Acoustic Finger-style techniques

Hi Chordians,

I noticed in the forum posts that many you have heard of finger-style guitarists such as Justin King, Don Ross, Andy Mckee, etc... For those of you know who haven't heard of them, these guys basically are known for their unique styles in playing the guitar. They use methods such as tapping & slapping to add a different percussive texture to their music.

Here's an example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4

The reason why I started this thread is because I thought it would be interesting to have a place where Chordians could comment on this playing style and hopefully give some tips on how to do some of the techniques.

For example, I recently had some trouble with a technique called the "Palm and Nail attack" that an artist called Kotaro Oshio uses in many of his songs. Basically, the idea is to use your palm while you strum to do a "body hit" on the guitar, which will add a more aggressive and boomy sound to whatever chord/riff you're playing.

here's a video where this technique is used : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpLVL7X4 … re=related

I've found that the best way to practice this technique is to develop a steady rhythm only with your palm at first in order to get a feel for the body hit. Once you have that sounding out properly, you try to add the strumming in the rhythm by folding your middle and ring finger, and by flicking them both against the strings with the nails as your palm strikes the body of the guitar. Much easier said than done....