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Yeah, so @Mrfredsporty ;
I’m very glad that @Bill_Brown was able to give you something that you found valuable. But I would like to take a stab at filling out the picture for you.
When I joined, I wanted to do finger style also. In fact, I didn’t want to use a pick at all. I did use a flat pick for the flat pick lessons for a long time. At least a year and a half, if not closer to 2 years. And I really put some effort into some of the beginner finger picking songs. But somehow, I still didn’t feel like I had my direction and goal.
There are so many different ways to finger pick, so many different styles, and all I was learning was a few specific patterns that hardly scratched the surface of the larger picture.
As I sit here thinking about how I can explain this, I am reminded of an intention I had previously. And that is to make a YouTube video about finger picking. Cause, how do I explain in words what can be difficult to demonstrate? I will come back and link to my video, which I will post in the “Show Us Your Routine” section.
But in the meantime, I can make suggestions for the TAC “warmups”, which Tony now calls “Technique”, that will help you develop the skills to play guitar using finger picking like others play using strumming. What I mean is, playing chords, playing rhythm, but no using a specific pattern. But like strumming, your fingers have to start somewhere.
Now these lessons used to have the designation WU for “warm up”. I haven’t saved all these, but I printed them out and have hard copies, so I can give you the name. Before Tony started adding new ones, there were 30 of them. All the odd numbered ones were flat picking (FLP), and all the even numbered ones were finger picking (FP).
The first FP is WU2. That’s a really good exercise to learn alternating thumb.
Then there is WU1, which is for flat pick. However, if you are going to play with your fingers you need to know how to do alternate picking. Tony demonstrates this in “Tax Refund New Guitar Day“. Once you know how to use your thumb and index to alternate pick, then the flat picking exercises can be used for general finger picking skill.
Then there is WU4, which is a great exercise to learn one of the best 4/4 time alternate thumb finger picking patterns.
The only other thing I would suggest here is to use all three fingers. Tony has the WU12, Ring Finger Roll, and the WU26, Ring Finger Roundup, that help to get the ring finger involved.
The final thing I will say here is to do all the flat picking lessons with your fingers. Figure out how to do everything others do with a flat pick with your fingers.
I hope this helps.
MG 😀