---
title: 'How to Fingerpick Guitar - 12 Patterns Every Songwriter Should Know!'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zY1FZ92H-CM'
video_id: 'zY1FZ92H-CM'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 1158
---

# How to Fingerpick Guitar - 12 Patterns Every Songwriter Should Know!

> Source: [How to Fingerpick Guitar - 12 Patterns Every Songwriter Should Know!](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zY1FZ92H-CM)

## Summary

This video teaches 12 fingerpicking patterns designed to expand a songwriter's toolkit, covering fundamental rolls, variations, percussive techniques, Travis picking, and intervals like the 10th. Each pattern is demonstrated on guitar with practical tips and musical context.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to 12 Patterns** [00:05] — Video presents 12 tested fingerpicking patterns to help songwriters break out of creative ruts; a free PDF is offered via a link below.
- **Forward Roll** [00:33] — The forward roll is a core building block: thumb plays the bass note first, then fingers 1, 2, 3 in sequence.
- **Thumb String Mapping** [01:03] — Thumb moves to the chord root string: 6th string for E, 5th for A, 4th for D, to keep the bass fitting the chord.
- **Inside vs Outside String Groups** [01:39] — Moving the three fingers between string groups changes tone: inside group is warmer/mellower, outside group is brighter.
- **Backward Roll** [02:18] — The backward roll reverses the finger order to thumb, 3, 2, 1 while the thumb still plays first, giving a different texture.
- **Roll Character and Feel** [03:10] — Forward rolls create forward momentum and drive; backward rolls feel more laid-back and reflective, so choose based on song mood.
- **Combining Forward and Backward Rolls** [04:09] — Playing a forward roll on the way up and a backward roll on the way back creates lovely movement within each chord.
- **Split Roll Variation** [04:54] — Play an inside forward roll, then repeat but switch the third finger to an outside string for a split roll effect.
- **Pinch with Thumb and Third Finger** [05:33] — Instead of sequential fingers, pinch the thumb and third finger together, then follow with a backward roll (demonstrated on D).
- **Pinch with Thumb and First Finger** [06:39] — Alternative pinch variation: thumb and first finger together; both add flexibility to pattern writing.
- **Speed Variation Pattern** [07:06] — Change roll speed: start with a quick forward roll, then hit the third finger and come backwards, then play a series of slow rolls.
- **Triplet Pattern** [08:03] — A simple pattern (thumb, 1, 2) that helped the presenter fall in love with guitar; keep the triplet 1-2-3 going steadily.
- **Alternating Thumb Triplet** [09:17] — Add an alternating thumb between two strings to elevate the triplet pattern, making it more musical and useful for bass lines.
- **Half Strum/Pick Brush** [10:07] — Brush the strings with the back of the finger for a hybrid strum-pick sound, shown on a G chord; works at slow and fast tempos.
- **Percussive Palm Mute** [11:23] — Combine a forward roll (1, 2, 3) with a 'smack' of the hand heel on the strings for a percussive, rhythmic effect.
- **Chromatic Bass Movement** [12:27] — Add extra bass notes with the thumb to create bounce and chromatic bass movement, giving more options for activating chords.
- **Cluster Roll** [12:54] — On a C bar chord, roll the chord or cluster the remaining fingers after the thumb; move the cluster across string groups for varied sounds.
- **Thumb-One-Two-Three Pattern** [14:28] — A locked-in indie folk pattern: thumb, 1, thumb, 2, thumb, 3, thumb, 2; easy to maintain at high speeds.
- **Travis Picking** [15:59] — Travis picking is built on an alternating thumb between two strings; add rolls or mini clusters with the fingers for variation.
- **Tenth Interval Pinch** [17:34] — The 10th interval is a third played up the octave: pick a bass note on the 6th string, skip two strings to the 3rd string, and pinch both notes.

