Fingerstyle Arpeggio with percussive Thumb Tap & Drumtrack

We take a look at fingerstyle 'rolling' arpeggios and the thumb tap technique you will have heard in many songs, such as More Than Words by Extreme.

The idea of the Thumb Tap is to embrace the acoustic guitars percussive elements, like a 'snare' sound by tapping the strings. It also gives a sense of rhythm to our playing that isn't just a strumming pattern.

Exercise 1: Strum & Tap

For this exercise play a C major chord.

Make a ‘thumbs up’ & put it on the side, similar to a bass player technique, this sets us up for good fingerstyle technique.

Use the thumb to ‘tap’ the thickest three strings (6,5 & 4)

Exercise 2: Fingerstyle Arpeggio

• Assign thumb to string 5

• Index to string 4

• Middle to string 3

• Ring/3rd finger to string 2

• To a count of 1 - & - 2 - &

• Follow up with a thumb tap to mute the strings

When picking the strings with each finger, the plucking should feel like your finger is flicking into the palm of your hand