Last month, I delved into the world of fingerpicking in the Piedmont/Mississippi John Hurt/Rev. Gary Davis/Blind Blake style, with a look at the basics of this technique.
As I detailed, it’s built around alternating-bass figures picked with the thumb in a steady eighth-note pattern while rhythmically syncopated melodies are fingerpicked on the higher strings.
A great example of this technique is heard on the Blackberry Smoke song Ain’t Got the Blues, from The Whippoorwill. I’d now like to continue covering this technique and demonstrate an unusual Csus2 tuning that opens up a whole new world of sounds and chordal possibilities.
This tuning was taught to me by my good friend Levi Lowery. He grabbed a guitar and strummed it, and I said, “What the hell tuning is that?” As he explained, it’s a slight variation on an open C tuning, which is Csus2.
As shown in Figure 1, start by tuning your A string down a whole step to G, your D string down a whole step to C and your low E string down two whole steps to C. Leave your G string as is.
Finally, tune your B string up a half step to C and your high E string down a whole step to D. Strumming all six open strings in this tuning yields a Csus2 chord, as shown in Figure 2. Since most of the strings are tuned down, you might want to put medium-gauge strings on your guitar to avoid it sounding like a mousetrap!
When Levi played in this tuning, he said, “You can just use one finger!” He used mostly barre chords on the bottom three strings while leaving the top three open, as demonstrated in Figure 3. He said, “There’s not a bad chord anywhere – everything works!”
I developed a fingerpicking pattern based on this tuning and came up with Azalea, which we recorded for our 2024 album Be Right Here.
As shown in bars 1-3 of Figure 4, I thumbpick alternating eighth notes on the open 6th and 4th strings below a syncopated melody on the higher strings.
In bars 4 and 5, I switch to Eb and F chords, for which I thumb-fret the 6th string and barre my index finger barres across the top three strings. The 4th string, tuned to C, remains open throughout.
Figure 5 illustrates the alternating bass pattern, after which the full fingerpicking pattern from Figure 4 is added.
Figure 6 focuses on the Eb and F chords formed with the thumbed bass notes on the 6th string and index-finger barres across the top three strings. The droning C note on the open 4th string ties the whole pattern together.
You might think you’re “stuck” in this tuning – surrounded by C notes – but there are other great voicings to discover.
Figure 7 shows the song’s bridge, which starts on the V (five) chord, G: these chord shapes are built from pairs of notes played at the same fret on the 4th and 2nd strings along with the open 5th, 3rd and 1st strings. In bar 3, the pattern resolves back to C.
It takes practice for this fingerpicking pattern to become second nature, so take your time with it. Start slowly and gradually increase the tempo until it sounds smooth and even throughout.
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
