Example CHET STYLE

[Bar 2] At the core of this style is the indepence of the picking-hand thumb against the fingers: the bass notes are plucked with the thumb and fall on the beat; count ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ as you pluck each bass note to establish the beat and tempo. The melody notes are then overlaid: in this piece they fall on the beat but they are often syncopated within this style too, so that thumb needs to be rock solid throughout. Chet used a thumbpick but of course fingers-only will work fine too - just remember prolonged practise can lead to friction blisters.

[Bar 3] In cases where a bass note is plucked at the same time as a melody note it’s usually just a case of choosing the picking-hand finger that would normally pluck the relevant string: eg on beat 2 you pluck the fourth string with the thumb and the third with the first finger. Atkins would often use just two fingers so you will sometimes find the third string being plucked with the ‘m’ finger rather than the ‘a’ finger as you would in standard fingerstyle.

[Bar 8] Hooking the fretting-hand thumb over the top of the neck is a common feature of this style and you may find it easier to fret the sixth string at the 2nd fret with the thumb here (that’s my preference in this case).

[Bar 12] The bass patterns in this style commonly go: root-octave,-root-5throot-3rd as is the case here. When you get comfortable with this piece you can try changing some of the bass notes: for instance in this bar on beat 3 instead of playing the ‘C’ on the 3rd fret of the fifth string try playing the ‘G’ on the 3rd fret of the sixth string which will give you the 5th of the C major chord; this alternating bassline pattern is very common.