Double Thumbing

I started working on this technique about a year ago. It's a subtle little move, or set of moves that can really open up the right hand possibilities on many of the fingerpicked instruments. Basically, you are just adding the ability to pick notes with your thumb in either direction. Ok, stop laughing now and try it.

:-)

Yep, seems hard at first, but improvement comes very quickly if you keep at it and do it for 5 or 10 minutes ever day. So here's an exercise that you can do to get a roll going which uses this technique.

No bar, these three cells represent the top three strings on a G- tuned  dobro (GBDGBD low to high).

Play the notes on the third string with the thumb--Forward, backward, Forward, as though they were a triplet...the rest of the notes have the same time value.

Then try it again, this time giving ALL the notes the same value.

It will help if you anchor your right hand a bit more solidly than usual across the coverplate strap.
I try to bend my thumb from the knuckle closest to the palm, although as I have gotten better at it, I've started bending the thumb at the second knuckle out a bit, too.

I'll try to get a little quicktime video of this up here so you can see and hear it for yourself.

Cheers!
Tab

double thumbers