Jim Bruce Blues Guitar Tips - Picks Or Bare Fingers?

There are literally hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of acoustic guitar players around the world. It's the most common music instrument by far, because of it's portability and the simple fact that you can get a fundamental tune out of it in a couple of weeks.

I'm going to discuss 'acoustic blues guitar' simply because this is my primary interest and I want to talk about finger picking strategies and blues guitar picking. Generally, electric guitarists use a plectrum of some sort to pluck the strings in and up down motion. Naturally, there are always exceptions, like Mark Knopfler, who uses his bare fingers to play both electric and acoustic guitars.

His uncommon style caused Chet Atkins to say "I don't understand how he's doing, but he can sure do it! " You don't need to adhere to the norm - we can make our own rules, but we need to start out somewhere.

This starting point is commonly focused on past master players. In the genre of acoustic blues guitar, this implies blues pickers like Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Doc Watson, Reverend Gary Davis and a lot of others.

Naturally there are a lot of variations in style, but pickers can be broadly divided into two categories - those who wear finger picks and those that don't. We'll ignore how many picking fingers these folks used for now.

I've seen ragtime blues artists execute competently with up to 3 finger picks on the right hand, which didn't include the thumb! At the other end of the spectrum, some master pickers only use one, either steel or plastic.

I favor a steel pick, as it can be bent a little so that the tip of the pick corresponds with the contact point of a naked finger hitting a string. This indicates that there's no realignment required for the angle of attack.

Plastic finger picks are commonly thicker and protrude a bit more, so an adjustment in picking technique is necessary. This is essential if playing some songs that need picks, and some that don't, for example.