Too right, Frank! If you don't enjoy playing, it's all a bit of a waste of time. That's the tragedy of too many young people in the classical style, unfortunately - some teachers manage to suck all the fun out of it. If you're doing it for yourself instead of for a teacher, you get much more out of it.

One more thing on fingerpicking - alternate thumb picking. This is simply changing which note your thumb plays. So in Am, the following will work nicely:-

5 3 2 1 | 4 3 2 1 | 5 3 2 1 | 6 3 2 1

Then try putting a thumb stroke in every other note, and just playing the same note with the other fingers:-

5 2 4 2 | 5 2 6 2

Then put them together:-

5 3 4 2 | 5 1 4 2

Then just mix and match, any combination in any order. At that point, it's up to *you* to find the fingerpicking sequence that *you* like for each song. And by then, you'll be really motoring - if you're not playing open-mics and singarounds by then, you should be! :-)

Graham.