Fatter, Hippier – Why Captain Toms Will Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

Fingerstyle guitar (aka ‘finger picking’)  is often referred to as though it is a genre all of it’s own, but this isn’t really true.  Fingerstyle refers to the technique of playing the guitar with your fingers.  It actually incorporates a wide range of different genres of music.  Fingerstyle guitar lessons can either focus on one particular style of music (such as blues or pop), or you can choose to explore a range of styles.  The most popular genres of music which use the fingerstyle technique are folk, pop and blues.  Classical guitarists also play with the fingers but this is not usually referred to as ‘fingerstyle’ guitar.

If you would like to make pop music the focus of your fingerstyle guitar lessons you’ll have plenty of artists to choose from.  Songs like and are classic examples of pop songs featuring fingerstyle guitar.  More modern exponents of fingerstyle guitar include and .  Fingerstyle guitar lessons would be a good idea if you like these types of songs.

Many blues musicians also used fingerstyle to write and perform their songs.  One of the very best was Robert Johnson.  The vast majority of his songs were performed using fingerstyle guitar throughout and he is therefore a great musician to study if you’re interested in both the blues style and the fingerstyle technique.  Many of his songs use a similar ‘finger picking pattern’ and similar chords which means that once you’ve learned a couple of his songs, you’ll have the confidence to start learning many of his other songs on your own.