AGF - home of fingerstyle or pickers?

[BrunoBlack]

I used a flat pick my entire life, but started learning finger style about 5 years ago and lean toward fingers at this point in my life. I find it to be interesting and rewarding.

[KitKat1]

When I started guitar I wanted nothing more than to play Mississippi John Hurt style with fingers. But I have left hand problems and found that it hurt a whole lot less to play lead lines with a flatpack on 1 11/16" nut width guitars than finger pick cleanly on wider nut widths. So I became a bluegrasser and never looked back.

[fazool]

ooops i voted wrong on my phone

First 15 years with a flatpick. The last 20+ years have been bare finger fingerpicking though I started using fingerpicks on my National last year. I have guitars that have never been touched with a flatpick.

[Rosette]

60 finger 40 pick

[GGSanders]

While I figured there'd be quite a few "fingers only" contributors, I'm really surprised that they seem to be the majority.

I aspire to become much better at fingerstyle, but have to admit that 95+% of my playing is with a flat pick. Only when alone, quietly, on the couch or out on the patio, do I dabble in fingerstyle (with a thumb pick), or strum with the side/tip of my thumb.

And, I agree that when alone, fingerstyle is by its very nature much more multi-dimentional than simple picking/strumming with a pick.

But, a good bit of my playing is with a friend who plays banjo, and bare fingers can't compete with that. And when playing at an open mike/jam, alongside 5-10 others, with banjos, mandolins, and bass mixed in, only digging in with a pick makes it possible for me to hear myself, let alone contribute anything to the overall sound of the group.

Maybe if I were plugged in bare fingers would work, but its acoustic only, unless you're leading the song.

[NormanKliman]

Broonzy sometimes played with a pick. You can hear it clearly on a few tracks from that live recording in Copenhagen.

[whvick]

Finger style with my nails

[macmanmatty]

80 /20. 80 percent of the time I use picks( one white plastic national thumb pick and three metal dunlop picks .2 .225 and .25 in descending order from index finger to ring ) and 20 percent I use just fingers. I feel like this question gets asked often here are they expecting peoples responses to change?

[Humbucker]

Really depends on the song and how I want it to be heard. I like fingerpickiing the best simply because of the intimacy with the strings and I think you get the real feel and tone of your instrument with a bare finger touch. Flat picking for basic strumming if I am backing someone.

[Bluenose]

I was strictly a fingerpicker for many years but since I retired 6 yrs ago I've taken up flatpicking. I believe that to hear a guitars true tonal potential you need play it loud and use a nice hard flatpick.

[EllenGtrGrl]

Once in a rare while I'll dabble in fingerstyle, but after 42 years of guitar playing, I can state that I am a flatpicker. While there are times where being able to thumb pick a bass line, while finger picking the melody with my other fingers would sure be nice to do, I wouldn't be able to play double picked solos (I've played more than my fair share of them both on and off the stage), or as percussively. Also, I like to string skip a fair amount, and it sounds different when done with a flat pick vs fingers.

Both flat picking and finger picking have their good and bad points IMO - I just happen to prefer flat picking.

[cu4life7]

I am generally about a 75% thumb pick and fingers vs 25% flat pick. I think I am most comfortable with a thumb pick, but I try to mix it up.

[Earl49]

75% bare nails fingerpicking, 25% flat pick strumming. I voted "my fingers" as that was the closest choice.

[DukeX]

Both...and why wouldn't I?