How To Travis Pick On Guitar - AWESOME FINGERPICKING PATTERN

So in this video lesson I want to go over one of the most commonly used finger picking patterns especially for folk music, singer songwriter type music. And that's called Travis picking. So let's go over that in this lesson video.

Now Travis picking is a very well known finger picking pattern named after Merle Travis who is a very good guitar virtuoso. And what it does is it highlights all alternating bass lines along with other melody lines in the treble notes of the guitar. It sounds like this.

So if you think of songs, think of a song like Landslide you could use. Travis picking isn't used on Landslide, but you could use it.

All right, think of something like that. Or think of Dust in the Wind.

Just a couple songs for you guys to kick part. Put that in your head. This is how common this is. It's used in popular music, used a lot in folk music. And what we're going to do in this lesson is go over the very basics of Travis picking. How to get through the pattern, how to apply it to different chords so that you can use it on your favorite songs. Let's get into the lesson. So I'm going to teach you guys over a simple chord progression. I'm going to use G, E minor, C, D. I always like playing things over chord progressions because it makes it more applicable for you guys to understand when you go to play songs. So the Travis picking pattern features an alternating bass line. So when we're playing something like a G chord, our thumb is going to be alternating between the sixth string and the fourth string on the quarter notes.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, four.

And it does this for all six string chords. Okay? Like an E minor chord, same thing. Six, four, six, four, six, four, six, four. Now when we go a five string chord like a C chord, an E minor chord, a B minor chord, any of those five string chords, we're going to be alternating the bass line between the 5th string and the 4th string.

So it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3,4. And then when we go to our 4 string chords like our D, D minor, D7s alright, whenever we play a 4 string chord, we're going to be alternating between the 4th and the 3rd strings. So we are going to have to adjust our right hand down so it's going to be four, okay? All on the quarter notes. 1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, four.

Now the other fingers are going to play notes in between this bass line. That's why it's important just to get the bass line down and the timing of that first. Now the actual timing and rhythm of Travis picking is going to be 1.

2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3 and 4and 1 to N3M.

4M. If you're liking this video and you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, I highly encourage you to subscribe now and turn your notifications on so you know when I release more videos just like this one. So let's start with our G chord and I'm going to show you what's going to happen with these other three fingers. Let's get these set up. We're mainly going to be using these two fingers for this lesson. The index finger and the middle finger. The first finger is going to own the third string, your G string. The second finger is going to own the B string of the guitar. And they're never going to move until we get to the D. When we get to the D string, everything's just going to have to shift down one string. So the first finger will be on the second string and then the second finger will be on the high E string. Okay. That's the only adjustment you have to be aware of is when we go to those four string chords. When you're playing between five and six string chords, you don't have to make that adjustment. The adjustment is done with the thumb. Alright, so let's start with the G string. So I'm going to get myself set up first. So my thumb is going to be on the top string. First finger and second finger are going to be on the G and B strings. Okay.

And we're going to start.

So here's our alternating bass line. Right? One, two, three, four. Right. Okay, so it's going to be thumb, thumb, first finger. Okay.

One, two and thumb, thumb one, thumb, thumb one.

Okay, so we're alternating the bass line. Okay. Don't forget that.

Thumb, thumb one.

Now the outside strings, thumb two. Inside strings, thumb one. What do I mean by that? The wide strings versus the inside strings. Outside strings, inside strings. So six string, second string, fourth string, third string.

So it's going to be thumb, thumb one.

Thumb two, thumb one.

All right, so the first half is.

Thumb, thumb one, thumb, thumb one, thumb, Thumb one. One more time. Thumb, thumb one.

Now the second half is thumb two.

Thumb one, thumb two, Thumb one. Couple more times, thumb two, thumb one. Last time. Thumb two, thumb one.

Now we're going to put those together.

Thumb, thumb one, thumb two, thug one, thumb, thumb one, Thumb two, thumb one, thumb one, thumb one, Thumb one, thumb one.

Now if I go to an E minor chord, it's the same thing.

Thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, Thumb 1.

Okay, nothing has changed between a G chord and an E minor. All I've done is just change the chord. But my picking hand is doing the same exact thing. Where the change comes is when we go to a C chord. Now we're alternating between five and four. Okay, so it's going to be thumb.

Thumb one, thumb two, thumb one.

Same pattern though.

Thumb, thumb one, thumb two, Thumb one. Again, thumb, thumb one, thumb two,' thumb one.

And now we're going to go down to the D chord. So remember, we're going to adjust our whole hand down so our thumb is going to be playing 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3.

Thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb 1, thumb2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb1, thumb2, thumb1, thumb, thumb1, thumb 2, thumb1.

So let me go in for a close up real quick before I play through this full chord progression for you guys. If you guys are interested in learning more about finger picking and Travis picking and how to put in walkdowns and little like embellishments and hammer ons and stuff into your playing, check out my finger picking 101 guitar course. I'll put a link in the description below with a special discount code just for my YouTube viewers. So here I am for close up. So you guys can see, here's my guitar. Okay, so G, I'm alternating between six and five. Okay. C, I'm alternating between five and four.

And D, I'm alternating between three and four. Four and three. Sorry, four and three.

Okay, so we have G, thumb, thumb.

One, outside strings, inside strings. Now you can see what I mean. These ones are on the outside. These ones are on the inside.

So thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2nd, thumb, E minor, thumb, thumb 1, Thumb 2, thumb 1.

Same thing.

Thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, Thumb 1.

And then we have a C chord. So alternating between five and four.

Thumb, thumb one, thumb two, thumb one, thumb, thumb one, thumb two, Thumb one. And then D Thumb, thumb one, thumb 2, thumb one, thumb, thumb 1, thumb.

2, thumb 1, thumb.

So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to place over a chord progression for you guys. This way you can try practicing and playing along with me. It's going to be G twice, E minor twice, C twice, and D twice. So here it goes.

It's 1, 2 and 3 and 4. M thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2 thumb 1, 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 2 and 3 and 4 and C and 3 and 4. And thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2nd, thumb 1, D2 and 3 and 4.

And.

Let'S do it again, back to.

G, thumb.

1, 2 and 3. And E minor.

And c.

D.

There you go.

Let me just show you a little bit faster because sometimes with Travis picking songs, they can be very quick. So you'd get 1, 2, 3, 4.

And hear that. It's very beautiful sounding song.

All right. And you can do all these other embellishments and hammer on stuff, which I'm not going to get into in this video. If you want that, you can go check out that finger picking course. But these are the basics and it's a great way to folk up any song. Even if it's a rock song, you can turn it into a folk song. It's really great. It works for a lot of songs. Go practice with different chords. Take your time with this and as soon as you have it down pat, apply it to as many songs as you possibly can and have as much fun with it as possible. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn your notifications on. So you know, when I release more lessons just like this, YouTube's going to pop up a couple more lessons over there. Maybe go check one of those out and I'll see you guys in another lesson video.