This reminds me. I’ve been playing for about 20 years but never ever learned how to fingerpick. I can strum, I can solo, all that sort of stuff. Just not fingerpicking.
Anyone got any good examples of where to start? Anything online?
I play exclusively with my fingers these days. The first songs I learned that used finger picking were Hotel California, Dear Prudence, and Behind Blue Eyes. All have simple picking patterns.
If you want to work on playing leads with your fingers I recommend Dire Straights and Fleetwood Mac for rock lead guitar players who are finger players, and listening to lots of old acoustic blues players, who don’t necessarily play with their fingers but the general style lends itself to finger playing well. Acoustic blues is what got me started playing primarily with my fingers in the first place.
I saw that I missed that in your OP yesterday, but didn’t come back with a ‘DOH!’ :smack:
Anyway, we did the alternate bass thing in Beginning Folk Guitar on the first set of songs I mentioned.
We also picked A Soalin*. I still play that whenever I pick up my guitar. We also did Dust In The Wind.
*Note: The first link has one of those pop-up ringtone ads. I’m always suspicious about those sites, but I’m on a Mac.
Me too - I can’t fingerpick worth a damn, but I use my fingers - I think the distinction is referred to as “fingerstyle” vs. “fingerpicking” - but nothing is ever clear with guitar jargon.
I would get on youtube and search on acoustic blues - known teachers are Happy Traum, Keb Mo, Arlen Roth - but I am sure there are doesn’t aspiring teachers showing their approach on youtube…
Keb Mo teaches on YouTube? This Keb Mo?
Kick ass. He is one of my favorites. I wish I could play half as well as he does when he isn’t trying.
In my limited guitar playing experience I got pretty good at Glycerine by Bush.
And “Every Rose has its Thorn.” 
Him teaching:
Someone trying to teach his style:
I just went to youtube and typed in “acoustic blues lesson keb mo”
No kidding that is the coolest thing I have seen in days. Thanks.
Hotel California being the first one on my list. It makes me sound like I can actually play guitar when I do it right. 
I’m not sure that “Hotel California” meets the OP’s criteria of being playable with “basic, open chords”. Whatever key you start in, there’s too much modulation going on there to cover it with open chords.
That, and needing like 7 other guitarists to play it as recorded. 
Capo on the fifth fret (I think. Maybe higher its been a long time) and you can play it with all open chords. The only funky one is a Bmaj7 and that isn’t all that funky. I’ll go through my old lesson book when I get home and look up the chord sequence.
“Back In Black”
E
DDD
AAA
Ok, I have been thinking about it and I haven’t looked it up to verify, but I think if you play
Verse:
Em B7 D A C G Am B7
Chorus
C G Am Em
C G Am B7
You should be set. And to play with the recording you move it up to either capo on the 5th or 6th (I think, I don’t remember what key the song actually starts in anymore.)
33 posts and no mention of “Lightly Row?”
d&r
Damn, I went to double check something and missed the edit window.
Its B7 not Bmaj7 so that’s even better. Everyone should know how to play an open B7, and if you don’t this is a good time to learn.
The first time through on that B7 (in the open key) they leave out the 5th and double up on the 3rd (open it would be D# on the B string rather than the F# on high E and E gets muted, or not played.) which I guess technically makes it something other than a B7, but I am not sure what. B A and 2 D#, anyone? Anyway, I am fairly sure that the bass player picks up the F# in his baseline, so it just gives it a little bit of a darker twist instead of the brightness that the 5th would add to the top of the chord.
It’s a fun song to play what with all the flourishes and modulations. I am not sure how to translate the pick pattern to text easily or I would add that too. I think it’s a great song for someone who has just mastered changing between chords but hasn’t done anything more with their right hand than strum because it can be made to be so very simple when you start, but the song can grow to get more interesting as your skill level increases and you are able to get loose with it.
I haven’t played Hotel California in years though. My wife has a strict no Eagles policy when she is around.
Whole Wide World by wreckless Eric?
Yeah, that works. I stand corrected. I guess I’ve never tried to play it with open chords.
That’s a good one – just 2 chords, right? (I’ve been thinking about compiling a list of good 2-chord and 1-chord songs, and I’d forgotten that one.)