Beginner Guitar Lessons Part 2 – Guitar Finger Picking, Raking, Muting and Strumming

Applying Pressure to the Fretboard

Techniques such as finger picking, raking, muting, and strumming are vital to learning to play guitar. If you do not first succeed in perfecting these basic guitar–playing actions, then anything else you learn (such as chords or scales) will be useless. In order to being playing notes on a guitar, you must first learn how to position your fingers correctly on the fret by using the following steps:

Push the string down on the fretboard, making solid contact in between the frets. Below is a picture of the proper finger positioning on the 3rd fret, 1st string of the fretboard. With your other hand, pick the string you are applying pressure to. If you hear a buzzing noise, it is because you either are not pushing down hard enough or your finger is positioned incorrectly.

Also, keep in mind that your fingers will not be able to handle a lot of playing this early in the game, and most likely they will ache. Do not worry! It is perfectly normal for your fingers to ache as you adjust to the new techniques. With time, you should be able to play for hours.

Finger Picking

Finger picking is simply using your fingers to pluck the strings, instead of using a pick. In order to do this, you need to be familiar with a finger-picking tablature. Learning to read the finger-picking tablatures is about as easy as saying a, b, c, d, or rather P, I, M, A in this case. Your left hand (fretting hand), is labeled 1–4 starting with your index finger (1) all the way to your pinky (4). The thumb on the fretting hand is labeled as “T.” The P, I, M, A configuration comes into play with your picking hand. The configuration is as follows: “P.” for the thumb, “I.” for the index finger, “M.” for the middle finger, and “A.” for the ring finger. Since the pinky finger is rarely used, there is no letter to represent it. Below is a simple exercise for you to use as practice.

Raking

Just like finger picking, the raking technique involves just what the name suggests – raking the pick over the strings. This has also been called sweep picking. All you must do for this technique is hold your pick loosely, strumming the strings slowly, but quickly enough for the notes to sound in unison.

Muting

Again, the muting technique is merely what the name implies. In order to perform a mute, either you palm mute all 6 strings or finger mute a select string. To palm mute, rest the palm of your picking hand over the strings, and pluck the notes. To finger mute, rest a finger from your fretting hand over a single string, whichever string you choose.

Strumming

By far the easiest way to play guitar, strumming requires that you simply strum all the guitar strings with one swipe. The key to perfect strumming is playing the notes in unison (requiring quick strumming so the notes play at the same time), with a consistent pick strength applied to each string. In essence, you are trying to make the strings all sound as one note. There are two different strokes to strumming: the up–stroke (towards the ceiling) and the down–stroke (towards the floor). At right is an example of the differences between the up-stroke and the down–stroke. When the arrow points down, that requires an up–stroke, and vice–versa.

Continue on to Beginner Guitar Lessons Part 3 – Exercises for Success.

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