Hey Friend,

There are many different fingerstyle techniques - way more than we’ll get into here. If you’re so inclined, you can read about the various styles in this Wikipedia article. 

To get you started with some basic fingerstyle patterns, we look to the technique called Travis picking.

Travis picking was developed by a Country guitarist by the name of Merle Travis. He had an active career from 1937 until his death in 1983.

In my opinion, I’d consider Travis picking one of the most well-known techniques, simply because of the popularity of artists that have used it in their music. John Denver used this style as well as James Taylor.

I would even go out on a limb to say that any Rock guitarist using fingerstyle is rooted in Travis picking technique.

The basic guide with Travis picking is your thumb handles bass notes while your index, middle and ring fingers play the melody.

By bass notes, I mean your thumb will control the lower three strings. To be clear, that’s the 4th, 5th and 6th strings - those lower in PITCH.

With your thumb, you can alternate between those three strings easily as you change chords or want to provide a different bass note in the riff you’re playing.

Your index finger will always play the third string. Middle finger will play the second, and the first string is played by the ring finger.

Since your three fingers don’t change strings, you don’t have to concentrate as much on what your picking hand is doing. The fingers can rest lightly on their respective strings so you always know you’re in the right position to play a note.

That frees you up to concentrate more on which of the bass strings you’ll need to play.

The nice thing is, even if you hit the wrong bass note, it still tends to sound pretty good!

Another great thing about the style is, you can start using it as a beginning guitar player, and as you get better, Travis picking patterns can evolve with your skill level.

You're able to play the simplest of songs with a basic pattern and advance to extremely intricate compositions over time.

I’ll get some exercises put together for you to try out. Hope y’all have a great Hump Day!

Peace~

Dave