Alternating Thumb Style
The other popular fingerpicking technique used in Blues is the alternating thumb style. For this style the thumb alternates between two bass notes on each beat of the bar, usually beginning with the root bass note of the current chord.
Alternating Thumb Style – Key Of E
The alternating bass lines shown here are for the E, A and B7 (or B) chords; i.e., the three principal chords in the key of E. The alternating bass line shown for the B chord is for the root five major bar chord fingering previously introduced.
The first two alternating thumb style licks are played over a basic E chord. Alternating thumb style licks are always chord based licks. Use the alternative left hand fingering for the basic E chord as shown in Lesson Eight.
The next two exercises are based upon the A and B7 chords.
The following 8 bar Blues features the alternating thumb style.
Alternating Thumb Style – Key Of A
The key of A contains A, D and E chords. The alternating bass line for the A and E chords will be the same as used in the key of E but there are two options for the basic D chords. The standard alternating bass line for most D chords uses the 4th string root bass note and the 3rd string as the alternative bass note. However a popular alternative to this bass line is to fret the F# bass note on the 2nd fret, 6th string with the thumb of the left hand and to alternate between the 6th and 4th strings.
This alternative left hand fingering is most often used with the basic D and D7 chords. Both options are notated here.
Standard Alternating Bass Line - Basic D Chords
Optional Alternating Bass Line - Basic D Chords
D/F#
D7/F#
This example features the D7/F# chord as shown.
Alternating Thumb Style – Key Of C
The alternating bass lines you will need to know for the key of C are for the C, F and G chords. Two common alternating bass lines are given for the F chord, the basic F chord shape and the root six major bar chord introduced in Lesson Eight.
The following 12 Bar Blues in the key of C uses the alternating thumb style.
