Guitar technique
Fingerpicking uses the picking-hand thumb and fingers to pluck individual strings instead of a pick, allowing simultaneous bass-line and melody-line playing on a single guitar.
Free for the first 3 songs.
What it is
Fingerpicking patterns are central to folk, country, blues, classical guitar, and acoustic singer-songwriter styles. Travis picking (alternating bass with treble melody) and clawhammer are the most common patterns in American folk. Classical fingerstyle uses the thumb (p), index (i), middle (m), and ring (a) fingers in named patterns. Modern percussive fingerstyle adds tapping the guitar body for rhythm.
How to read it
Tab notation shows fingerpicking as separate note stems on different strings played simultaneously or in tight sequence. Picking-hand fingering letters (p, i, m, a) may appear above the tab to indicate which finger plucks each note.
See the full guide to reading guitar tab for the complete symbol reference, or browse the glossary for related terminology.
How audio2guitar detects it
Fingerpicked passages produce simultaneous attacks across multiple strings with timing offsets too tight to be flat-picked. The pipeline detects fingerpicking when multiple voices are sustained independently and the attack envelopes match finger-pluck (not pick) characteristics.
Where it shows up
The tab shows which strings are played and when. The pattern (Travis, clawhammer, classical, hybrid) is implicit in the notation and recognizable to anyone familiar with fingerstyle conventions.
Every fingerpicking our pipeline detects gets marked in the tab automatically. First 3 songs free.