Any others out there using index finger + thumb?

[bsman]

I'm just curious. I'm a lefty-playing-righty (self-taught), and the most comfortable way for me to play is with just my index finger and thumb. Given the somewhat limited dexterity (pun intended) of my right hand, I find that it is much easier to play with just a thumb and one finger rather than normal fingerstyle (e.g. three fingers + thumb) or a pick. Am I the only one who plays in this mutant style?

[Freeman Keller]

Stefan Grossman argues in his series on blues fingerpicking that many of the old bluesmen use just one finger plus their thumb, many more two. A few use three (as all good classical players). There was a thread (here or AGF?) that asked how many add their pinky (I anchor mine much of the time).

 

There is a lot to be said for using two or three - if nothing else it is impossible to do a four string pinch or arpeggios, and it does make getting around the strings faster. One trick that I've learned by watching Kottke is that his thumb often floats up to the treble strings, and his finger(s), all three, sometimes go to the bass.

 

A lefty friend who plays upside down and backards (Libby Cotten style) once tried to teach me a song. Not only did her chording drive me batty, I could never figure out what her picking hand was doing.

 

Bottom, line, whatever works but try to add the middle finger - it really does open possibilities.

[Dave W.]

I started out learning fingerstyle from a classical guitar teacher. He stressed proper form, and the use of thumb, plus three fingers. So from the start I just got used to it and I am glad I did. That said, most professional fingerstyle players I have seen use primarily two fingers, and I know for sure that Merle Travis and Rev. Gary Davis used only one finger plus thumb, and those two guys could play some. I like sharing the work load between three fingers, but sometimes just use two. I think using at least two will give the average person an advantage, but some people have very fast fingers and get by fine on one. If you don't feel it is holding you back, stay with it, but if you are kind of new to fingerstyle I would say try to work in two now before you are too set in your ways. Old dog, new tricks sort of thing. My 2 cents.

[knockwood]

 

Am I the only one who plays in this mutant style?

 

 

 

Nope.

 

I'm trying to break out of it, though. Not sure how I started with that habit, but it is definitely a habit and I'm beginning to find it kind of limiting. Not really hard to incorporate the other fingers when I apply myself, but if I don't apply myself I'll automatically revert to thumb/index only. I'm also trying to use picks more often. I'm very comfortable playing without picks, but there's a crispness and clarity I can only get with a pick. I'm still kind of a picktard, though. Even on mandolin, I was a thumb/index man for the first year...

 

On git, I kind of liken incorporating the full cast of fingers to typing correctly vs. two-finger typing. The difference may seem merely anal, but I learned to type properly - in, of all places, the army - and have found it to be an immense benefit in that it is now a completely automatic function and I can focus entirely on what I'm saying without being distracted by the mechanics of it. I used to get the job done with two fingers, but the process was never as fast or as fluid.

[Apollo]

This is really interesting. I taught myself to play as a young kid. I've always used my thumb and 3 fingers. I always wondered if it was weird that I hardly ever use my pinky. I see players from time to time that use their pinky but I have a REALLY hard time getting it to do anything useful.

[Krash]

I learned Travis picking way back when, and I believe I was using thumb and three fingers. Just got back to fingerpicking recently, and I find myself using thumb and two fingers. Can't get my ring finger to do anything now, but I'm working on getting it more involved. I've always anchored my pinky to the guitar (another agruable technique), but I imagine it would open up a lot of possibilities to use all four fingers.

[Hudman]

I use my thumb and 2 fingers. 3 fingers feels like over kill too me.

 

EDIT: I picked up my guitar and paid close attention to my fingerstyle technique. I do use 3 fingers from time to time without thinking about it. I tried to use all 3 fingers with the traditional finger / string assignments: Index - G string, middle - B string, ring - high E and the thumb plays bass on the E, A and D strings. I can't do it like that. I feel restricted and end up thinking too much. I guess can only use my ring finger when I'm not thinking about it.

 

I'm a strange dude (of course, you guys already know that ).

[Terry Allan Hall]

A lot of folks use(d) only their thumb and forefinger...Merle Travis and Reverend Gary Davis being but two...Also Mose Rangel and Ike Everly (father/mentor to The Everly Bros.)

 

Ironically, "Travis pickers" invaribly use their thumb and two fingers, even though the guy the term came from did not!

