I used to say that I was self taught, but another way of looking at it is that I have been taught by every guitarist that I’ve ever listened to or played with over the years. The more I hear great music by other artists, the better my guitar playing becomes. A few of the people who have influenced or inspired me in my approach to playing the acoustic guitar are Doc Watson, Dean McGraw, Phil Heywood, and Tommy Emanuel . . . but the full list goes on and on.
Most of my guitar work is based on a finger picking method that I have developed over the years which utilizes the thumb and all four fingers on my right hand as well as all fingers (and occasionally the thumb) on my left hand.
Right hand technique: I often play chords by using thumb and three or four fingers of my right hand to simultaneously pluck the strings I want to hear. And I often alternate between bass notes and chords in a progression by plucking each bass note with my right thumb followed by plucking the individual notes of each chord simultaneously with three or four fingers of my right hand.
Left hand technique: Most of the chords that I use utilize only four or five strings at a time, especially when the chords are rooted above the third fret. I use coordination between the fingers on both hands to either pluck all of the strings fretted for the chord simultaneously, or pluck the individual strings separately in a pattern or an arpeggio. For chords higher up the neck I do not need to mute un-fretted strings with my left hand because I do not pluck them with my right hand. I use all of the fingers on my left hand when I play melodies, bass lines, and fret chords. And I use my left thumb to fret the 6th string for some chords.
Finger picking the guitar enables me to play bass lines and melodies simultaneously while intermixing plucked or strummed chords.
Wild Songs 