If you want to master the acoustic guitar, you need to learn how to finger pick. Fingerpicking is all about being able to pick the string very fast and in an accurate manner. As a result, you’ll end up playing a lot faster. To help you practice fingerpicking, here are some good tabs to try.

What Does Fingerpicking Require?

Before you start practicing with the tabs, it is essential to understand what skills you need to master it. The goal is to use one finger for every string on your guitar. For most of your fingers, playing a string won’t be too difficult, but your little finger might not have the required strength at the start.

It’s often a great idea to learn from the masters themselves and see what hand positioning they use for fingerpicking. This Guitar Fresh guide is a nice way to get to know some of the best guitar players that play in the fingerpicking style.

The Basic Guide to Understanding the Tabs

In the tabs below, we showcase the chord and the finger you need to use to play it. Therefore, you need to remember the shortcut for each finger and they go as follows:

• T for thumb
• I for index finger
• M for middle finger
• F for fore finger
• P for the pink finger

Here are some of the basic tabs you can practice with:

This tab is played in the C-chord. Hold the chord and use each of the corresponding fingers to pick the string in question.

E   | ————  | ———-  | ———-  | ———-  |

B  | ——-1—  | ———-  | 1———| ———-   |

G  | —–0—–  | ——1— | —0—— | 1——— |

D  | —2——-  | —-0—– | ——2— | —0—— |

A  | -3———  | –2——- | ——–3- | —–2—- |

E   | ————  | 3——— | ———-  | ——-3– |

T I M F      T I M F      F M I T     F M I T

You can change the chord if you like as well. Another good tab to practice with, which also includes the pink finger, is this:

E   | —2——-  | —0—— | –0——- | –2——- |

B  | ———0-  | ———0 | ——–2- | ——–3- |

G  | ———–   | ———-  | ———-  | —–2—  |

D  | ———–   | —–2—- | —–2—  | 0——— |

A  | ——2—-  | -2——– | 0——–  | ———-  |

E   | -3———  | ———-  | ———-  | ———-  |

T  P  I  F     I  P M F    I P M F     I  P M F

Generally, each finger will also pick just a specific set of strings. Naturally, there are always exceptions but it helps to recognise the most common hand position.

• Thumb will pick the 6^th (E), 5^th (A) and 4^th (D) strings
• Index finger will pick the 3^rd (G) string
• Middle finger will pick the 2^nd (B) string
• Fore finger will pick the 1^st (E)

But as you can see from the above tabs, there can sometimes be alterations to this rule. On top of this, it is crucial to let your hand rest naturally on top of the strings. If you keep bending the hand, you’ll find it harder to pick and you’ll have a lot of pain in your wrist in no time.

Play these above tabs regularly and try to use different chords when you play. It’ll be a bit difficult at the start, but your fingers will slowly ease into it and you’ll find playing a lot easier. When you feel yourself progressing, slowly start increasing the speed as well.

Acoustic Guitar has a list of rock songs that are great for practicing fingerpicking. It is worth checking out if you feel like your skills are getting better and you want to try something a bit harder.

It often helps to view video lessons in order to achieve the right playing position. If you want, you can check our video lessons for more information. Just remember to practice regularly and you’ll be able to enhance your fingerpicking skills.