Lauren Bateman's YouTube tutorial (Jan 19, 2022) demonstrates why and how to use a thumb pick—specifically Black Mountain Picks—and lists four benefits. She explains how to fit the pick (spring-hinge design, different gauges/tensions, comfort advice), shows audio demonstrations (Hallelujah for bass articulation; The Sound of Silence for finger-picking → strumming dynamics), and highlights practical advantages: clearer bass articulation, easy transition from fingerpicking to flat-picking/lead lines, stronger strumming dynamics, and accessibility help for players with arthritis. The video is sponsored by Black Mountain Picks and includes a call-to-action link.
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If you want to make your finger picking come to life and stick out, then you may want to consider using a thumb pick, which I have discovered has some really unique and amazing benefits for my students. So let's get into it.
So I have four benefits that I'm going to talk about throughout this video. But before we do that, I just want to go over briefly how to use the thumb pick for the most common comfort. I want to thank Black Mountain Picks for sponsoring this video and they sent me out some of their cool thumb picks to try. And what I really like about their thumb pick is that there is a spring hinge. It's not plastic, it's actually a spring hinge. So I think it holds on to your thumb much better. Like the plastic pick, sometimes with warmth, they can stretch out. So I really like that. This is a spring hinge. And all you're going to do is you're going to take your thumb and. And you're going to hold your pick and you're going to put your thumb through the back of the pick. So if I bend my finger, you just see that this little tongue groove here is over my nail. Now, how far out do you want it? That's kind of a personal preference. You could have it further back towards the knuckle. You could have it more towards the front of the tip of your thumb. I kind of like it a little bit in the middle. I felt like that was the most comfortable point for me. Now you can get these Black Mountain picks in different gauges and different spring tensions. So I would recommend getting one as tight as possible, but as long as it's comfortable. So you don't want it to be like, really uncomfortable. You want it to be comfortable on your thumb to the point where you feel like you can let it go and it's not going to fall out of your hand. Now, when I first used these Black Mountain picks, it was a little weird because I'm so used to finger picking with just my. My thumb pad. Okay. So it was a little bit something to get used to. But I found after using it just a few minutes a day, I got more and more comfortable with this being on my thumb. And it has some really cool benefits that we're going to get into right now. So the first benefit I would talk about is the actual articulation of the notes. So when you're finger picking, the bass note kind of stands out and should ring over the treble notes that you're playing with your other fingers. So let's take a Song like Hallelujah, just so I can show you the difference here. So I'm going to do it first with the thumb pick, and then I'm going to do it with the finger picking.
So you can hear when I use the thumb pick, those bass notes really rang out. It was very clear, it was very loud, versus a softer, more muffled sound. When you use your thumb, it'll sound like this.
So it doesn't really ring out as much. And you know, when you're playing alone by yourself in your room, that might be okay. But if you're playing with other guitarists or even if you're playing with a band, those notes are going to get lost in the background. So using a thumb pick can really articulate those bass notes and really bring some extra life to the bottom end of your guitar while you're finger picking. The second great benefit about using a thumb pick is that you can easily go from finger picking into flat picking if you want to. So the thumb pick just kind of holds on by itself. But if you want to get into flat picking, all you have to do is just put your index finger on the pick and you can.
Go right into playing lead lines if you want to it. So it kind of allows you to seamlessly go from one playing style to another. But that's not the only benefit with a thumb pick. And what I really like is this. This third benefit here that I found on songs like the Sound of Silence. When you want to go from finger picking into strumming, it adds a really cool and unique dynamic. So a song like Sound of Silence starts off with finger picking, and then the song transitions into strumming. Now, the downside of strumming with your thumb is you can't get a lot of dynam out of the strumming. Whereas if you have a thumb pick, you can go seamlessly from finger picking right into strumming and get some really good dynamics. Let me show you a short example from the Sound of Silence.
So you can see, because I have the thumb pick, I'm able to really accent again, those bass notes, but I'm able to get this dynamic that comes through. Let me show you now without the thumb pick and how it sounds the Sound.
Of Silence.
Now, it doesn't sound horrible with the thumb, but for a song like that, I would much prefer to use the thumb pick because I'm going from finger picking into strumming. And that's the one thing I always found with finger picking for songs like that. I was like, man, I really wish I could transition to a pick much faster. And this thumb pick definitely allows you to do that. And for this, I'm using a medium. This is a medium gauge pick, so a little bit better for strumming. If you're going to be going from finger picking to lead lines, you might want to use a thicker gauge pick. But Black Mountain Picks has a bunch of different gauges and stuff on their website for you guys to look at. So I've saved the most unique benefit of this thumb pick last. And this was actually something that my students made me aware of because I have many students who actually use Black Mountain picks. That's how I learned about the brand. And they were telling me about the benefits of using the pick for strumming, particularly for those with arthritis or those having a hard time holding onto the pick. If you haven't noticed, I've been able to wave my finger around and not lose my pick. I don't know how many of you put it. Put a comment below. If you've lost your pick inside your guitar. You don't have to worry about that with these, these thumb picks. But I have a lot of students that sometimes their arthritis acts up and they're not able to grip the pick as strongly as they could if their arthritis wasn't acting up or their hands are older and they're trying to build up the strength back in their hands. The great thing about this is you can strum the guitar.
Without even holding the pick. I would recommend using your first finger as a stabilizer, but I'm putting very, very little pressure on, on this index finger to hold this pick. I'm just doing it like that because that's usually how I would hold a flat pick. And you can strum with this pick. And if you're someone you know that suffers from arthritis and you have a hard time holding onto the pick and it keeps falling out of your hands. This is a very unique and awesome benefit of these thumb picks. I want to thank Black Mountain Picks for sponsoring this video. There's a link in the description below. Go click on that and give them your support. And if you're interested in two unique finger picking patterns that you could play over any song using your Black Mountain thumb pick, I'll explain how to do those in that video over there.
