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. The three alternating bass lines for the chords E, A and B7 are shown in the following exercise. These are the three principal chords for the key of E.
E (alternative fingering)
The following exercise combines the alternating thumb style with notes based around the E scales that have featured in earlier lessons. When using this style it is common practise to use an alternative fingering for the E major chord. Study accompanying diagram.
The next two exercises are based upon the A and B7 chords.
The following 8 bar Blues features the alternating thumb style.
The final example in this lesson is a Blues fingerpicking solo that contains a variety of techniques outlined throughout this book. An alternating thumb style is the basis of this piece but in bars 3, 8 and 9 the bass line changes to a "walking" bass line. All of the chord shapes that are used are highlighted in the following diagrams. To simplify the music each chord shape is given a number rather than a name.
Chord Shapes Used in Ex. 64
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
