Casey

Long ago when I was trying to learn to fingerpick, I found it useful to separate it into two drills. Inthe particular style I was learning the thumb played a four-notes per measure pattern, typically starting on the "A" string, up to the "D" string, down tot he low "E". and up to the "D" again, making a little bass rhythm that sounded like Winnie the Poo going tiddlypum, one-two-three-four over and over.

I spent hours just watching my thumb do this (you can use an open tuning, a full C chord, or any chord where no dissonance is introduced).

I would run my thumb through this little pattern (bumTIDDLEbumTIDDLE) over and over, even waking around with no guitar. Eventually it learned to do this even when other fingers were off doing other things.

In the same period, I taught my index and middle fingers to syncopate three beats between the last three thumbstrokes by plucking the high E, the B, and the high E again : din,dan,din over and over. Trained them to do that independently, then introduced them to the thumb.

It was also useful to choose a chord like Am where the whole pattern sounded good and memorize the tune it made --bumTIDDLE(din)bum(dan)TIDDLE(din) when syncopated. Then I would sit for hours playing that tune until the hand kind of got the idea.

Once that happens you can introduce variations, like sending your thumb off on a bass run or running a pair of notes together on the higher strings for a slide, without losing your basic routine.

And that's how I learned to fingerpick, for what it's worth!

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