Thumb exercises, fingerstyle

[TaylorGirl2008]

I recently saw Tommy Emmanuel and have been so inspired!! At the gig, I bought one of his books. I was reading it a few minutes ago and it says "The thumb has to be independent to the fingers. It is important that you develop the thumb first before you do anything with the fingers. You have to start training it. This takes time and dedication."

OK, I have the time and dedication. Does anyone know of some good exercises to train the thumb? I live in the boonies with dial up so I can't use youtube. It's hard to tell which fingers are on which strings watching a video so, the way I learn, would be to find some exercies in tab, and with good explanations. Does anyone know of such a resource? Thanks!

[HarleySpirit]

Try This! Practise Often! Good Exercise for Thumb & finger! (http://users.eastlink.ca/~harleyspi/patterns.html) :D:D

[nicolajazz]

If you want to train the thumb this is your page:

http://www.guitarnick.com/level_1.html

[shawlie]

It's not exactly an exercise, and it might not be your kind of music. But to me, the playing of Blind Bake typifies thumb independence. Woody Mann has a great dvd on his playing (with very good tab) and his "Play that Guitar Rag" dvd is also a good source (and also has a fine tab booklet).

Blake's thumb could do it's own thing, it seemed, and he'd often play five or more bass notes during a measure, with notes on the off-beats. I find it impossible to play that stuff at any speed other than "slow", but I could see it being very helpful to learn to use your thumb in a different way.

And you can apply it to all sorts of music, not just ragtime blues type stuff.

[mmmaak]

You *can* use YouTube. Just download instead of stream: http://www.savevid.com (http://www.savevid.com/)

Get yourself a Fred Kelly Slick Pick and play scales with it. I think that makes a simple but effective thumb exercise.

[HarleySpirit]

To effectively train that thumb, you need to select a favorite picking style or pattern and stick with it... practise for hours... over and over... day after day! You'll see the results! Good Luck! :guitar:

[Jeff M]

Giuliani's right hand studies.
Scott Tennant's "Pumping Nylon" has them. Only about $10.
Plus lots of other excellent exercises.;
http://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Nylon-TAB-Scott-Tennant/dp/0882848356/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254035436&sr=8-3