In this video
This one's all about broadening your fingerstyle repertoire beyond the usual suspects. Rather than defaulting to Blackbird or Fast Car, I want to show you how many songs you wouldn't normally think of as fingerstyle pieces can actually work brilliantly with your fingers.
I start with the fundamentals — thumb on the root note, consistent finger assignment, guitar held close to the body — then build up through some unexpected song choices:
More Than a Feeling – Boston — perfect chords for thumb and finger independence, with a hammer-on built right in
Fire Woman – The Cult — plus a tip on tucking your pick between your fingers to switch between fingerstyle and picking mid-song
Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie — introducing a thumb-down rake technique and using your nail as a natural pick substitute
Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits — the flamenco-style rake Mark Knopfler uses to recreate that shuffle feel with his fingers
Hallowed Be Thy Name – Iron Maiden — parallel tenths on acoustic, closer to classical technique than you'd expect
He Is – Ghost — thumb and index independence with hammer-ons and pull-offs
The Trees – Rush — the most challenging of the bunch, stepping up to more complex chord shapes
There's also live help for Heather working through a tricky bar in her Amy Winehouse fingerstyle arrangement along the way.
Fraser.