker has a good intro to finger picking lesson on his website.

You are going to get tons of suggestions. These were the 2 I used for my first 7 months or so. Then I found a teacher for one on one lessons. That is your best bet if it is doable. Good luck, it is a long road but doable and very satisfying.

Hi Michael,

I would follow Bob's advice above.

Many of us as we get better learn to use both fingers and a flat pick. But being really good at both of these skills is probably not realistic. If fingerstyle playing is what you like, go for that!

I'm a fan of Tommy Emmanuel's playing, but as an instructor, Tommy goes from zero to 60 in no time at all, so he is not a good instructor to start with in my opinion. Mark Hanson and Toby Walker, however, are excellent teachers.

Best of luck!

- Glenn

[Martijn]

If you combine fingerstyle with flatpicking, you will end up with a technique that some people would call hybrid picking. But this is really difficult!
Personally I found this even one of the most challenging guitar techniques.
Especially for someone who is new into guitar, I would suggest to focus on playing with your fingertips or nails for the first few years.

When at some point you'd like to give hybrid picking a try, the song Angelina from Tommy Emmanuel is a very suitable song to learn this technique.

[buddyhu]

If you want to do fingerpicking, don’t bother with flat picks.

Richard Gilewitz is a terrific teacher for fingerpicking/finger style. I have been taking individual lessons from him (via Zoom) for 16 months. Terrific! I have also gotten my 15 godson to take fingerpicking lessons (godson is a complete beginner), and he loves Richard.

If you wish to spend less money, Richard has a lot of videos on TrueFire.

[Merak]

Learn both. I spent my first year with a pick as I didn’t have much left hand coordination with chords. The next two years I played with fingers. Now I am back to using the pick and working on my left hand technique some more. You can’t learn too much and its only hard until it becomes easy.

[michaelws]

Thanks for all the replies. For some reason, I never received any emails notifying me that there were any replies.

I am struggling with the flatpick. I just haven't got the hang of how tight to hold it. I know it will come with time.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

[Mandobart]

There are many, many highly accomplished fingerstyle/classical guitar players who have never used a pick.

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by Merak

Learn both. I spent my first year with a pick as I didn’t have much left hand coordination with chords. The next two years I played with fingers. Now I am back to using the pick and working on my left hand technique some more. You can’t learn too much and its only hard until it becomes easy.

I do both because they are not mutually exclusive. A beginner needs to learn the basics first which is all about chords and smoothly changing from one to the other. Learning some simple picking patterns might break up the monotony of straight strumming but there is much work to do.

[menhir]

Originally Posted by phydaux

"I want to play Fingerstyle...should I learn flatpicking first?"

Why would you bother, if it's fingerstyle that you want to learn?

That says it all in a nutshell.