Fingerpicking Acoustic Guitar - Thumb Picking Guitar

Today I would like to introduce you to a great way to fingerpick your acoustic guitar. This approach is commonly known as thumb picking.

Thumb Picking involves the thumb of your picking hand playing a steady bass note pattern on the lower 3 strings of the guitar. Your remaining fingers, index (i), middle (m), and ring (a) are left to play syncopated rhythms and melodies on the higher strings.

The essence of the thumb picking style is the steady bass against the syncopated notes played with your fingers. Your thumb is essentially functioning as the left hand of a pianist, while your fingers are functioning as the right hand. (If this doesn’t make much sense to you right now, it should by the end of this lesson)

Alternating Bass

The most important part of thumb picking guitar is the alternating bass. For best effect I recommend you use a thumb pick. 

A thumb pick is basically a guitar pick that fits around your thumb and will provide a better and sharper sounding bass tone. Check the picture for reference. (It’s certainly possible to play this style without a thumb pick, so feel free to, but it is an important part of the over all sound and is why I highly recommend using one)

I am going to use an E major open chord on which to start building our thumb picking pattern.

Here is the bass component:

Your thumb is the timekeeper here, so don’t let the simplicity of the above example trick you!

Count 1, 2, 3, 4 as you play your bass notes because they fall on the beat, and be sure to have the E open chord formed at all times when doing this. Don’t just fret the bass notes alone.

Also notice that you are palm muting the bass part. This is crucial to the overall sound of the thumb picking style as you will see and hear shortly. Be sure to palm  mute the bass throughout this lesson.

Listen to the example above and see if you can hear a “bom, chick, bom, chick” sound as I strike the bass notes. This is the sound you are after with your thumb pick.

The Pinch

Next we are going to add the open B string by using our middle finger (m) to pluck it at the same time our thumb picks down on the low E. This is sometimes referred to as a “pinch”:

Notice the contrast between the “bom chick” of the bass part and the open B string. This is what I was talking about earlier in regard to palm muting the bass. It provides contrast and definition between the two parts (ie. bass and open string) and is essential to the sound of thumb picking guitar.

Time To Syncopate

Now we are going to add a note between our alternating bass. This note is played with your index (i) finger on the third string of the chord and falls right between the first and second bass notes of our thumb picking pattern:

Sounds a little more interesting now doesn’t it.

Lets not stop there though. Check out the next example:

I have added another note here. This time it falls between the second and third bass notes of your thumb picking guitar pattern.

Both these notes are commonly referred to as being “syncopated” because they fall on the “off beats” between the bass notes. Remember that your bass should always be falling on the 1, 2, 3, and 4 beats.

Thumb Picking Guitar On Other Chord Shapes

I want to leave you with this same fingerpicking acoustic pattern being applied to other chords on your guitar.

Spend plenty of time on the E chord first though to get the feel of thumb picking guitar playing if it’s new to you.

Always be sure that you have the full chord formed before applying thumb picking patterns.

Here it is on an A chord:

Here it is on a B7 chord:

       * Lift your 2nd finger from the 5th string and use it to play the bass note on the 6th string with the B7 chord

I have isolated the bass part for each chord above as this is the foundation of thumb picking guitar playing and is where you should start from when getting this pattern down for any chord on your acoustic guitar.

Be sure to check out the following guitar players to work further with fingerpicking your acoustic guitar in this way:

• Merle Travis
• Chet Atkins
• Marcel Dadi
• Tommy Emmanuel

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