Welcome, Gary. You have landed in the best place to learn to play guitar. As for the fingers, it doesn’t matter at all. I use 4 fingers sometimes, and 3 fingers other times. It depends on the song. If it feels good, it is good. You shouldn’t feel like you have to copy what Brian (our teacher) is playing. He encourages us all to just play the way we like, and feel free to modify any of the licks in the lessons. Think of the lessons and the tabs as “suggestions” only. Some members only play with a pick, and others only play finger style, yet we can all pretty much play all the lessons. Just maybe not as fast as Brian. Toward that end, the Soundslice app below the lesson videos can be slowed down if you click on the little gear wheel icon.

Hi Gary,
As a relative beginner I would recommend using four fingers and not three.
“In-position playing” is based on the general rule of assigning one fret to each of the four fingers, which is the best approach in most cases.
Granted, there are many situations where the rule is broken, and advanced players often disregard the rule altogether. But they are advanced and therefore know what they’re doing.
Brian actually uses both approaches depending on the circumstances, and he sure knows what he’s doing!

Hi Gary,
I do think it’s a good idea to get your pinky involved early in your learning. It may help your speed and give you more options in the future, especially for legato playing. Having said that, blues involves a lot of full bends that are best achieved with the ring finger reinforced with one or two other fingers. Also, a lot of vibrato happens with the first three fingers. The thumb over the top, palm against the neck, hand at an angle to the fretboard, three finger approach is very much related to blues techniques. I still find myself using my pinky more in the wider frets and even bending with all 4 fingers at times. I’ve seen great player/teachers like Jeff McErlain do the same.
John

Just had another thought. A lot of blues, country and roots music is major or minor pentatonic based. So, a lot of 2 note per string +/- slide licks which work great with three fingers. Once you start playing modally and adding chromatics, having the pinky available is an asset.
John

Hi Gary, and welcome to the AM site!! There is an old saying in the guitar world ” Get It Any Way You Can” lol Not sure if this is good advice, but it sounds good!!