Professional Documents
Culture Documents
You have probably heard it in a song before, as it is a widely used pattern in popular music.
Travis Picking is named after its creator; Merle Travis. It involves playing a steady bass note
pattern with the thumb alternating between 2 bass notes. And is filled out by some
syncopated rhythms with the other fingers, usually on the higher strings of the guitar.
For simplicities sake, we are going to start out with one guitar chord, which we are going to
fret for the whole tutorial, all the focus here will be on the strumming hand. We will use a
simple chord, A Minor. Once you are fretting A Minor all the attention for the reminder of
this tutorial will be on the strumming/picking hand.
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| ----2-------2--- | ----2-------2--- |
| 0-------0------- | 0-------0------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1--------------- | 1--------------- |
| --2------------- | --2------------- |
| ----2-------2--- | ----2-------2--- |
| 0-------0------- | 0-------0------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1-----1--------- | 1-----1--------- |
| --2------------- | --2------------- |
| ----2-------2--- | ----2-------2--- |
| 0-------0------- | 0-------0------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
| 1-----1--------- | 1-----1--------- |
| --2-------2----- | --2-------2----- |
| ----2-------2--- | ----2-------2--- |
| 0-------0------- | 0-------0------- |
| ---------------- | ---------------- |
Your Finished
There you go. These are the basics of Travis Picking. The patterns and chord changes can get
alot more complex. The pinch and syncopation can change throughout a patterm. and you
can combinine Travis Picking with other techniques such as hammer-ons to make it even
more dynamic. But most patterns follow this basic technique. I suggest just sticking with
one pattern until you master it, then look around for other patterns and songs to play that
utilize this technique.