Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lessons

Alternating Index Finger

 
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In the previous lesson we picked a string for our index finger and pretty much stuck with that one for the duration of the chord. Now let's see what we get when we choose two strings and alternate between them.

We used the A minor chord and alternated between the A string and the B string. Now let's keep our thumb the same and then our index finger will alternate between the G string and the B string. Here at first, it's okay to use the same finger for both, but ultimately the goal is to use your index finger for the G string and your middle finger for the B string. But don't worry if that's too hard for right now.

Remember to stay relaxed while you're doing this and accept that it's a soft and gentle sound here at first. Also remember that we're holding down a full chord, so all the strings will sound good, which means it doesn't really matter if you hit the wrong strings at any point.

Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Intro To Fingerpicking
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Alternating Index Finger song notation

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Questions & Answers

1 week ago
Do you really have any benefit in using just the one finger on the B and G strings? Wouldn't that be a bad habit? You did state that later you would assign a finger to each of the high strings. is there really a time where you would use a single finger and move around on G, B and/or e strings?
Mike Olekshy 5 days ago

Hey there - thanks so much for your questions! I think Anders is just trying to make it as simple as possible by suggesting to use the same finger on the G and B strings. He does state that eventually, you'll want to use different fingers there - so I would say - if you can do that - it's probably better to use 2 different fingers and practice the musical example that way. He's suggesting the one finger in case that's too hard right now. As for your last question, I suppose there might be a situation where using a single finger on the top 3 strings makes sense, but those times would be rare. Hope this helps!!

8 months ago
What are the letters above the bars mean? p i p m p i p m sim.?
Mike Olekshy 8 months ago

Hey there, thanks so much for your question! Taken from the classical guitar world, these letters stand for the Spanish words for your fingers. It’s mapped like this: p = pulgar (thumb), i = indice (index finger), m = medio (middle finger), a = anular (ring finger). So if you’re looking at tab or sheet music and see the letter p above a note, that means you’re supposed to use the thumb on your right hand to strike that note. Sim. means to continue the same fingerpicking pattern in each measure. Hope this helps!!