The style Ike Everly, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, et al., used is not called “fingerpicking” or “Travis style,” it’s called thumbpicking or thumbstyle. Folks interested in this style of playing would do well to use the word “thumbstyle” in their search terms. There is a lot of information available and top players are very willing to share their “secrets.” You need a thumb pick and you need to use palm muting on the bass strings. Learning to use the thumb properly is the foundation without which nothing else is going to work. That will take longer than learning Travis’s chord shapes and riffs.
For me it was like learning to ride a bicycle as a kid, but once I got the coordination down I can apply it to lots of songs. First song I learned to use it on about 40 years ago was Deep River Blues.
I started playing guitar in the 50s. My mom started teaching me. She played with a thumb pick and index finger. I played with a flat pick and used my middle finger when I wanted to use her thumb picking style. Eventually I started using thumb and two finger picking when I started learning Chet Atkins songs. I still play three finger picking and flat picking depending on the type of music.
I consider what they call Travis picking as being not a finger picking pattern but the idea that the thumb is independent of the finger or fingers. Such that the thumb does the bass and keeps rhythm and the fingers are lead and some strumming. Developing the muscle memory of thumb finger independence is the hard part and takes time and practice . Although people always associate the alternating thumb with Travis picking. But Travis just learned that from the blues players like Mississippi John Hurt and his other contemporaries. I would say Elizabeth Cotton but it wasn’t thumb independence so much as she played right handed guitar left handed without switching the strings. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb used mostly steady steady single bass but only index finger. My theory is they only call it Travis picking because he was a White Guy that used it and became famous. If you really want to see an advanced evolution of the style watch and study Justin Townes Earle’s and Malcolm Holcombe’s playing . May they RIP. You can thank me later.
The independence is what Knopfler points out when he's demonstrating his style. Or Tommy Emmanuel. The alternating thumb seems to be the main element, so, pinch or no pinch, regardless of the other elements, I called that Travis. Knopfler throws brushes or strums in, so it's a definite modification. We learned 'Dust in the Wind', 'Blowin in the Wind' and 'Landslide' in guitar class at junior college, and those are all picking, so in a truist sense they're a picking style. Paul Simon's 'The Boxer' is a pinchless form that also works as accompaniment for 'The Train they call New Orleans'. I'm a Bruce Cockburn fan, so I want to get my ring finger in on the action, too. Harmonies with the right hand! Still Travis to me (modern definition).
Except there's no pattern to thumbstyle. It's just the thumb playing bass and chords with the fingers playing melody and harmony notes wherever they need to fall.
@ Or many possible patterns. I'm getting the picture. I guess you're right. Thumbstyle's the all-inclusive category, and alternating thumb is one thumbstyle. One string thumbstyle, like old blues guys, or Bruce Cockburn could be called 'drone style', among other things.
Love how you say you don’t think in patterns. I refuse to use the down downed up down etc with my guitar or ukulele students. I teach them to learn intuitive rhythms with their strumming and picking
Yeah man, I'm totally with you. At least in the idioms I teach, understanding rhythm is at the forefront, the "patterns" generally appear once you have the motor going. Just to play devils advocate though: drummers study rudiments all the time, are those equivalent to our "picking patterns"? Maybe there's something to it after all?
I learnt thumbstyle from those tapes years ago back when they were on video tape. I also learned from an old ragtime guitar book that had a flexible record in a sleeve on the back cover. Good times.
Hi Kyle, you couldn't be more right. The only thing I'll add is that you thoroughly have to believe that it can be done. That was the hardest mental block that I had in the beginning. I really appreciate your approach here. I'm looking forward to your next one, brother man 👍
Although known for his flat picking, Doc Watson also used the 2 finger style on some of his repertoire. I expect he listened carefully to Merle on record and radio and encountered other players in North Carolina that used this style. His son was named after Merle Travis and was a fine fingerpicker who did not restrict his style to 2 fingers.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken was a 3-LP set released in the 1970s that featured legendary country and bluegrass musicians jamming with younger players and each other. My favorite moment that set comes from a hot mic in the room when Merle Travis and Doc Watson meet for the first time. Merle gushes that he's a longtime fan of Doc's playing, and Doc replies, "I named my boy after you."
