This is a guest post from Christopher Davis, who is the editor of the Classical Guitar Blog.  The CG Blog is an amazing resource for both classical and wanna-be classical guitarists.  If you are interested in contributing a guest post, please contact me here.

Fingerstyle or classical guitar seems daunting at first.  Like any other style of guitar, however, the basics apply to everything.  The purpose of this article is to get you playing some beginning patterns with the right hand fingers.

The Basics

Right hand fingers are labeled with letters.

p=thumb, i=index, m=middle, a=ring, and c=little finger.

While playing fingerstyle it’s important to keep a generally straight right wrist.  Try this:  make a fist with your right hand.  Place the thumb along side the fist.  Then relax the hand and let the fingers curl gently, the wrist should drop a bit too.  That’s what your hand should look like on the guitar!  Just “freeze” the wrist/hand in place and play it over the strings.

Now place p on the fifth string, i on the third, m on the second, and a on  the first.  This is home position.  Just like with the left hand, the right hand use is limited mostly to the fingertips.  Avoid putting  the fingers too far back and having the strings touch in the pad of the fingers.  Here’s a few photos of my right hand in home position to give you an idea.

Now Make Some Noise

So far we’ve covered the basics:  finger labeling, the wrist/hand, and home position.  Now make some noise.  Keep your thumb in place on the fifth string.  Now snap all the fingers off the strings, and bring them back into the hand.  That is, play the strings, but curl the right hand fingers into the hand — it’s the same motion as making a first.

Do this exercise a few more times to get a feel for it.  This motion of the fingers back into the hand is the norm for all right hand playing.  When you’re just starting with fingerstyle playing, it’s better to exaggerate the motions at first, and work on refining and shrinking them down later.

Some Basic Right Hand Patterns

First, a word on planting or preparation.  It’s very hard for a right hand finger to miss a string if it’s already on it.  That’s the idea behind preparing or planting the right hand fingers.  As the following patterns move up the strings (going from the lowest string to the highest), we’re going to do a full plant.  At the start of each arpeggio all the fingers are on the strings.  Some of the pattern move back down the strings, in these cases work on bring the finger back to the string right before it plays.

p i m

Plant/prepare the thumb, index and middle fingers on strings 3, 2 and 1 respectively.  Now peel them off one at a time.  Or…

1. Plant all the fingers
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m
5. Return all the fingers to the strings and start over

p i m i

Plant/prepare the thumb, index, and middle fingers on strings 3, 2, and 1 respectively.  This pattern is a little bit different, as it requires the index to return alone before it starts over.

1. Plant all the finger
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m, while m plays return i to the second string
5. Play i
6. Return all the fingers and do it again

A great practice method for this arpeggio is to just do steps one through four, then stopping.  This just practices the return of i to the string, one of the things students have the most trouble with.

Eventually the beat of planting is combined with the thumbs motion.  This would turn the p i m arpeggio into…

1. Plant all the fingers
2. Play p
3. Play i
4. Play m
5. p plays, i and m return to the strings and the arpeggio starts over

Playing fingerstyle for the first time always feels awkward.  But just checking out some videos of great classical or fingerstyle guitarists leaves no doubt that fingerstyle players can be just as capable and virtuosic as the usual guitar icons.  Some right hand chops will only add to your skill as a guitarist.  Good luck! and thanks for reading!