### Conclusion

Mastering these 12 patterns gives songwriters a versatile vocabulary of textures, from gentle rolls and percussive smacks to Travis picking and tenth intervals. The key is to practice each slowly, internalize the movement, and then apply them to your own chord progressions.

## Transcript

If you're a songwriter, you'll know how it feels to get bored and frustrated using the same old patterns and techniques over and over. So, in this tested picking techniques for guitar. And by the end of this video, you'll
new and interesting sounds out of your guitar. It will change the way you write songs forever. And I've created a free PDF showing these 12 picking patterns experiment with. So if you're interested, you'll find the link below.
fundamental building blocks of great fingerpicking technique. And whilst their purest form, they allow us to build more complex and interesting [Applause]
on. So a forward roll is played thumb 1 2 3. and we're gonna change which strings we put these fingers on. But to begin with, if we just start by doing
we add chords to the equation, we want to move our thumb to accommodate each of for example, we would have our thumb on the sixth string. Moving to an A chord, we're going to move our thumb to the fifth
string. For a D chord, we'd move our thumb to For a D chord, we'd move our thumb to the fourth a beautiful and very appropriate sound for certain
songs. Now, what we want to start doing with the forward roll is moving these three fingers across different string groups.
as we're doing a forward roll on the inside group, which is a warmer, more mellow sound. And then we get a brighter sound as we move to the outside three. And even that on a static chord
is a really great way to add movement. [Music]
[Applause] Now, one of the other building blocks of so many different finger picking patterns is the backward roll. And essentially, this is the same as the forward roll, except we're now doing the
fingers in reverse. So, instead of thumb 1 2 3, we're going thumb 3 2 1. The thumb is still playing first. That's still giving us the bass note, but we would now get [Music]
this. And like the forward roll, we can move the fingers between the inside grouping and the outside grouping. [Music]
Now, the forward roll, unsurprisingly, has a forward momentum to it. It feels like it pushes things along a little bit more. And this is really important because some songs lend themselves to the backward roll because they want to
be a little bit more laid-back, a little bit more reflective. And there are some songs that want the forward roll. They want that propulsion and that momentum imagine we're trying to create something that's dark, but also has a driving
that's dark, but also has a driving [Music] feel. The backward roll might sound really appropriate, however, if we're
dropping the tempo way down and creating more of a a reflective atmosphere. more of a a reflective atmosphere. [Music]
And the really fun part is then combining forward and backward rolls. [Music] So if we go up with a forward So if we go up with a forward roll, come back with a backward
roll, come back with a backward roll and do that across the chord
really lovely movement within each of these chords.
these patterns, we can start adding little variations to them. For example, if I take that A minor chord and play an inside forward roll and then play an inside forward roll
roll again, but switch my third finger to the outside string, we get kind of a little split roll sound.
[Applause] [Music] Now we can start to modify these patterns even further. Instead of playing thumb 1 2 3, we can start to pinch the thumb and one of these fingers
simultaneously. So I'm going to take a D chord and pinch the thumb and the third finger together and then do a backward roll.
And a lovely technique is when we start bringing in vamps on the left
a forward roll. [Music]
different options. If we go back to that D chord, instead of pinching between the thumb and the third, we can pinch between the thumb and the
and the first [Music]
[Applause] finger. Here's a pattern that I really love and it's taking the forward roll and changing the speed of it whilst this C chord, I'm going to start with a
quick little forward roll like this. Just a thumb one, two. Then I'm going to hit the third finger and come backwards those two
strings like that. And that in itself is a nice that. And that in itself is a nice [Music]
go quick roll and then a series of slow rolls. rolls. [Music]
And that little three note fragment becomes a really useful technique when we start looking [Applause] at when I was young and learning guitar. This was a pattern that I would say
helped me fall in love with guitar. And it's a very simple pattern in the sense that we're just going thumb one two thumb one
higher notes in [Music] [Music] play. We can go again.
