It virtually goes with out saying that elementary finger picking is very uncomplicated – you strike one string with the thumb and the next one with a finger, or pluck two or 3 strings together with thumb and fingers! OK? Naturally,it’s how we apply our thumb and fingers which can produce an interesting effect. Acoustic Blues Pickin’ is another kettle of fish. It’s really tricky to perform blues finger picking smoothly so that it flows.

I’ve observed that a lot of old school guitar masters just utilized one finger on their right hand – Doc Watson, Reverend Gary Davis, Scrapper Blackwell, Blind Boy Fuller, Floyd Council, Big Bill Broonzy, and the number moves on and on. We are really lucky to possess old movie clips of blues men such as Broonzy and we can get an idea how these folks developed these magical sounds.

The picking hand thumb can move over to the treble strings to help out, which adds to the syncopation. We begin to see that the right thumb is the driving force underlying the greatest acoustic blues. It can double up on the rhythm to copy a heartbeat, strike off-time , pluck two or more strings at a time and create individual string runs if used in conjunction with one of the fingers (normally the fore finger.) Reverend Gary Davis was a top exponent of this style of playing.

Davis could play with picks or bare fingers, but preferred to use a large plastic thumb pick and one steel finger pick steel pick on his fore finger. This creates a strong, penetrating sound which permitted his blues sound to be heard over traffic din in Harlem where he sang and performed on the busy street. His incredibly fast single string runs picked with thumb and finger are notoriously difficult to copy faithfully. Davis was widely respected as an excellent blues guitar instructor. For the guitarist keen to learn the blues, the Reverend was a gift from above.

Modern players like Doc Watson and Chet Atkins, had a clipped, economical way of picking, but Doc employs a plastic thumb and finger pick, while Chet utilized a plastic pick for his thumb and bare finger nails. Doc utilizes one finger of his right hand, and Chet employed 3 (at least.)

In the late fifties and early 60s, young students searched for the old blues men and quite a few of the old players started to play their guitars again, either as performers or teachers. As the years pass, they are now few and far between, so it becomes increasingly hard to discover a real live blues guitar picker who can play in the old manner.

Over the previous five years, the sources readily available for the student guitarist engaged in finger picking the blues are incredibly varied. Regrettably, that can additionally slow us down a bit.

How to start? Where to discover a master of the old style? What technique to follow,blues from the delta or Piedmont ragtime blue? Modern acoustic blues can seem a bit overly complex and it would seem that the formula "More Complex = Far better" still holds good in some quarters. Luckily, many guitarists are seeking a lot more in direction of the roots once again in recent times and more fans are searching for the real feeling of acoustic blues.

That is not to imply some of these these original blues men couldn’t make some incredibly complicated sounds, but the feeling behind the hands was what it’s all about really. Texas blues legend, Lightnin’ (Sam) Hopkins usually performed a straight forward picking pattern in E, for example, with a sturdy monotonic bass rhythm. Sometimes he would double the count and the bass sound became a powerful heart beat.

On the other hand, he may move up the neck fast like ‘lightnin’ and push over the higher strings, producing hypnotic notes. The overall impact was music that communicates with your soul and it speaks the truth – it’s the blues.