 

Very common in Africa, too...almost every player I met during my Peace Corps days played like that, and wondered why I used a pick or thumb/two fingers, as "that's not the proper way, Terry!".

[smatel]

I use mostly a thumb and three fingers. Sometimes I need a note I can only reach with the pinky and use it then... Learned that from JT. For runs I'll often use just a thumb and forefinger. It's all good and if you learn it, more power for you!!

[daklander]

Depends on what tune is being played and in what style. With the thumb involved I'll use 1, 2, 3 or four fingers. I mostly play using my index finger only and will, on occasion, use a pick.

[0rbitz9]

I started using just my thumb and index finger. As my playing got more

complex, I had to start adding the rest of my fingers.

[T0MCAT]

I play that way, thumb and index, and also index middle and ring. I use alternating thumb and index for little lead type stuff. I'm very fond of flicking my index, snapping it off my thumb pad, to pop the strings; it gives me a louder, aggressive, intense attack and sound. I like to strum with all my finger TIPS, it lets the nails contact the strings for volume, and provides for a more balanced overall sound.

 

But I have been working with a pick a lot as of late, and making good progress, I'm feeling more and more confident with one. It will be nice to be able to play both ways.

 

I actually just started a thread in the electric forum about electric players who use their bare fingers and thumb, and still rock pretty hard doing it. The guy I've been digging a lot is Albert Collins, he can rock out with just his fingers and thumb.

 

Oh yeah, the man in my avatar plays acoustic with his thumb and index finger a lot. That's the style he uses on Blackbird, Mother Natures Son, and Yesterday.

[MBWendel]

It has obviously been shown that folks like Davis who only use one finger are not suffering for it. Moreover, Kelly Joe Phelps, one of the top traditionalists around today can knock out incredible licks and has an completely full sound and only uses 2. Essentially, do it your own way.

 

For me, the first 3 works best for the more traditional styles and I use my pinky for the more modern stuff I butcher - Celtic/Windham Hills stuff. For some of the older tunes, I will take out my Index finger so that I get a nice rake with my Thumb.

[kwakatak]

I use thumb and middle finger with a little index finger mixed in. I'm trying to get the index finger to sit in more but it just does what it wants to do. As for the other two fingers, well they're just along for the ride as far as I'm concerned.

[DonK]

My first attempts at fingerstyle many years ago had me using my thumb and index finger, but I quickly moved to thumb, index and middle, which seemed more natural. Many, many years later I noticed lots of people using thumb, index, middle and ring, and I started trying it. It seemed really awkward at first, but I stuck with it and now anything else feels unnatural.

[knockwood]

 

I use thumb and middle finger with a little index finger mixed in. I'm trying to get the index finger to sit in more but it just does what it wants to do. As for the other two fingers, well they're just along for the ride as far as I'm concerned.

 

 

 

This is pretty funny. There is currently a thread in GJ on the comparative merits of folding vs. scrunching... Take a wild guess what activity is being referred to. I just popped in here after being in that thread, and if you juxtapose some of the statements in this thread (Kwak's post above is a fantabulous example) with the GJ topic, the results are pretty funny... yes, I admit, in a junior highschool kind of way... but still...

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1590772

[dmn23]

I started out on a Yamaha classical because my well-intentioned parents didn't know enough to buy me a steel string guitar. I always played with my thumb and three fingers. I don't remember where I learned it, but that's what stuck. About ten years ago someone told me that the folkies and blues guys didn't really use the ring finger, and I tried to unlearn my old habits. It didn't take. Then a few years ago I started trying to learn to hybrid pick, and now putting the pick down just feels unbelievably awkward -- I fumble around when I try to just use my thumb and fingers. But I've never tried to get by with just a thumb and one finger. Pretty cool...

[Stackabones]

 

Very common in Africa, too...almost every player I met during my Peace Corps days played like that ...)

 

 

While I don't have the first-hand experience like TAH, I've seen vids of African pickers--they all seem to favor the thumb and first finger for picking, with at least the ring and pinky anchored on the face of the git.

[Jon Chappell]

Certainly there are geniuses like Rev. Gary Davis and Merle Travis who create their art through unorthodox means (fingerpicking with just thumb and one finger).

 

But if I were starting out, or trying to improve my nascent fingerstyle efforts, I wouldn't condone this method. Start with a thumb and two fingers (index and middle), develop a solid alternate-picking technique that you can use for backing patterns (think Paul Simon's "The Boxer" or Kansas's "Dust in the Wind"). Then try to incorporate the ring finger. You don't really need it for that driving sound, but it's great for getting harmony notes and chordal work.

