Flatpicking is a guitar technique where the guitarist strikes the strings of the guitar with a pick or plectrum held between the thumb and one or two fingers. This technique is used primarily in bluegrass and folk music genres. Flatpicking can be contrasted with fingerstyle guitar, where the guitarist plucks the strings using individual fingers.

Flatpicking is typically favored by players who prefer a bright, crisp, metallic sound, while fingerstyle tends to be preferred by those who need softer, darker, or more mellow tone. Flatpicking can be done with or without wearing fingerpicks.

Flatpicking began largely with techniques in rhythm guitar, chiefly in early country and Old Time string band music. Guitarists like Riley Puckett pioneered this early flatpicking by adding quick, complex runs to backup rhythm guitar. By the late 1920s, guitarists like Roy Harvey and Johnny Crockett began using flatpicking techniques for lead guitar, often with significant influence from Ragtime, Jazz, and Swing styles. Flatpicking techniques and styles were built upon heavily in the 1960s by guitarists like Doc Watson, Clarence White, and George Shuffler.

Different styles of flatpicking can be contrasted with fingerstyle guitar, which utilizes the softer sound provided by playing with the flesh and/or nails of the fingers, either on nylon or steel-string guitars. When we use the term ‘flatpicking’, it typically refers to a folk or bluegrass style. However, hybrids of flatpicking and fingerstyle can be found in folk as well.

As with all styles of guitar, flatpicking involves a high degree of coordination between the left and right hand. Flatpicking techniques include crosspicking, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and intricate strumming.