Fingerstyle Picks
Blues Guitar Lessons Tips - Picking Acoustic
Guitar Using Bare Fingers Or Finger Picks
By far the very first question
you need to ask when starting blues guitar lessons is 'what kind of
sound do I want to make?'
The answer definitely affects the choice between bare fingers or finger picks.
First
of all, all guitar picks act like a
natural amplifier and also gives a cleaner, sharper sound. The tips of
fingerstyle picks are a lot narrower than the tips of the fingers, unless you
use false nylon nails which can be glued to your own finger nails.
This technique was preferred by the legendary picker, Chet Atkins. The use of a thumb pick made of plastic or nylon is quite common for finger style guitarists, and many use picks for their fingers as well.
This makes that the contact point is almost the same as when playing with the bare finger tip. The great plus for wearing picks is that you play hard and not get blisters or hard patches on your finger tips, which is a great benefit when playing in public with no amplifier, or out doors in the street, for example..
Which guitarists use finger picks?
Some players, like Merle Travis and Tommy Emmanuel, wear a plastic
thumb pick but use bare fingers.
Actually, Travis used one finger only,
as did a lot of the old legendary blues players.
Acoustic blues guitar lessons need to teach the styles common to both ways of playing - this is the way to make the real sound of old blues guitar.
Some guitar lessons just show one picking style, which tends to limit the style of music you can perform.