finger picking

hello, ok I am trying so hard to play classical/ fingerpicking, etc. my question is, on one course I'm taking it has me playing the low E with the thumb, middle finger to play high E, my thumb again to play G And index on B. I would think to use my index on G, I guess how do you know when to use specific fingering .thank you GT

Originally Posted by: fuhgeddaboutit14

hello, ok I am trying so hard to play classical/ fingerpicking, etc. my question is, on one course I'm taking it has me playing the low E with the thumb, middle finger to play high E, my thumb again to play G And index on B. I would think to use my index on G, I guess how do you know when to use specific fingering .thank you GT

In the simplest terms; your thumb will pretty much always play the root/bass note when finger picking simply because of where your normal picking hand position will be in relation to strings low to high. Your thumb is the one that can go both parallel and perpendicular in relations to the strings. The other fingers? Not so much. That makes the thumb the ideal root/bass note digit. That leaves the others to pluck higher strings.

Make sense?

yes, it does, thank you. I was under the impression that the thumb was only used for E&A.