- Fingerstyle electric guitar how to#
- Fingerstyle electric guitar skin#
- Fingerstyle electric guitar pro#
Fingerstyle electric guitar pro#
Mark Knopfler just uses his thumb to strum, and sometimes he flicks his three fingers across the strings and the nails replace the pick.Īndy at Pro Guitar Shop pinches his thumb and index finger together as if they are holding a pick - but they are not - and on the downstroke his index fingernail strikes the strings and on the upstroke, his thumbnail strikes the strings.
Fingerstyle electric guitar skin#
That fingernail sound replicates the tone of a guitar pick to my ear, and I want a totally new tone based on my skin and not my nails.
I don’t want my nails playing any role in plucking a string. I am using only the fleshy pads of my fingertips and thumbs.
Fingerstyle electric guitar how to#
The second thing that stumps me is how to strum - play more than four strings at a time - without having to use a pick. I am working on getting my thumb and three fingers to use the same attack for a similar voicing, and that will take some time, because I need to create muscle memory for my right hand. My index finger always plucks the “G” string like a pro on a reliable basis while my annular finger tends to variety pluck - sometimes the sound is too soft and oftentimes it is too loud. There are two things I find difficult about playing with only my fingers. It has been a difficult transition from striking strings with a pick to only plucking them with my fingers, but I am taking it slowly, and I am being methodical and rigid, and I am slowly finding a whole new “voice” in my fingers I never knew existed. I recently decided to toss my Dunlop Ultex pick - for now - and concentrate on playing all my guitars with only my fingers. Here’s Mark explaining his special fingerstyle picking technique: Almost every fingerstyle electric guitarist I’ve seen play, plants the pinky on the pickguard. Your pinky finger can steady the rest of your hand from the pickguard, or just float in space. The more traditional fingerstyle is to play the three wound strings, the bass strings, with your thumb and the three treble strings with your index, middle and annular (ring) fingers. He pinches, or “claws,” the strings mainly between his thumb and index finger and, sometimes, he goes full-on Wes Montgomery and plucks all the strings with only his thumb. Knopfler is famous for his “pinching” style of playing the guitar with his fingers.
Mark Knopfler is probably the best known, and most successful, “fingerstyle” electric guitarist of our generation. It can be another matter entirely when you toss away your pick and play with only your fingers on an electric guitar. There’s nothing quite like playing the Blues guitar using your fingers.