A long time ago I decided to throw my picks away and dedicate my playing to a more orchestral style, one that exploited the orchestral quality that the guitar offers. I was always inspired by players who combined melody, bass lines and chords all together in one plucking. I seem to remember Charlie Byrd being the first to grab my attention, then Jose Feliciano, then James Taylor (who brought this style to steel strings), and since then a host of others. This ability to render an entire arrangement, solo, is what makes the guitar such a unique instrument. Sure, you can do the same on a piano, but not on a Sunday afternoon in the park.

There are two different kinds of finger style in my books: pattern and non pattern. The first leads to the other. It's easier to get your fingers to repeat patterns than to chop and change and play unique bits and pieces, so if you're just starting out, concentrate on simple patterns. I have posted a couple of examples as tablature at www.guitarforbeginners.com but there are countless variations which you will discover once you get into it. The possibilities are endless. The main thing is to keep the pattern musical. Practice everything slowly, concentrating on the smoothness and flow of the picking. The feel of it should be the main concern. Feel is a difficult thing to define and describe, but I see it as 'musicality' -- the element that gives you goose bumps at it's highest setting. More often than not, the feel of piece actually comes from ignoring metronomic time, not adhering to it; comes from light and shade rather than uniformity; from irregularity rather than symmetry. As difficult as it is to describe, we all know it when we hear it.

The other kind of finger style is the orchestral approach. When I was last in Canada visiting my folks, I heard a cassette of myself recorded in about 1970. It was of my own rendition of The Beatles 'Day in the Life' -- the side where all the songs merged into one long track. I had meticulously pieced together a guitar arrangement -- all by ear without knowing what it was I was playing -- of the whole side of the album, complete with bass lines, inner voices and melody. To tell the truth, I was dumbfounded at how I managed with my limited knowledge at the time. I guess I just had plenty of time on my hands back then.

I do remember the process however, and I still do it today when I arrange an existing piece of music. I first of all establish with total certainty the chord progression. This is a must. There should be no areas where you're unsure. Then I listen to the bass line and make note of any deviations from the expected. I look for bass notes that aren't the root note of the chord, I look for timing discrepancies like anticipations. Once I've mapped that out in my brain, the progression and the bass line, I start looking at how to build the melody into the framework. I begin to 'feel' where the melody and bass line converge and where they separate -- in other words where my thumb and fingers will be together or where they'll be staggered. A few run throughs of each section will give me enough familiarity to go looking for other elements to add, like bits of chord that I can pick up with free fingers. Sometimes I'll find a position which forces me to readjust a certain section. So I practice that until I've forgotten the original version. I will always try to include any salient notes in my chord bits. So if the chord is a 7th, I will look for a way to play it, maybe with a 3rd, or 5th. The melody notes will decide for me.

It doesn't take long before your muscle memory allows you to play the piece without thinking too much about it. If you're totally confident that you know the chord progression, absolutely, you'll never really get lost. Even if you deviate from your original arrangement, you can re-invent on the spot. But you must know the framework -- the chords -- intimately.

Eventually, you can simply invent. You will 'hear' the changes, know the context, 'see' endless possibilities all laid out on the fretboard, feel the arrangement as it emerges for a one-off existence. I guess this is what we all strive for -- total fluency with music and total control over the instrument. It's not achievable, of course, but getting as close as we can is the fun part.

Visit Kirk on the web at http://www.lorange.kirk.net or http://www.guitarforbeginners.com