How to avoid inadvertent string muting due to somewhat fast finger picking?
Have come to realize that no matter how careful and sharp I try to finger-pick the guitar using my right hand (keeping the chord-shapes pressed with left hand to play Arpeggios or melody in general), at anything over say (roughly) 100bpm, the notes have hardly any sustain and almost instantaneous decay. This gives a very "muted" sound to the notes, instead of the distinctive acoustic guitar twang.
Is the above observation a shortcoming of my technique and
insufficiency of training (and of course experience) ?
Are there some techniques to improve the clarity and ring of the notes
in such cases ?
Please note that the style of finger-picking I've practised and learnt involves 50:50 combination of flesh and nail of the index, middle and ring fingers, instead of purely picked using nails.
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Basically, the comment by Todd Wilcox sums it all up (although I'll put it the other way around): Practice more slowly, and practices more. So yes, it's a shortcoming in your technique and/or insufficient training.
The good news is that you will improve if you just keep practicing.
Pick up a copy of Mauro Giuliani's 120 right hand studies, and start studying.
Start at a pace at which you can make all notes sound clean, clear and evenly. Then start putting the accent in the arpeggios on a different notes to increase control of your fingers. Only then increase the pace slowly.
They're not the most entertaining exercises in the world, but they will help.
There is some missing information in your question. You say 100bpm but you don't say if you are playing quarter, eighth, sixteenth, triplets, etc. You can't leave it to us to guess.
I can say that people do play very fast using classical (and bluegrass, etc) finger style. You need to train your right hand to attack perfectly every time. It's a long process. You will find that one day you can play 1/16 notes at 100bpm but it falls apart at 110bpm, months later you'll be fine at 120pbm and fall apart at 130bpm. Practice not only more slowly, but very slowly, e.g. one note per beat at 60bpm. Pay attention to what your fingers are doing when they have nothing to do! That is part of the training. I recommend using the planting technique, get the correct finger to the string it will pluck, long before it needs to pluck it. Once this is in your muscle memory you'll get clean speed. In addition to Giuliani's book I'd recommend
Guglielmo Papararo, La Technica Degli Arpeggi per chitarra classica.
This has just about every combination of right hand fingerings in triplets, quads, sextuplets, etc. Giuliani has you holding chords (which you need to do) while these exercises are done on open strings allowing you to focus your mind on the right hand alone.
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