the thumb is from the fingers. The main thing is to keep that triplet going. 1 2 3 1 2 3. And I'll show you the way I originally learned how to play practice it. [Music]
Now we can introduce an alternating thumb to really take this pattern up another level. So here
two strings. And this application of the triplet really starts becoming more applications because we often want to hear bass notes when we're writing and playing on guitar. [Music]
[Applause] [Music] Now, let's look at some really different techniques and ways of using the picking hand. And some of these are going to be almost like half strum, half picking
techniques. But again, they are really, really useful and you'll find them in a lot of different songs. So, it's worthwhile getting our fingers used to these kind of patterns. So if we just take a G
chord and create that kind of [Music] [Applause] sound, we're just gently brushing the strings with the back of the [Music]
[Music] finger. And then we're going to go
relaxed kind of vibe and works beautifully at slower tempos, but we can tighten it up and play it at faster [Music]
tempos. And that flick is really accompanied by a palm mute in this accompanied by a palm mute in this [Music] I'll slow that down. [Music]
[Music] [Applause] sound. It's the sound of the heel of our hand smacking against the strings in a
really percussive way. So, we've got a forward roll going 1 2 3 smack. And the forward roll is there to give it that momentum and that push. The
smack is there to create that that percussive sound. It sounds like this. percussive sound. It sounds like this. [Music]
technique is adding some extra bass notes with a thumb, which helps it give bounce, but it also allows you to create some interesting chromatic bass movement. [Music]
important because it again gives us so many options as songwriters when thinking of interesting ways to activate our chords. So if we take a C bar our chords. So if we take a C bar chord, we can
chord, we can roll that chord. each string individually, we can also cluster it
after the thumb. And it's this thumb cluster sound that we're going for here because we can simply [Music] go like that. Or we can move the cluster
across different string groups. [Music]
of sound. It's not one that you commonly hear, but it's a really beautiful way to accompany a melodic idea. And if I play it a little faster and pulse the fretting hand, the chord hand, you'll hear that you can get this lovely
well. Three, four, [Music]
[Applause] and as the name suggests, this pattern thumb and the fingers in a fairly option if you're going for an indie folk kind of vibe. So the pattern goes thumb
kind of vibe. So the pattern goes thumb one, thumb two, thumb three, thumb you can really set it up and sort of forget about it. It's one of those ones
that you can lock into very easily and keep going throughout an entire song. And you can do this at quite high speeds. speeds. [Music]
doesn't have to be thumb one, thumb two, thumb three, thumb two. We can mix up thumb three, thumb two. We can mix up the fingers. For
[Applause] example, Travis picking is one of the most well-known and documented picking methods and has been around for a long long time, but it continues to have this timeless influence and we hear it
popping up in songs all over the place. And really, there are lots of variations of Travis picking, but the main point of Travis picking is the alternating thumb. So, if we just set up a groove like [Music]
Travis pick. It's got the thumb going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, over and over. What we do then with these other fingers is really where the variation comes in. So, we can do a
little roll like [Music] that. We can also throw in some little mini clusters.
mini clusters. [Music] fingers, the main thing is to keep that thumb alternating between two strings.
And that's really the driving sound of Travis picking. And up tempo, it really does sound great. [Music]
[Music] [Applause] on the guitar and one that I use all the time in songwriting. The 10th interval is a third played up the octave. And to create the tenth, we pick a bass note on
the sixth string and then we skip across two strings to the third string. That creates the interval of a tenth. Then what we're going to do is pinch those two to create that two note 10th interval. That's a major 10th. This is a
interval. That's a major 10th. This is a minor 10th. So once we've got that pinch sound, we can then start adding little ornamentations to it with the other fingers.
It's a beautiful sound. It's very warm. It's very open. But we can also make it busier by introducing more fingers, perhaps activating some of the open perhaps activating some of the open strings. And we can also increase the
tempo. [Music]
more about that technique, I recently made a video breaking down Paul McCartney's Blackbird. So if you're interested, check that out. Happy interested, check that out. Happy songwriting. Bye.