5 Tips For Improving Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Technique

Essentially, the “fingerstyle” is a playing style that is held in high regard by a majority of acoustic guitar players. Simply put, guitarists that use their fingers instead of picks produce notes that are characterized with substantially different tonal qualities when compared to the notes plucked with a guitar pick.

That’s not the only reason why fingerstyle guitarists like this particular technique – a significant boost of control over the played notes is acquired, alas, at the expense of accuracy. Namely, it’s safe to assume that the “fingerstyle” technique is a bit more difficult than the standard pick method, as you’ll be using all of your fingers.

Be it as it may, we’re here to simplify this playstyle and point out some of the most common mistakes so that you can get a hang of it more easily.

Tip # 1 – Start off slow and easy

Fingerstyle is easy to try out, but difficult to master appropriately. There’s a number of mistakes beginner fingerstyle guitarists tend to make, but most of them revolve around the guitarist rushing to grasp the technique without paying much heed to the obvious lack of skill.

First of all, you don’t have to use all of your fingers straight away. Namely, your “picking hand” (if you’re a right-handed type of person, your right hand is the picking one) will be able to pluck a note or two after which confusion ensues almost without an exception.

You’ll have to get accustomed to the gaps found between each string on your acoustic guitar, and the best way to do it is by using the fingers you’re “comfortable” with.

Professionals state that each finger has a specific role – for instance, the thumb should be used to play the bass notes on the E1 (the first, widest string), the ring finger should be used to play the G string, and so on. Consult “fingerstyle & fingerpicking tablature notation” for more information.

 Tip #2 – Work on your groove and rhytm

The best way to stay “in tune” with your fingerstyle technique is to synchronize your fretting and picking hands. To do so, you have to work on the “groove”. Basically, you’ll want to play familiar notes with the fingers you feel the most comfortable with, and practice your accuracy along the way.

This leads us to another common mistake beginner fingerstyle guitarists make – getting “sloppy”. Generally, the songs which appeared easy might prove to be quite hard if you want to play things by the book.

Practice separate song segments if need be, slow the tempo down a bit, or even improvise for the sake of your groove. There are lots of variations with which you can improve your groove, and these are just some of the recommendations.

If you’re asking “why is groove so important”, then the answer is quite simple. Employing the use of fingerstyle technique means that you’re willing to put in an extra effort for the sake of better quality of your sound. Groove just happens to be one of its most important parts.

Tip #3 – Accentuate the bassline and melody parts

Essentially, the bassline and melody song segments are vital, so being able to recognize them and accentuate them in turn will heavily improve your fingerstlye technique. As we’ve already mentioned, the thickest string should be played with your thumb, and you should try different variations before you decide how it’s best to achieve the optimal tone.

For instance, you could pop it like bass guitarists do, or you could gently graze it, but make sure to do it strongly enough so that it feels and sounds heavy and deep.

On the other hand, the melody parts involve more control and precision. Working on your accuracy might take some time, but it's absolutely crucial for your fingerstyle technique.

Consider practicing "melodic" parts as if they were standalone parts – pay attention to details, adjust your technique so that every single stroke is executed in organized, controlled fashion.

Tip #4 – Break down your habits

Every player has a unique, personal set of habits, and knowing that you can control them might just make the difference needed for improving your fingerstyle technique. Namely, some people have problems with their pinky finger fretting a certain position, compensating for this little flaw with faster reactions of other fingers.

On the other hand, certain guitarists tend to be a lot slower right off the bat, progressively gaining speed as they warm up. That's why we strongly advocate the statement that you can and should recognize the habits you've built over time regarding your fingerstyle technique.

The idea is quite simple – you have to know that every playing style features certain flaws, but compensating for them won't bring success by a long shot, as these "compensations" are nothing more than excuses.

Make no room for error and mistakes by taking a firm grip over your habits, regardless of how "positive" or "negative" they seem and work on them as if they're tangible problems ready to be overcame.

Tip #5 – Invent your own warmup exercises

You don't have to follow any written manuals, books, or instructions to the letter. Every written source of information should be treated as a "guideline", and it should be useful to you for as long as you feel comfortable.

Of course, certain rules should be taken for granted, but, just like there should be no room for mistakes in your playstyle (all things considered), you should be flexible about how you warm up your fingers.

Some people like to simply play their "comfort" songs until they're ready to learn different techniques and establish a stronger connection with the ones they've already learned, but, more often than not, this can lead to a certain dose of frustration.

Be innovative and creative with your warmup sessions – you could begin with strumming several open strings, or you could open up with tapping techniques. On the other hand, some players feel comfortable with playing their acoustic guitar with a pick until their fretting hand is warmed up, switching to fingerstyle afterward.

