Tommy Emmanuel Rule Of Thumb

Tommy Emmanuel takes us through the basics of how to use a thumb pick with an aim to playing our own version of Elizabeth Cotten’s Freight Train.

- Tommy Emmanuel

All guitarists get that lightbulb moment when a technique or theory suddenly becomes transparent. For Tommy Emmanuel it was looking at a Chet Atkins album cover and spotting a thumbpick: “So that’s how he does it,” said the young lad. Fundamentally, a thumbpick adds weight to the thumb, giving basslines clarity and space in the mix between the thumb and fingers.

In his interview Tommy talked about songs like Guitar Boogie that are used as a skeleton for taking wherever you want, using the skills you’ve learned that enable you to improvise. Freight Train is also often used as such a vehicle, especially in the acoustic or country world where it lends itself to fingerstyle, hybrid picking or, as we shall see, the thumbpick style of Atkins, Tommy and others.