GUITAR FINGERSTYLE
Guitar fingerstyle, used in classical guitar, country guitar, blues guitar, etc. is a technique that is important to have in your guitar practice routine and a skill all guitar players should learn. However, some of the greatest guitar players in the world never use it, such as Allan Holdsworth. It depends on what you want to do with your guitar.
Guitar fingerstyle means using the fingers to play the strings on a guitar as opposed to using a pick. A combination of the thumb or a thumb pick is used to pick the lower guitar strings for the bass notes or walking bass, and the other fingers pluck the higher strings either all at the same time for chords, or in an arpeggio manner.
There is no absolute rule that a certain finger has to be limited to certain strings for guitar fingerstyle. For example, the thumb may be used to alternate between the index and/or middle fingers on just a single string or two higher strings. Or as a general rule, the index finger is assigned to the 3rd string, the middle finger to the 2nd string, and the ring finger to the 1st string while the thumb covers the 6th, 5th and 4th strings. Different players use their fingers differently on the strings in fingerstyle, but you should use what works best for you.
Some guitar fingerstyle players prefer to have the nails of their picking fingers longer to get a nice, clear picking sound, as if using a pick. However, others prefer to use their skin rather than the nail which can sometimes get caught on the string. Some fingerpickers also like to use a "thumb pick" that wraps around the thumb. This gets into the area of hybrid picking where a pick is used with the fingers. Pure guitar fingerstyle uses no pick at all and for some styles a pick of any type could affect the ability to properly fingerpick to the necessary degree of proficiency required for the style or piece of music.
You will probably find that it is a good idea to have some proficiency with guitar fingerstyle because it isn't that difficult to at least acquire a working skill with it and it can expand your playing horizons.
