Travis Picking, innovated by legendary American guitarist Merle Travis, refers to a style of playing the guitar in which the thumb alternates perpetually on the bass strings while the other fingers trace out melodies in the trebles.
Merle Travis played with a thumb pick, often muted his bass strings, played using only his thumb and index finger and was generally just an all-around global guitar badass. We're not going to emulate him in this lesson-this is the gentler, more introductory side of Travis Picking.
You're here because you love the guitar and want to play it with your fingers rather than one of those grotesque triangular picks that so many players use nowadays. Let's jump right in.
The first thing to work on if you want to play Travis style is the alternating thumb. Basically, Thorlos tennis socks you've got to master the art of bouncing your thumb from one string to another and back again, over and over, never losing even a hint of the beat.
The alternating thumb creates a powerful drive to the music you play, and if you want to play Travis style, you're going to have to accept this and do the work necessary to make your thumb a powerful beast of bass consistency.
Make a C major chord. (If you make a different chord, you'll potentially have to alter the strings played by your thumb, so keep that in mind but feel free to experiment. This is music after all.)
With your C chord held steady in your fretting hand, use your thumb to strike the 5th string bass note. Next, bring your thumb to the 4th string and do the same thing: strike the bass note and then return your thumb to the 5th string.
In primitive tab format, this movement looks something like:
4 -----P-----P-----P-----P
5 -P-----P-----P-----P
And so on.
The idea is for your thumb to bounce from the 5th string to the 4th string and back again, over and over, until the end of time. Or at least until you get tired.
That alternating thumb is going to be crucial for you to maintain come what may, so even if it feels like you've mastered it and will never falter, go ahead and push through and practice it some more.
It's best to begin working this almost imperceptibly slowly to make sure you have good technique going on. Key things to look for, technique-wise: Is your thumb out away from the other fingers moving in its own special arc? Does it move economically without flying all over the place where it can't do anything useful? Does your finger remain calm and still while your thumb plays (that's good) or does it quiver and shake at each strike of your thumb to the strings (that's bad)?
Watch all of those things and more-work the thumb and work the thumb and work the thumb back and forth for a while. Then do it tomorrow and the next day. You'll thank me for my emphasis of the importance of this later when you can play any song at a full clip with your thumb running circles around your other fingers.
After you've really nailed the alternating thumb, it's time to add in your other fingers. Unlike Merle, we're going to use the middle finger along with the index. This will give us two fingers to intersperse between thumb strokes.
Use the middle finger on the 1st string. Use the index finger on the 2nd string. This is where those fingers will live. They won't switch off of those strings for now, just to keep things simple.
So, the idea for basic Travis Picking is to play your thumb bass, and in between each thumb stroke, play one of the other fingers.
For starters, try this: play the thumb on the 5th string. Then, play the middle finger on the 1st string. Then, play the thumb on the 4th string. Finally, play the index finger on the 2nd string.
That verbiage looks like this, again primitively tabbed out for your EzineArticles enjoyment:
1 ---M-------------M-----------
2 ------------I---------------I--
3 -------------------------------
4 --------P-------------P-------
5 P-------------P-------------
I understand, if this is your first encounter with primitive guitar tab, that those lines and letters might not make the most sense. But there is a pattern there if you'll look for it.
Worst case scenario: alternate your thumb stroke like before. Between each thumb stroke, play either your middle or index finger. At the beginning, keep consistent. If the first finger you play is the middle (as I've advised here), then stick to that, and use the index finger in the second half of this basic Travis Style pattern.
Travis Style is a blast to play and sounds incredible at speed with all the bells and whistles attached. Welcome to the club, and happy picking!
Come on over to Nashville guitar lessons to learn more about how to get better at the guitar. Or pick yourself up some [/spirited]beautiful guitar music today!
Matt Coffman lives in Nashville, Tennessee and wants you to be the best you can be on your guitar.
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