True story; I've been forever chasing the Richard Thompson kind of fluid thing –– both hybrid picking and fingerstyle (although I cannot get on with fingerpicks). It just baffled me how he was doing a lot of what he does, seemingly effortlessly.
Then one day he was doing a Facebook live thing, and I asked him how on Earth he figured out how to pick rhythmically without doing the somewhat cliched right hand stuff. I didn't expect him to answer, I meant it more as a compliment, but he messaged me!
He told me not to drill Travis or alternating bass patterns too much or I'd never be able to do anything but those, and he told me to make my thumb or pick thump out a steady bassline on one low string (for now) whilst playing a very recognisable melody (insy wincy spider was his suggestion!) on a single higher string (the G or B) and think about where the bass note should be on what beat and where it changed in relation to the melody notes.
I still can't do it like him (who can?), but I am no longer restricted in my picking patterns.
Here's some of what I mean (I flub in a few places, I've had a radial nerve injury that I'm recovering from) using his 'beeswing' and you can see my right hand clearly.
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