Right Hand Guitar Techniques

Flat-picking – Playing the guitar using a pick or plectrum. Plucking each individual string one at a time to sound a unique note. This simple technique is one of the primary skills almost every player will learn.

Finger picking – Using the fingers and thumb of the right hand to pluck one or more strings at a time to play complex melodies. Master finger pickers can play several parts at once, forming a complex sound.

Alternating bass – Often known as Travis Picking, involves playing the melody upon the top three or four strings of the guitar with the fingers of the right hand, while the thumb plays a constant or alternating bass part on the bottom strings.

Classical style – A very difficult finger picking technique to master, where the hand is held entirely away from the fingerboard, and all 4 fingers, plus the thumb are used to pick notes.

Dampening – Where the player uses the heel, or side of the right hand to dampen vibrating strings, or to stop strings currently being picked or strummed from sounding fully. This produces an almost percussive sound.

Left Hand GuitarTechniques

Barre chords – These chords differ from open chords in the fact that the player creates a bar across the entire fret board using the forefinger of the left hand, in effect making a human capo. Barre chords are extremely useful, allowing the guitarist to play complex chord progressions without moving up and down the guitar neck.

Arpeggios – An arpeggio is basically a three note run, with all three notes taken from the chord, or scale, which the piece of music is currently attuned to.

Dampening – Either lifting the left hand slightly from the fret board when playing a chord, or possible placing it loosely onto the fret board before playing the next chord, this produces a muffled, funky kind of rhythm playing.

Hammer ons – A hammer-on is used to describe the action of playing a fret, and then hammering down with a different finger onto a different fret, causing a new note to ring out, without actually picking the string.

Pull offs – A pull off is the reverse of a hammer-on. A finger will be placed on a fret behind the note currently being played, and the original finger which played the original note will be lifted off, allowing a new note to ring out.

These are just a handful of basic left and right hand guitar techniques, there are many more, and all of these should form part of every serious guitar player repertoire. These techniques become easier with practice, even if they do appear to be difficult at first.