Speed Picking Exercises

[@murdude11]

Great exercise. Is there anything wrong with using different arrangement of fingers on the left hand if appropriate? i.e use of little finger instead of ring finger etc.

[@SteveGilson]

Hi Murray, Thanks for checking the video out. No not at all, I tend to use my little finger and ring finger interchangeably.

[@cj400ex]

Thanks I really love the exercise and technique videos as its something I don't focus on often enough. I've always been interested in finger picking and have decided to just put the pick down for a month or two or three. My question is can you obtain the same speed using just the flesh of fingers vs fingernails, I just can't grow fingernails in my career? Thanks again for these lessons they are very helpful and inspiring, love your style, its very unique.

[@SteveGilson]

Thanks a lot! Yes you can get the same speed, with either fingertips or nails. The main difference will be the tone is more mellow and less bright. Jeff Beck and Richie Kotzen are very good fingerstyle players and neither of them have long nails, for example. Good luck with it - Steve

[@cj400ex]

SixStringsAttachedTV Awesome stuff, thanks for your insight. I have found that I have to boost the volume on my amp a lot more as I have to touch the strings very softly using my flesh to play faster, this lead to great dynamics cause when I really won't to dig in since the amp volume is higher than normal I just seem to have more of a dynamic range (if that's correctly worded, I hope you understand what I'm saying) than when playing with a pick, it'll probably also make for an interesting conversation with the sound guy on the volume jumps, lol. Thanks again on another note, you know I love free stuff but you should really have some premium stuff I would definitely sign up and contribute as I said your style and lessons are quite unique and that's rare theses days. I definitely believe in giving back but I also believe a person should be compensated for their hard work, I used to do video for a charity and a band and I know it's hard work. Besides I've paid for lessons far worse than your free ones, lol.

[@SteveGilson]

Thanks very much! I try to do something that is a little different on this channel. I did think about putting up premium content, but I only have time for 1 video a week and I like helping people out - maybe I'll set up a patreon account or something. On another subject your question about playing without nails inspired me to create a video on the subject, so expect something to come out over the next week as I have some free time over Christmas!