20 Guitar Fingerstyle Patterns

You can also play the following patterns with the guitar pick instead of your fingers. Look at the LEGEND nearby for the picking and fingering notations used in the diagrams.

Learning guitar fingerstyle patterns is an excellent way to add new dimension to your playing you can practice them over the chord progressions just like the strumming patterns.

Unlike the strumming patterns, where you hit multiple strings simultaneously, fingerstyle patterns are played string by string most of the time, this method delivers a more lyric and soft sound.

Commonly you use clean electric or acoustic guitar to play this sort of thing, another approch worth noting is that you can use your distorted electric guitar sound with palm muting to play this thing in heavier styles and still have clarity in your music.

The patterns go more or less from simplest to more advanced ones.

Show extra information|Hide extra information

Pattern 1

Pattern 2

A small piece of a guitar tab that accompanies the explanation written before it — The dotted lines in the diagrams represent relative positions of the strings, and the lowest line will not necessarily be the low E string. For example for the open C chord it would be the 5th string, for the open D chord is the 4th string.

Pattern 3

Pattern 4

Note that you "can't" play the pattern 2 and 3 straightforward as they depicted here let's say on the D open chord, because these patterns spread over 5 strings and the D open chord is played using just 4, be flexible to adjust patterns to your situation and trust your ears. For example, you can skip skipping the string after the 1st note in the pattern 3 and move the rest of them one string lower like this:

A diagram of a finger-picking pattern that accompanies the explanation written nearby

By the way this new formation sounds better with some songs, so don't be bound by the diagrams, feel free to exchange notes, alternate bass note from one string to the next on each even bar like in the pattern 15 and so on...

Pattern 5

Pattern 6

Pattern 7

Pattern 8

Pattern 9

Used in Wasting Love by Iron Maiden.

Pattern 10

Pattern 11

Pattern 12

Pattern 13

Pattern 14

Pattern 15

In this finger style pattern the thumb alternately switches between the two lower bass strings.

Pattern 16 - Traditional Waltz

A diagram of guitar fingerpicking pattern 16 - used in waltz

Pay attention that waltz has 3/4 time signature, it means that duration of the 1 bar is equal 3 quarter notes, and not 4 notes as with more commonly encountered 4/4 time signature.