Five Effective Ways to Learn Fingerstyle Guitar

Long time ago, around twenty or thirty years ago, when there was no internet, it was very difficult to learn fingerstyle guitar. Maybe, at that time, it wasn’t exist at all. Only classical guitar was known.

Actually, in my opinion, fingerstyle was produced by the classical guitarists who were willing to play contemporer songs. That was why they did many experiments including using percussions, slidings, and any kinds of guitar techniques.

As a beginner, it was very difficult to improve my skill in playing fingerstyle guitar long time ago, but right now, it is not difficult anymore, because there are many resources that we can learn from.

There are five effective ways that we can learn fingerstyle guitar.

Check it out ^_^.

First - From Books

We can learn fingerstyle guitar from the old-fashioned way, i.e. from books.

There are many books that can help you to master on fingerstyle guitar, especially if we want to buy digital books that are spread widely.

We have to choose which books are suitable to improve our skills in playing fingerstyle guitar.

But not all of the books are useful for you. You have to sort which ones will give you benefit to grade up your level of playing.

Second - Following Guitar Course

Guitar course? Of course, it is very highly recommended if you have a budget for that.

The same with books, you have to choose the course that provide what you need in your city, that you believe it can improve your capacity in playing fingerstyle guitar.

And of course, from the qualified mentors in the course, you can improve your ability to play fingerstyle guitar faster than studying from books. Why? Because you have a teacher who can guide you, to show you the right or wrong play, and there are many levels that are arranged to show the mastery of yours.

But, you have to spend some money to pay the course fee. Remember one thing : The more expensive of the fee doesn’t guarantee the quality of the mentors. So, you have to check and recheck the quality of the institutions from the capabilities of the students or ex-students who have ever studied there. If around seventy till eighty percents said that the condition and quality of the institutions are good, you can consider to join in.

Third - Trials and Errors

This way can be done also, but it needs more time.

My friend, Joni (not a real name) is a violinist in an acoustic band, quite famous in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. He can't read scores. He has never taken any violin course before. So, he learns by watching tutorial videos from YouTube; try again and again and do many errors until much better :).

Every afternoon, from four to six, he tries to imitate whatever he watches and listens from the videos of the other violinists.

Tired?

Of course, but it also works if we are consistent to do it many times.

Joni are consistent until now.

Fourth - Find Friends who can play fingerstyle guitar well

Nah, right now, it is not too difficult to find friend who can play fingerstyle guitar well. It is not the same with twenty or thirty years ago when the internet wasn't exist or it didn't appear to help mankind.

We can search from Google, Facebook, or Instagram to know the people in our cities who have the same hobby with us. Then we can arrange the date to meet together and share our experience, knowledge, skill, and have a good relationship.

The advantage of having friends who have the same hobby is they can encourage us to be better, improve our skill because they like to share what they can do.

So, find friends who can play fingerstyle guitar well in order to improve your skill in playing fingerstyle guitar.

Fifth - From Internet

Of course, right now is the era of internet, and whatever we want to know, just typing or saying questions in Google, and we will find the answers.

It was different when I was a child long time ago that I had only books and people to teach me how to play classical guitar; now I can search on Google and Youtube to find the scores, tabs, and lessons that I want to learn.

It is easier right now to find anything we want to study. For example, I can play the scores of Mr.Jubing Kristianto, one of the fingerstyle guitarists in Indonesia. He has a website that presents his scores. It helps me to improve my ability in playing fingerstyle guitar way.

And then I share my playings in my Youtube account. Boasting myself? No, I just want to share and remind me later when I am old that at the young age, I could play fingerstyle and classical guitar. You all can see my playings here.

So, I have to admit that I learn much from the internet rather than the other resources because it is cheap, easy to access, wide, and I can learn whenever and wherever I want to.

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The five ways above are some of ways that I use to do in improving my skill in playing fingerstyle guitar. If you have another ways that are not mentioned, you can share the link of your writing in blogs or social media in the comments below.

One thing that I will always remember : keep practicing and never give up to be better

Enjoy playing your guitar ^_^.