What Is A Fingerstyle Guitar?
Fingerstyle Guitar is more of a description of the music than the instrument. Fingerstyle is just that, a method of playing music with the fingers. It is how the guitar is played.
Fingerstyle or fingerpicking is a method of using all the fingers on the right hand to pluck the strings. Using a pick is still the preferred method amongst gutiarists to sound the strings. The sound of several instruments at once can be made by a talented fingerpicker. Fingerstyle can be played on any guitar however there are some instruments that are more suited to it. A fingerstyle guitar is usually but not always an
acoustic guitar. Chet Atkins made the big electric Gretsch famous with his fingerpicking hits. Most music that is not of the classical genre is played on steel string guitars.
Fingerstyle Guitar is often used as accompaniment for singing which makes it a popular form with folk, blues, country and pop singers because it works well for the solo artist that does not travel with a band. Fingerstyle is also very popular in solo instrumental music such as jazz, smooth jazz, and new age. Classical guitarists have been playing solo instrumental music for centuries.
We have now come full circle to the original subject which is the guitar. The instrument that would always qualify as fingerstyle is the classical guitar. This instrument is made to be played with fingers instead of a pick. The classical instrument has always been a nylon string (or cat gut before there was nylon) acoustic guitar. Recently several companies have introduced a thin bodied electric version but they are still rare. The tonewoods, that is the woods that make up the top, sides, and back of the guitar, are selected for the way they enhance the classical fingerstyle playing. The neck is often much wider than that of a steel string guitars so that the artists picking fingers can grab
individual strings. A very wide nut width of up to 2 1/2 inches can be found on the classical guitar. Most steel string guitars that are constructed for fingerstyle playing have have 1 3/4 inch width at the nut. Most other steel string guitars are slightly smaller, usually 1 11/16 inch nut width. I say usually and most to let you know that there always be different strokes for different folks. Hopefully this has given the reader an idea as to what constitutes a fingerstyle acoustic guitar.
Tags: acoustic guitar, fingerpicking, fingerstyle, fingerstyle guitar