For that question, may I suggest you look for the video "The Real Merle Travis Guitar, Like Father Like Son", by Merle's son, the late Thom Bresh. It goes into some detail and he plays Merle's guitar - a Martin with a neck by Paul Bigsby. The late, great Marcel Dadi also used and taught the Travis style, and there are many videos of him demonstrating it, plus an instructional video "The guitar of Merle Travis ".
He used a few different voicings. But at the very beginning he is playing G in the position you would play a G barre chord. But he uses his thumb for the bass notes. It’s not too tricky on this chord shape, but on the C7 it gets a bit harder to reach your thumb around to the A string to reach the C note on the 3rd fret with your thumb. For the C7 voicing you’re fretting the second fret of the D string, the 3rd fret of then G and E string and the first fret on the B string. From listening and watching that’s what the first two chords seem to be. I haven’t learned this song but it sounds and appears to be a similar technique that Rev. Gary Davis uses. Now he uses some cool 9 chords later on but if you’re not familiar or comfortable with using your thumb on the E and A strings for bass notes, that would be a good place to start.
He also liked the root-position open C7 shape, which becomes a moveable shape if you just don't play the two open E strings (up 2 frets = D7 etc).. He'd usually alternate that 5th-string root in the bass with the note at the same fret on the 6th string. As a colleague commented above, more often than not, he fretted the 6th string (and sometimes 5th) with his gigantic left thumb so he could grab more notes with his fingers. His solo instrumental of The Sheik of Araby blew my mind many years ago and still does: th-cam.com/video/TG-PMNOytL0/w-d-xo.html
I’ve been playing this style for the past two years, and I can tell you this. There’s not a single complicated chord in any of it… Most of the chord shapes for Travis picking are your standard conventional chords. You never have to reach for a note.
Yes, I'd love to learn more about Merle's playing. Your channel is a real gem. You're a great teacher and presenter. And there are almost no people out there covering this music who possess the same level of passion and deep knowledge as you. Thank you for sharing it!
Knowing and watching while you are listening to the live Merle was a fantastic thing I got see once when I was young. Yea a lot of want a be players tried to play like Merlre but never did. The way he used his thumb pick and the way he positioned his fingers on the strings. And the different guitars he played on.
Great example of learning with your ears instead of getting into the weeds with tab. AMAZING that he used just ☝️ finger and thumb.. kinda like Rev. Gary Davis 🤯. Would love to see more on Merle’s left hand. Thanks Kyle! ❤
Oh yeah, I'm all ears all the time. I don't trust anyones tab, and barely trust my own haha. And yeah, him, RGD and Parr's playing will make anyone wanna streamline their right hand down to just two fingers. Pure magic.
As someone who learned fingerstyle by watching Merle Travis, Thom Bresh, and Doc Watson videos, I had no idea people were calling that other thing Travis picking XD
I'm no guitar teacher, but I don't hear much difference in the two patterns you demonstrate. It's not like Merle Travis stuck with a single pattern. Instead, the difference is that you establish the alternating thumb first in the latter example -- what Pete Seeger called getting an "educated thumb." Once you have that on autopilot, it doesn't really matter what patterns you use on the treble. And once you get enough treble patterns under your fingers "on demand," you can throw away the patterns and use your ear to play most anything in the folk/ragtime blues finger style.
I'm old enough to remember the tail end of the so-called "folk revival" and there was many a guitar-strumming teenager around when I was a child. I don't think country music was very popular among the urban listeners of folk music, so many people who learned picking patterns probably didn't listen to Merle Travis or Maybelle Carter, for that matter. As I remember it, Doc and Merle Watson played in folk clubs, so people knew about them. I discovered Merle Travis and Chet Atkins as an adult. I would say their styles are more based on chord melodies and they rarely if ever picked a whole song using a single pattern. I was already playing chord melodies and it was a revelation to me to hear them. Travis played in Hank Penny's band, which was excellent. Penny was an excellent banjo player and Noel Boggs was the pedal-steel guitarist, at least for awhile. You don't hear much about Hank Penny anymore, at least I don't. Pee Wee King, the accordionist and author or co-author of many good songs, including "The Tennessee Waltz", is someone else you don't hear about much anymore. But I digress.
