By. Sebastian Gomez

Here’s 1 easy finger-picking hacks that will change for ever the way you play your instrument and launch you into a whole new territory of guitar playing! Let’s jump right in to the first hack.

1. P-i-m-a

Think of fingerpicking just like walking; if you don’t know which foot goes first, you’re just going to trip.

In the Spanish guitar there is a technique called P-I-M-A that solves this very issue. In P-I-M-A, each finger on your picking hand (for most this you’re right hand) is called by the first letter of it’s Spanish naming ;

P for pulgar (thumb), I for indice (index), M for medio (middle), and A for anular (ring). We won’t worry about the chico (pinky) today. You can see this in the image bellow.

Ok we named the fingers…. now what??

All that’s left is to learn where each finger would “step” as it were.

Your P (thumb) is going to play the bass strings: E, A, and D. The other 3 fingers will each play the next three strings: I (index) will play the G string, M (middle) will play the B string , and A (ring) will play the high/little E string.

Ok we learned to walk, now we can learn some steps to get the fingers dancing. The sheet music bellow (and TABs) outline 3 exercises to develop this skill further. Pick up your guitar (acoustic, electric, or classical) and let’s give them a try.

2. Forward Roll

3. Forward-Back Roll

4. Skipping

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