 

Here's a clip of "Freight Train" (speaking of Libba Cotten!), played by me with thumb and three fingers. I couldn't do the chordal break without that ring finger. Also, the single-note stuff is played with thumb and index finger -- Don Reno-style (anybody know him?). There's also some "harp style" playing -- a melodic line played across successive strings -- which also employ the ring finger.

 

Freight Train

 

I think I could have played most of this with thumb and two fingers, but adding the ring finger helps take some of the stress off the other two and "shares the load."

[Dave W.]

Attached is a five page pdf file containing tab I wrote for fourteen different right hand picking patterns. I practice each one until I can go through it cleanly four times, then move on to another. I try to play them in random order. The whole idea of this exercise is learning finger independence for pieces that don't use a consistent pattern. Some of them seemed almost impossible at first, but with a little effort they will come quickly. I usually play them over a simple I, IV, V progression, or an open tuning if my left fingers are sore. The second attachment has the patterns condensed onto a single card that can sit on the music stand. By itself, it is a bit hard to decipher without first seeing the patterns in tab format. Hope this helps someone. I was inspired to create these charts by information from Pete Huttlinger's basic fingerstyle practice and exercise videos. Any learning fingerstyle player would do well to pick up both.

 

http://www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/prodpg.asp?prodID=1452&prodType=

[brahmz118]

 

Also, the single-note stuff is played with thumb and index finger -- Don Reno-style (anybody know him?).

 

 

That's what I first thought of when I read the thread topic about index finger and thumb (that and Merle Travis). Don Reno's single string picking on banjo is truly remarkable. Bela Fleck has become quite fluid in that style. If I can get more proficient at it, I might be willing to give up my flatpick more often.

 

Here's a clip Bela on YouTube. Sometime his right hand looks like it's riding a bicycle.

 

 

[Queequeg]

I park a pinky on the top and use the others independently. But the main thing is that while it is probably true that when we're starting out there are preferred techniques to get us over the learning humps, unorthodoxy has been the mother of innovation.

(On the other hand, if you'll excuse the expression) look what Django did for the guitar with only 2 fingers of his left hand, and yet you'd be considered a fool if you chose not to use your ring or little finger.

And there are those who enjoy listening to Richie Havens. Plays open-tuned and pretty much just bars with the left and strums with the right.

Others make a somewhat nuanced or subtle distinction between 'fingerpicking' and 'fingerstyle'.

fingerpicking for a right hand pattern as you move through a chord progression, and fingerstyle for allowing your right hand to play the melody or solo as you move through the progression. by this definition, you may find that the use of more fingers makes the latter a trifle easier for you.

As Jerry Garcia once said, Your style is defined by those things you can't do.

[Dave W.]

And there are those who enjoy listening to Richie Havens. Plays open-tuned and pretty much just bars with the left and strums with the right.

 

If I could sing like he can, so would I.

[Michael Martin]

and yet you'd be considered a fool if you chose not to use your ring or little finger.

Oh yeah? Then "fool" be my middle name, sucka! I hereby give you da finga!

 

I'm like Hud. Funny thing is: a guy approached me after open mike awhile back and asked me what fingerstyle pattern I was using. I didn't know what to call it (it was a 3/4 time original song I was playing) but I told him it was thumb+3. He asked me to demonstrate, so I did--and what do you know--no ring finger after all.

 

I am self-taught, and for a few years I did thumb+index. I wasn't able to do much with it. Too much territory for two digits. Then a guy showed me a thumb+index+middle pattern, a new world opened unto me, and what I have done is built everything I do off of that pattern. Amazing all the variety that is possible (timing, speed, emphasis, occasionally leaving strings out, occasionally changing the order) with just thumb+2. Anybody using Thumb+1: add the middle. BIG difference.

 

Curious coincidence: I teach a huge class (260) every Tuesday and Thursday, and this semester I always have music videos (video of live playing, not "music videos" in the MTV sense) playing on the big screen (also a great sound system in the auditorium) This morning's performance, before I read this thread: Richie Havens at Woodstock!

[Queequeg]

Michael-

I am referring to the fretting hand. Django's use of only two fingers on the fretboard.

note reference to "on the other hand"

(I think the 2 was too silent...)