Fingerpicking vs. Flatpicking

[RodB]

I enjoy both but for the last few years have mostly played fingerstyle as it suits the music I like and play solo. I still like a flatpicking session once in a while to keep my hand in and enjoy the difference.

[j38guitar]

I enjoy fingerpicking more. But I am a better flat picker especially when singing. I have a very hard time fingerpicking and singing at the same time. Been fingerpicking for only 2 years but flat picking for 25 years.

[rllink]

I can do some finger picking. I used to do it on the ukulele all the time. But I'm a flatpicker on guitar. For the record I'm a singer as well.

[Brent Hutto]

I'm surprised the poll responses are only a little over 2:1 in favor of fingers. My impression over the years here has been that a huge majority of participants in this forum do one form or another of fingerpicking as their main style.

[Jaxon]

fingerstyle flatpickin', yeah I like that

[davidbeinct]

I’ve been mostly concentrating on fingerpicking during my two plus years playing. I recently got a maple b/s Guild that just sounds really lush strummed so I’m back to trying a little bit of that but I’m still like 80/20 fingers.
I guess I’m the odd one out but I find singing while fingerpicking easier than singing while strumming. I can sing along with Spike Drivers Blues but strumming on say Let it Be if I try much more than just straight quarter note down strums I just fall apart.

[Dave Hicks]

I've done both almost since I started (a loooong time ago). I usually fingerpick when I sing.

D.H.

[Andyrondack]

I fingerpick just because that's what all the guitarists who impressed me did.
From the likes of Scrapper Blackwell Blind Blake Merle Travis Doc Watson John Renbourn Bert Janch Nick Jones Nick Drake Martin Carthy Martin Simpson to contemporary folkies Si Barron & Johnny Flynn all played guitar with their fingers and sang.

[KevWind]

I use a pic and do what ever this is called

[rllink]

Originally Posted by KevWind

I use a pic and do what ever this is called

Well done. Not just the playing, which was great, the whole thing.

[FrankHudson]

When I started to play guitar I thought most all good acoustic guitar players used some variation of fingerpicking. I sought to learn that. I had issues with nails and inability to form calluses, so bare-handed playing just didn't work for me.

For some years I mostly played acoustic with a thumbpick and one or two finger picks.

Eventually I decided I could play most of the same licks as I was playing with thumb and one or two fingers by moving a single flat pick around on the strings. I didn't know what cross-picking was, but I heard that's what I do.

I voted flatpicking. However what I do on acoustic sounds like fingerpicking to a lot of people and I believe most of my guitar preferences are similar to fingerpickers.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by rllink

Well done. Not just the playing, which was great, the whole thing.

hey Thanks much I guess after 53 years , I can say it is my style of flat picking

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

When I started to play guitar I thought most all good acoustic guitar players used some variation of fingerpicking. I sought to learn that. I had issues with nails and inability to form calluses, so bare-handed playing just didn't work for me.

For some years I mostly played acoustic with a thumbpick and one or two finger picks.

Eventually I decided I could play most of the same licks as I was playing with thumb and one or two fingers by moving a single flat pick around on the strings. I didn't know what cross-picking was, but I heard that's what I do.

I voted flatpicking. However what I do on acoustic sounds like fingerpicking to a lot of people and I believe most of my guitar preferences are similar to fingerpickers.

I actually started out my guitar journey by getting a classical guitar and taking some lessons in that style. What I really wanted to do was the "Celtic" sounding arrangements of folk tunes in altered tunings so eventually I did move to doing it with fingernails on steel strings. But I wasn't going to glue acrylic nails on my finger (not that there's anything wrong with that!) and trying to maintain smooth, strong, short but not too short nails while chewing them up with steel strings was a chore.

So when I finally gave up and started using a pick, like yourself the style I was trying to do was what I came to understand was termed "cross picking". Which tends to use different patterns or arpeggiation than what I'd do with fingers but like you say it sounds a bit like fingerpicking.

[turtlejimmy]

I never make a distinction between strumming and flat picking.

Some of both happens generally on most of the songs I do. Sometimes it's just flat picking and there's no strumming. Occasionally it's all strumming, but that's rare. I don't follow patterns or guides of any kind as to how to do a song. I get the chords and the lyrics--hopefully the right chords--and then just use my memory of the tune to figure something out with my right hand (and a pick) that works. Sometimes it happens right away and sometimes it takes a while. If I can never get it to work, I toss the song.


Turtle

EDIT: Sorry! I misread the premise of this thread. Ignore what I said above ..... I'm only a flatpicker.

[Supermoon]

Over the many years of playing acoustic (steel string), my style has evolved into using a flatpick between thumb and first finger, then bringing in my third finger to create a sort of fingerstyle. It's not ideal for a cyclical kind of fingerpicking sound though, however, I have always struggled with getting that sort of syncopated sound, so have settled into a style that suits me and reckon I'm too old to change things now (60) :- ) ... I find the style has led me to ideas and sounds that I'm comfortable with now. I also sing and strum when it feels right.

Cheers, Rob