Conclusion

Simply put, improving your fingerstyle technique on an acoustic guitar won't take much, apart from time and some effort. Just like any guitar technique, it can be learned and mastered by will alone, which means that there are no blockades which will prevent you from grasping the matter, other than those you've built yourself.

If you feel uncertain about your technique, take a step back and contemplate on the segments which feel too hard or complex. Most pieces will fall into place eventually, but it's imperative that you keep consistent. 

 When it comes to guitars, you can find a whole bunch of information out there. Start talking with any guitar player who has some experience and they can go for days about different guitars, different brands and so on. However, there is one aspect of guitars that constantly gets forgotten. That is right, we are talking about guitar maintenance. Guitar maintenance is extremely important if you want to keep that instrument in its top shape. Today we are going to spend some time discussing guitar maintenance as well as what things you should or shouldn't do with your guitar.

Guitar Maintenance - The Basics

Taking care of your guitar can be hard or it can be easy. It all depends on how much attention you dedicate to the whole process. For starters, one good way to keep your guitar healthy is to get a hard case for it. Gig bags are alright if you have nothing else, but a hard case is the number one accessory that will prolong the life of your guitar. It doesn't have to be expensive but it needs to be sturdy.

Once you have protection covered, you should look into habits that are going to help you get the best performance out of your guitar. The easiest one is wiping the guitar down after use. When we play, our hands sweat. That sweat starts building up on the fretboard, strings, and pickups if you have an electric guitar. If you don't remove the sweat after every use, all of the metallic components on your guitar will start to oxidize soon rather than later.

Understanding Humidity

Humidity is one of the environmental factors that can easily destroy your guitar. This affects both the electric and acoustic guitars although it is much more devastating for the latter. Since guitars are made out of wood, they require a certain level of humidity. If there is too much humidity, the wood will start to bloat up. On the other hand, if there is not enough, it will begin drying up. Both of these phenomena can damage the tonewood beyond repair. That is the worst case scenario. What you will see more often is your neck starting to bend or twist at some point, or your guitar's top begin to deform.

Battling Humidity

Staying on top of humidity is easy if you have all the right tools for the job. That hard case we have mentioned earlier is a must-have item in this scenario. What most guitar players do is get a small humidifier for guitars and place inside the hard case. This way you are creating a micro climate for the guitar, which will keep it at its desired level of humidity.

The Importance Of Guitar Maintenance

So far we have described what happens in most severe cases, but the lack of guitar maintenance can have a much less obvious impact on your instrument. Before we go any further, we have to emphasize how complex a guitar is. Especially a high-end one. We are talking about instruments which rely on all of their components to work flawlessly in order to deliver the performance they are capable of.

Even if just one of those components suffers, the entire instrument will bottleneck right there. In practical terms, that means that if your fretboard becomes too dirty for lack of care, the guitar might lose its intonation or the sound may become dull. Truth is that most guitar players don't even notice these effects.

It is the professionals that do. Imagine having something like a Taylor 914CE and you are getting ready to hit the stage. All of a sudden, the guitar just doesn't sound right. Maybe you have left it out on a dry day, or maybe you just haven't cleaned it since you got it. Needless to say, that Taylor is not going to perform at the level it is truly capable of.

Truth About Guitar Maintenance

One of the biggest truths about guitar maintenance is that it's not hard. You don't have to go and spend a whole bunch of money on various cleaning solutions and tools. All you really need is some common sense and a piece of cloth. Any kind of maintenance is better than none. That is just a fact. If your guitar has more severe technical issues such as its neck being out of alignment, you have two options.

You can either do the job yourself, which might take some research and learning. Or, you can take it down to the shop and let them do it for you. If you choose the former approach, we urge you to do substantial research on the subject. This is especially true for guitar neck adjustments but also applies to anything else really.

Accessories Deserve Some Love Too

Even though this article was meant to focus mostly on guitars, we have to mention accessories as well. The very first thing that comes to mind is the cables department. If you like your cables and plan on using them for a long time, make sure that you treat them right as well. This means storing the cables after every use, cleaning them from time to time and generally being careful not to damage them during use.

As long as you inspect, clean and store all of your guitar accessories, chances are they will serve you for a long time. All of this takes an extra few minutes to accomplish and is really not that hard to do. After some time, you will be so used to it that you won't even notice.

Conclusion

Guitar maintenance is one of the least talked about, but extremely important subjects related to this instrument. Taking good care of your instrument will not only keep it in perfect condition, but it will also protect its value should you decide to sell it. At the end of the day, we can sum everything up by saying this - take good care of your guitar and it will take good care of you. 

