Travis picking is a very complete use of the guitar. The basic concept of this style of playing is to use your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fingers to pluck the g, b, and high e strings respectively and your thumb to pluck the low e, a, and d strings. Other masters in the tradition of folky country fingerstyle include chet atkins, tommy emmanuel and lenny breau. The 12 most important fingerpicking guitar exercises you. Fingerstyle blues guitar pdf west coast blues by blind blake. The 16 examples in this post are a good source to learn the most common fingerpicking patterns you will ever come across. Named after countryandwestern pioneer merle travis, its a style of fingerpicking characterized by the steady thump of an alternating bass that underscores rhythmic patterns and melodies on the treble strings. Travis style fingerpicking tutorial for beginners with. The song was released as a single on the 21st march 1969 and reached number 7 on the us billboard hot 100. That was a very simplified breakdown of the travis picking technique designed for beginner guitarists to start to develop control and independence of their picking thumb.
Travis picking a classic picking pattern from the folk. Travis picking with songs for beginners and advanced players youve probably heard of travis picking, which is a very popular type of fingerpicking technique. Travis picking is a fingerstyle guitar technique named after merle travis. In this lesson, well look at what styles of fingerpicking are considered to be travis picking, and why. Follow along as i show you stepbystep how to use travis picking to play the folk classic freight train by elizabeth cotten. As a left handed person who has always played a right handed guitar, i had always struggled with my right hand technique, so my picking style was very basic. Andrew dubrocks latest guitar tutorial book, travis picking a guitarists guide to fingerpicking techniques, patterns and styles does an excellent job of giving the guitarist the best of both worlds. We talked about fingerpicking in the previous lesson, now i want to teach you a special kind of finger picking called travis picking. This involves playing a steady bass pattern with the thumb and filling out some syncopated rhythms with the fingers of the right hand assuming a right handed guitarist. Tweet tweetclick here to download the sheet music johnny cash i walk the line heres a song that is so recognizable, just play these 3 chords b, e, a and you might get others saying i walk the line this style of guitar the merle travis style features a very recognizable country pattern which is now commonly known as the travis picking pattern or.
Pattern picking is the use of preset righthand patterns while fingerpicking, with the left hand fingering standard chords. Last week i taught you the 5 essential steps to learn travis picking. When it comes to acoustic fingerstyle guitar, one of the questions i get asked most frequently is, what is travis picking. Travis picking the most popular fingerstyle technique. With the travis technique, the thumb plucks two bass notes. The bass notes are once again always constant and alternating while the solo or melody is put on the treble strings in a combination of both pinches and offbeat notes. Travis picking, named after merle travis, involves playing a steady bass pattern with the thumb and filling out some syncopated rhythms with the fingers of the right hand assuming a right handed guitarist. Now that you have nice fresh strings, we can begin our lesson. Randys course was clear and easy to follow, and has opened up a new world of great music for me to play, even after 35 years as a. It is a great accompanimental style for folk and ragtime music amongst other styles. Breaking down travis picking to play a whole song guitar. Nowadays, people say travis picking in much the same way we use words like xerox to mean all photocopying, or coke to mean all soft drinks. For a chord like g where you have a note on the 6th string, its most common to alternate your bass notes between the 6th and the 4th strings. The very first step to getting this technique right is learning the thumb movement.
For the rest of the post im going to take a look at the fingerpicking techniques of two great blues men lightnin hopkins, who used the monotonic bass technique, and blind boy fuller, who was a piedmont ragtime guitar player who used the alternating bass technique. Easy fingerstyle guitar tabs learn guitar for free. Named after country guitarist merle travis, the travis picking technique is achieved. Merle travis brilliant fingerpicking style inspired chet atkins and generations of country, folk, bluegrass and rock guitarists. The travis picking style is based on a repeated pattern, and once mastered on one chord, can be easily applied to any chord progression. This is a fundamental bass line in a travis style played entirely with the thumb. I walk the line johnny cash learn the travis pattern. So i refer to this as 2 finger travis picking you can also use your 3rd finger, but its definitely more common to use on your thumb and 2. This somewhat countrylike fingerstyle approach involves thumbpicking alternating bass notes usually the root and fifth on different strings while sounding melodic parts typically built around a. The problem as you progress on the path of guitar enlightenment, youre bound to encounter the term travis picking. Before we get stuck into the four travis picking patterns in the book, lets first find out.
