This exercise is form the Core Skills section on Fingerpicking.

Piano players are familiar with the concept that the left hand plays the lower (bass) notes and chords, while the right hand plays the higher melody notes. Well on guitar, there are only 6 strings, but we still do something a bit similar.

A very common fingerpicking technique is to play the bass line with your thumb and use your other fingers to play out the rest of the melody line or chords. This is quite comfortable for a guitarist to do because the thumb naturally resides over the bass strings of the guitar, whereas your fingers are situated in a position with better access to the higher strings.

Here we will play a simple blue bass line with the thumb on the Low E string, while your fingers pluck the top 2 open strings for musical effect.

Listen to the normal speed version and make sure you know the tune before trying it out. It may help to just keep playing out the bass line until you can do that correctly before attempting to add in the top strings.

E E - G G - G# G# - A - then top 2 open strings together B E (repeat)