The Effect Of Tonewood On Guitars

No matter how much guitars have advanced, tonewood is still one of the most important factors that define tone. Different types of wood are used for different components on guitars. The choice of tonewood doesn't necessarily need to depend on the quality of said wood. Often times the person designing a guitar will choose a type of wood that fits the general tone profile they are going for. With that said, there are good and bad tonewoods out there. If we are discussing acoustic guitars, tonewood is a lot more important than it is with electric ones.

Being acoustic in nature, the only thing that shapes the tone of an acoustic guitar is going to be its wood. Things are much more forgiving with electric guitars, although quality and choice of wood still play a significant part. With electrics, it has more to do with sustain and other, more subtle tone traits. Today we are going to talk about tonewood in general and name some of the most common species in use today. By the time you are done reading this guide, you should have a decent understanding of how tonewood impacts the sound of any guitar out there. Let's check out some of the most common tonewoods you will run into.

Spruce

In the world of acoustic guitars, especially steel string ones, spruce is by far the most popular choice of tonewood. You will generally see it used for solid tops. The reason behind this popularity comes from the nature of the wood itself. Spruce is extremely versatile, giving the user a very balanced tonal profile. For most brands, it is the safest choice of tonewood to use on acoustic guitars. With that said, there are many types of spruce which are used to build guitars, however, Sitka spruce is what you will run into most often.

 Yamaha FG 800 Acoustic Guitar

EXAMPLE: 

Mahogany

For a very long time, mahogany was one of the most popular tonewoods used for making both acoustic and electric guitars. This is still the case, although mahogany is slowly becoming endangered. This tonewood is fairly dense and hard, which gives the instrument a fairly warm but well-defined tone. With that said, the quality of any specific batch of mahogany will have a big impact on the sound of the instrument. In other words, not all guitars made using this tonewood are going to sound the same. Due to its density, mahogany is usually heavy. This, in turn, provides great sustain and resonance.

 Gibson LPSTUEBCH1 Les Paul Studio

EXAMPLE: 

Sapele

Back in the day when mahogany wasn't so readily available, the next best alternative was Sapele. This wood brings a lot of the same properties as mahogany, although it is a bit denser in comparison. These days Sapele is one of the most popular choices for acoustic guitar bodies. In terms of tone, Sapele will get you a lot of brightness warmth and overall resonance. Some of the best acoustic guitars on the market today base a lot of their tone on Sapele.

Taylor 324CE Grand Auditorium 

EXAMPLE:

Basswood

If there is one type of tonewood that has caused a lot of heated arguments, it is basswood. It is often used for budget guitars due to its cheap price and abundance. Because of that, many guitar players don't like it. However, basswood brings pretty good tonal properties, which is why some of the best brands in the industry use it for their top tier models. This wood is light, offers a rather even tonal profile and generally sounds great. If a brand uses a good quality batch of basswood, the resulting guitar will sound amazing.

Schecter Omen 6 Electric Guitar Gloss Black

EXAMPLE: 

Maple

While it is not all that commonly used as a tonewood for guitar bodies, maple is by far one of the most prolific wood choices for guitar necks. This is especially true for electric guitars. Maple is extremely dense and hard, which is exactly what you need to provide counter tension to the strings on guitar's neck. When used in guitar bodies, maple will provide a  bright tone and lots of definition. However, its weight makes it better suited for other applications. 



EXAMPLE: 

Gibson LPSTUEBCH1 Les Paul Studio

Alder

Compared to other tonewoods, alder has been introduced to the mainstream by Fender. They were the only ones who made alder guitars for a very long time. With that said, Alder brings a lot of great attributes to the table. It is a fairly heavy wood with good density and strength. In other words, you are looking at full-bodied tone and good sustain from an alder body. When it comes to specific tonal properties, alder offers a great low-end response. Mids are full of girth and rich in nature, while trebles are decent, to say the least. These days many other brands have started using Alder in their designs as well.

EXAMPLE:

Ovangkol

Ovangkol is not really that common yet, but more and more brands are starting to use it in their guitars. The main reason for this is the fact that ovangkol has almost exact same properties as rosewood. As you probably know, rosewood is used to build just about every component in guitars depending on a specific design. With that said, you will most often find it in acoustic guitar back and sides. It adds a lot of definition and brightness to the tone. On top of that, compared to rosewood, ovangkol features improved mids.

EXAMPLE:

Conclusion

Different tonewoods have different properties. However, it is important to understand that build quality of a guitar is the most important factor you need to pay attention to. There are models out there made out of great tonewood, which is outperformed by budget guitars. On a similar note, you will find a lot of basswood guitars that sound amazing, even though this is considered to be a cheap wood. Tonewoods listed above are some of the most frequently used. With that said, there are many other, more exotic options out there.