Hey Friend,

I hope you at least had a chance to look at the sweep picking videos I shared on Sunday. If for nothing else, you now know sweep picking is a technique you can learn to turbocharge your picking hand.

It’s not for everyone, but if you’re into Metal at all, this technique will be handy to help you shred.

The last picking pattern technique we’re going to look at is fingerpicking.

This is probably the oldest technique for coaxing sound out of strings, as humans have been playing guitars (or guitar-like instruments) since the days of the Egyptian pharaohs.

I can just imagine old Tutankhamun (well, he was young, but…) yelling down the hallway of his palace, “Hey, has anyone seen my pick?” 

Anyone who’s played in a band can relate - someone’s always dropping or forgetting their pick… 

If you know how to fingerpick, you don’t have to worry about finding that plectrum!

So getting the basics of fingerstyle guitar down is a good idea. Even for you Metal players...

If you have played any Classical guitar, you’re well on your way with fingerstyle playing, but for Rock, it really started to get popular back in the 1960s with modern Folk music. Blues players have been using fingerpicking all along.

I don’t have a lot of time today to get detailed, but you can read more about fingerstyle/fingerpicking technique here. 

We’ll look at some artists and fingerstyle patterns over the next few messages.

Hope you have a good Wednesday!

Peace~

Dave