Fingerpicking

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Do you want to become a better fingerstyle guitarist?  Today I’m here to talk about how studying classical guitar technique and repertoire will elevate your fingerstyle playing.  Additionally, I will present my favorite classical guitar method books for fingerstyle players.  Please note, I am aiming this video specifically at fingerstyle players and not aspiring classical guitar players, although I will offer some thoughts on which books may be best for classical guitarists.

I’ve wanted to make this video for some time because my own playing has improved so dramatically since I began seriously studying classical guitar.  Classical guitar training involves an emphasis on making smart fingering choices and refining your technique, which translates to consistent accuracy, greater speed, and maximizing your tone.  It involves an emphasis on lyrical phrasing, musicality, a sense of time, and more.  All of this training has given my playing a general fluidity, regardless of whether I’m playing on steel or nylon strings.

The realms of classical and fingerstyle guitar are closely related.  They both obviously focus on playing the guitar using the picking hand fingers rather than a flatpick.  They both involve the study of accompaniment and solo guitar playing.  And, most of the physical techniques and musicality involved in classical guitar playing translate extremely well back to the fingerstyle world.

There are obviously some differences between these two realms of guitar, starting with a preference for nylon vs. steel strings, and a preference for classical vs. non-classical repertoire.  If you are just testing the waters and don’t have a nylon-string classical guitar, just use your steel string guitar to get started.  Don’t let the lack of a classical guitar be a barrier to entry.

Next, certain techniques are emphasized more in one realm or the other – for example, classical guitarists place more emphasis on the use of the rest stroke, but the technique can certainly be effective on a steel string guitar.  On the other side of things, fingerstyle guitarists are more likely to use the Travis style technique, but it is easy to find 19^th century classical guitar studies utilizing a familiar alternating bass pattern. 

Finally, for now, the classical guitar world generally places more importance on the ability to read standard notation (treble clef).  I have a couple recommendations for classical guitar method books that utilize tablature, but most books involve learning how to read standard notation.  For some of you, just jumping into one of the tablature options and learning about technique and fingering will provide an immediate boost.  For others, it may be worth the effort to work through one of the excellent standard notation methods – you will learn to read while simultaneously boosting your chops.  And then you will forevermore be able to work through other classical guitar method and repertoire books, you’ll be able to read the vocal melodies from lead sheets (which is really helpful when arranging for fingerstyle guitar), you’ll have access to centuries of repertoire (for the guitar and other instruments), and you’ll be able communicate more effectively with other musicians.

When you decide to make this investment in yourself, I want you to keep something in mind.  It doesn’t matter if you are learning to read standard notation or you’re using a tablature edition, and it doesn’t matter if you consider yourself to be an intermediate or even advanced player: DO NOT skip over those early exercises where you’re learning the notes on each string.  While learning or reviewing these notes, you should focus on playing with perfect technique and optimal tone.  You should work on your timing, your vibrato, your posture, and adding dynamics (even if they aren’t written into the music).  Never let yourself get so confident or even cocky that you think you’re too good to go back to the fundamentals.  I start my practice sessions with these fundamentals and several classical etudes every single day.  For the rest of each subsequent practice session, my fingers feel amazing, and I play at my very best.

Now, here are those tablature recommendations for those of you who want some of the benefits of classical guitar training without having to learn standard notation:

1) Hal Leonard Classical Guitar Method (TAB Edition) (Paul Henry, 2008)

2) Pumping Nylon – in TAB (Scott Tennant, originally 1995, TAB ed 1997, 2^nd ed 2016)

Best Classical Guitar Method Books written in standard notation

Again, the Hal Leonard book would have made this list.

1) Classical Guitar Method: Volume 1 (Bradford Werner, 2019)

elodies harmonized by open strings.  You will need to move into Volume 2 if you want to look at placing fretted basslines under your melody – this is why I mentioned that the scope of Volume 1 is limited.

There is a “chord accompaniment” section which provides folk songs in lead sheet format – that is, with the melody written in treble clef along with the accompaniment chords or fingerstyle patterns.  This is great for players who want to accompany their voice.

The repertoire selection throughout the book includes many folk tunes, with only a few “classical” tunes.  Many of these tunes come with accompanying teacher-duet parts or harmonizing chords.

Within the book, the text is kept to a minimum, with very little emphasis on technique.

However, there are those supplemental videos available showing exercises performed and providing significant addition information.  If you want a book combined with video lessons, this is the most extensive that I’ve seen.  Instead of reading much of the information about technique, you’ll see it demonstrated.

Finally, this is a very short book with 102 pages, but large text.  And then, over 10 of those pages are note identification worksheets where notes are provided on the staff, and you are asked to write in the note names.  Overall, you don’t get nearly as much material in this book as the other method books that I’ll recommend today.

This is a great first book that comes with supplemental videos.  It doesn’t have nearly as many exercises and tunes.

2) Learning the Classic Guitar: Part Two (Aaron Shearer, 1990)

3) First Book for the Guitar (Frederick Noad, 1978)

4) The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method, Vol. 1 (Christopher Parkening, 1972)

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, & then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.