Welcome Shredhead. I can't shred and since I am missing the thumb, or most of, on my left hand, I lean towards fingerpicking since I don't do many chords well, but fingerpicking and a lot of blues relies on mostly notes or powerchords and I avoid Barre chords like the plague.

I really just started playing so I look forward to reading what you have to say. This is a great community with great instructors.

Jaime