Equal time: After several mentions of Happy Traum, let me also recommend Stephan Grossman. Both of these guys have been publishing fingerpicking lessons since the mid-sixties, first in print-only tablature form, then expanding to audio tapes and, most recently, DVDs. Grossman's operation is more extensive than Traum's, I believe, and both are about equally helpful.

There have been plenty of threads on tips for guitar beginners ~ this request pops up periodically. I have had plenty to say on this topic on many occasions in the past, but have more-or-less run out of the energy to continue responding with the same stuff repeatedly. The last time I saw one of these threads appear, I looked up the previous thread, which included links to many previous Mudcat discussions on the topic as well as to outside resources like Happy's and Stephen's websites, and provided a link in the new thread. Lemme try to do that again...

By the way, thanks for that link to the fingerpicking video ~ but is it helpful and inspirational, or just plain intimidating? It's too grainy to see exactly where the fingers are being placed, and even if it were flawlessly high-def, I doubt that any beginnner could learn much from it ~ too complicated! I did take note of the guy's Ovation guitar; I wonder if any of the guitar snobs looking in on this thread have anything to say about that!