Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 3: Thumb Things

This lesson is part of the course Blues Guitar with Orville Johnson.

Get immediate access to this lesson and all of the lessons in this course when you subscribe.

Start Course
Browse Courses

About This Course

Become a complete blues player through these lessons in country blues fingerpicking, blues lead guitar, and bottleneck slide, with great technique lessons and blues songs from Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, and more.

Try a Sample Lesson

Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

In this lesson you’ll learn a fingerstyle arrangement of the folk-blues classic “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” inspired by the playing of Mississippi John Hurt. Orville plays the song through and then explains the guitar part phrase by phrase. He also explains how you can alter the lengths of some of the chords, depending on how you hear the song, something that John Hurt and other great blues singers and guitarists did all the time.

Try a sample lesson

The Blues Guitar Subscription Includes:

27 video lessons
Instruction in three styles of the blues: lead, bottleneck, and fingerstyle
19 complete blues songs to play
Notation and tablature for all lessons
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see closeups of both hands in action.

$20/Month For One Course

Additional courses only $10/month each! • Save 20% with an annual subscription

Start Course

Get started now!
Use promo code OrvilleLand at checkout

and get your first month free or $20 off an annual subscription.

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 1: Simple Patterns

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 2: Note Values

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 3: Thumb Things

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 3: Thumb Things

In addition to playing an alternating bass, the thumb does a few other things in blues fingerpicking. It can play a single-note shuffle rhythm on one string, in which the eighth notes have a “swing” or shuffle feel. Another feel, used by players like Mance Lipscomb, has been called “heavy time,” in which the thumb hits or strums two (and sometimes three) bass strings in quarter notes for a pulsating “heavy” feel. The thumb can also play a line or melody independently of the fingers for a contrapuntal sound. Learn all of these approaches in this lesson.

Thumb Things (Available to subscribers)

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 2: Note Values

Next Lesson

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation →

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 2: Note Values

Next Lesson

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation →

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 2: Note Values

Next Lesson

Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation →

Guitar Articles

The Devil Makes Three: “Paint My Face” | LR Baggs

The Americana ensemble plays a song from their latest album live in the LR Baggs studio in Nashville.

Guitar Videos

Molly Tuttle: “Gentle on My Mind”

Peghead Nation mandolin instructor Joe K. Walsh joins Molly Tuttle and an all-star band to play a John Hartford classic live at Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week.