OldFolkie, it depends on how you want it to sound. If you want a more "spare" sound then just a few notes will do. If you want a full, lush accompaniment then the more notes the better! The trouble with playing some kind of arpeggio whilst keeping the tune going though is that you may submerge the tune under the "filler". You plays your songey and you takes your choice. ;-)

Getting stuck in one picking pattern is iffy though, bcos everything ends up sounding the same. You do get certain playing styles you like, but you've gotta be able to break out of them when you need to, otherwise it gets repetitive.

As a radical idea, have you tried playing some simple classical guitar pieces? If you're thinking about playing melodies, this is a great help. You don't need a classical guitar or anything, you can play it just as well on a steel string. And classical guitar will *really* break those habits of staying in the same old chord shapes and fingerpicking patterns. Guiliani, Carcassi and Sor wrote some great studies for classical guitar which aren't too difficult but sound lovely, and Bach pieces often sound good on guitar so there are lots of arrangements of those going round too.

Graham.