There are exactly two kinds of guitarists: the ones who can play the Blackbird fingerpicking riff, and the ones who confidently start it, hit the open G string one time too many, and quietly pretend they meant to do jazz. I have lived in both camps, sometimes within the same bar.
This little clip is the main fingerpicking riff of The Beatles' "Blackbird" on solo guitar. Full disclosure, and I said this in the video too: I'm not 100% sure I'm playing Paul McCartney's exact original picking pattern. I just grabbed one that sounds good. Music, unlike your tax return, rewards that kind of honesty.
How the Blackbird fingerpicking actually works
Here's the nerdy secret that makes Blackbird sound like two guitars playing at once: it's built almost entirely on tenths. A tenth is just an octave plus a third, so instead of strumming full chords, McCartney grabs a low bass note and a note a tenth above it, and slides that shape up the neck. Thumb takes the bass string, middle finger takes the high string, they hit together on the beat, and the index finger sneaks in that open G string on the upbeats as a constant pedal tone. That open-string drone is the glue, it never changes while the tenths climb around it.
The useful takeaway: don't think of Blackbird as chords, think of it as two moving voices plus one string that refuses to leave. Practice just the thumb-and-middle "pinch" on the beat first, then add the open G. Once your hand internalizes that fingerstyle pinch-plus-pedal motion, the whole thing suddenly plays itself.
Is my picking pattern the one Paul used in 1968? Honestly, only he and possibly a very smug session engineer know. But it sounds right, and that's the whole job. Want the tab and Guitar Pro file so you can argue with me note by note? Grab them on my Patreon.