If you want to play mainly in an instrumental style i would recommend moving on next to beyond basics. The video below demonstrates the two travis picking patterns below plus two other patterns all available for download as a pdf. Keep in mind though that the travis picking technique is typically used in folk or ragtime pieces and you would most likely be playing at speeds from 100 150 bpm. Theres something special about picking up an acoustic guitar and fingerpicking through a few chords.
Travis picking is named after merle travis, an american country and western singer, and is made popular by fingerpicking guitarists like chet atkins and tommy emmanuel. One technique i find to be especially fitting is called travis picking. Atkins often wove the aforementioned techniques and more into stunning solo guitar arrangements rooted in travis picking named after travis. It involves playing a bass pattern with the thumb while plucking the higher strings with the index, middle and ring fingers. Travis picking is one of the most important accompaniment styles in country guitar, and its a vital component in any guitarists technique arsenal. Travis picking techniques revealed guitar player world.
The state and conditions of your fingernails matter. Named after guitar great merle travis, this technique was adopted by tons of. The term travis picking is used to describe a wide variety of fingerpicking styles, but generally it is a style of fingerpicking that involves a steady rhythm of bass notes played with the thumb while the 1st index and 2nd middle fingers play the melody on the treble notes the higher strings. First, you will need to decide whether you want long nails or short.
How to play the travis fingerpicking pattern fret dojo. It was popularized by the country legend merle travis which used this technique all the time. The travis technique is one of the most popular fingerstyle technique on acoustic guitar. The other side of travis picking is that you can use it to play both the melody and bass parts together for exciting solo guitar pieces. The art of contemporary travis picking deals mainly with playing guitar as an accompanyment, although it has a couple of instrumental pieces. You can check out that video out right here now its time to put that practice to use. Funny enough the guitar part for this song was written originally as a guitar fingerpicking exercise so makes for not just an awesome song. In this guitar lesson we are going to focus on using your thumb with your 1st and 2nd fingers. Named for guitarist merle travis, this style of fingerpicking features the thumb taking on a special role in the sequence of events. In this episode of fret dojo tv, i cover how to play the travis fingerpicking pattern in detail.
As you will notice when playing the examples following the style uses only the thumb and index finger with the occassional use of the middle finger. Travis picking quickly became the backbone of my fingerstyle guitar playing and i quickly realised how many songs actually used this style. Travis picking for beginners stefan grossmans guitar. The fingerpicking patterns can be applied to almost every folk, pop, country or rock song. Besides travis picking, you can learn other advanced guitar techniques in a stepbystep manner with indepth video lessons at guitar tricks. There is, of course, a lot more to fingerpicking than just travis picking, but it is a great place to start. Fingerpicking style is a technique that is used in many famous and legendary songs over the years.
Travis picking this style is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars. Pluck the strings with the side of the thumb and keep your hand close to the strings. By learning how to use the travis picking technique on guitar, you can add interest when you play not only folk music, but everything from ragtime to the blues. One of the most popular fingerstyle folk guitar techniques is known as travis picking. Its named after merle travis who one of the most outstanding proponants of the style. He not only breaks down the essential elements of travis picking, he also provides tips and insights into the playing techniques and.
This is one of the most common guitar fingerstyle patterns to learn, and features in many classic songs such as dust in the wind by kansas. Named after merle travis and popularized by chet atkins, it became a staple of all folk musicians in the 60s. Michael ochs archivesgetty images named after legendary country guitar virtuoso merle travis, travis picking is the most popular and commonly used fingerpicking technique. I used this technique all the time, especially when i wanted to play bluesy or country stuff, but i didnt really know that it was called travis picking. The technique essentially involves alternating between different thumbpicked bass notes on the lower strings while the fingers pick out melody notes based on chord. Travis picking is a style of guitar picking in which the thumb marks out the bass and the rhythm by aternating bass notes in a regular pattern. Fingerpicking is a style of guitar playing that uses your thumb in combination with your fingers to pluck the strings of your guitar. Mearle travis was a great and innovative guitar player, and his style of country finger picking became a very commonly used pattern in folk fingerstyle and all the other fingerstyle genres that followed. The boxer was a followup to one of the duos most successful singles mrs robinson and rolling stone went on to rank it. Repeat this pattern until you can get a steady rhythm between the thumb and the three fingers of the picking hand and the alternating thumb of the fretting. Travis picking with songs for beginners and advanced players. Travis picking guitar lesson how to learn travis picking technique duration. Travis picking is when the guitar player uses their thumb to strike alternating bass notes while controlling the treble notes with their other fingers. Travis picking how to play travis picking dust in the.