How’s it going, guys? My name is John McClennan
and I’m here with guitarcontrol.com, bringing
you this video lesson. What we’re looking at
right now is an exercise just using our thumb.
I like to use the thumb when I’m playing all
the time to play notes on the lower strings.
The more you use it the more you develop the
ability to reach over and get more sounds and
more notes and more strings.
Here’s something I want you to practice.
Let’s just say we took a chord scale in the
key of F, so we have F major 7, G minor 7,
A minor 7, B flat major 7, C7, D minor 7,
E minor 7 flat 5, F major 7. What you’re
going to do is take those stock kind of
jazz chord shapes and you’re going to
replace the lower note with your thumb.
So rather than playing this, I’m going
to play like an A minor here and then stick
my thumb on the 1st fret.
The next chord is going to be 3, 3, 3, thumb.
Same. This one’s great.
So instantly you’re going to find that this
thumb just gives you a fatter sound. There are
so many Hendrix tunes and a lot of jazz players
would play chords all the time using their thumb
and it just gives you that fatter sound.
So obviously if you’re on a classical guitar
this is going to be a little harder. I’m on a
Strat, so the neck is thin and accessible. But
I’ve seen Clapton do the same thing, play chords
with his thumb, even on nylon strings, like on the
album “Unplugged”. You can see it on YouTube.
But anyway, click the link below so you can learn
those chords and start using your thumb.