@@kostringworks Thanks. I think you'll like Hank Penny. I have a book about different fingerpicking styles by Happy Traum with examples and/or transcriptions in standard notation and tab. It seems to be out-of-print. I bought it a long time ago, maybe 30 years ago or more. Merle Travis is one of the players he used as an example, along with Dave van Ronk, Elizabeth Cotten, Joseph Spence and some others I can't recall off-hand. He made the same point about "Travis picking". He couldn't get permission to transcribe a solo from Travis' management or record company, so he made up a solo "in the style of" Travis. I played a couple of the solos from that book, but I never really liked playing transcribed solos for any instrument. They never seemed to "come to life".
@@kostringworks I just watched the video about the chord shapes. I'll be a little more specific about what I meant about the chord melodies. For anyone who doesn't know, chord melodies are when you play the melody as the top note in chords. This requires knowing chords that allow you to do this all the way up and down the neck. Roughly speaking, there are about 7 possibilities for each kind of chord. For example, you can play an E maj. with the root on the open low E string, one with the root on the second fret of the D string, on the 7th fret of the A string or on the 9th fret of the G string. The same applies to the other chords. Of course, there are "E"s on the higher strings, but then the chord shapes repeat themselves. (By an amazing coincidence, this is also true of the corresponding scales.) The list doesn't add up to seven, because there can be different shapes for a given position on a string, for example, the "open C major" shape and the C maj. chord using a barre on the 3rd fret both have the root at the same place, namely on the third fret of the A string. For a given melody, you just have to find a voicing that allows you to play the melody note on one of the top strings. Usually, it will be on one of the top three strings. Some things aren't possible at all, some are possible, but you have to leave something out. Sometimes you can use one or more open strings (the chords don't have to be barre chords). Once you get accustomed to doing this, then of course you can pick the other strings in whatever pattern or order you want, until you move your hand. You can also play runs and fills in between or do whatever you want. I think this is what Travis and Chet Atkins are doing. There's no better way of learning the fretboard. It's not easy at first, but it gets easier with practice.
I liked how he slowed it down so a beginner could grasp it, and with tabs, I like doing hybrid picking, first finger holds the guitar pick, and the last 3 fingers along with the guitar pick, it's a lot harder, because when you first try, your first finger and thumb wants to fly apart, but now you can go from Travis picking to full all out rock schread, sweeps, taping, and not need to put the pick down
You're right I haven't done one of those! The truth is I don't really know any patterns, but maybe that's the vid right there. I'll think about this cause there's def something to your question for sure!
As if his picking style wasn't exotic enough, Merle Travis employed unorthodox instrumentation in his chart-topping 1940s country group: himself on guitar/vocals, along with upright bass, pedal steel, fiddle, trumpet, and accordion, and sometimes drums. Besides being one of the best-known performers on earth in the 1940s and 1950s, Travis was also the first guy to think of playing a solid-body electric guitar with 6-in-a-row tuners (which greatly inspired his pal Leo Fender after he got his other pal Paul Bigsby to build one for him in the mid '40s), acted in movies including From Here to Eternity with Frank Sinatra, was a world-class lyricist and songwriter, an excellent amateur taxidermist and cartoonist, and an ex-Marine who enjoyed the occasional drunken fistfight. How wild and humbling that such a hugely famous & talented celebrity is virtually forgotten today except by eccentrics, less than 70 years after his peak success. And by guitarists who learn the simplified fingerpicking pattern misnamed for him.
For me there is way more torque, percussive force and volume projection when stabilizing the hand on the sound board for the 1 thumb + 1 finger style. I learned the technique in the UK in the early 70's and it was acknowledged as Travis picking back then.
Yes Kyle, I see so many people practising Country Folk picking while pretending its really Travis picking. Thumb and first and second finger will never sound the same as thumb and index. Good vid.
God i remember learning finger picking and how ridiculously impossible it was to coordinate my fingers. Just keep working and all of a sudden one day youre doing it.
What kind of guitar picking technique did Tampa Red use? Could you analyze The Jitter Jump? (yeah i know there was another guitarist on later era songs like Evalena-i forget his name) what were those two ending chords with Ernie i think they are famous 9th chords. tough to count frets here. what key?
I'm not too familiar with Tampa Red's style. I dig his stuff though, just not my field of study. I'll try to dig into to these chords though and def make a vid on it! He's in G!
Tampa Red used a thumbpick, but he was mostly a slide player, so he usually used the constant bass rhythm with his thumb while playing single notes on the top strings.
George Harrison used some Travis picking style on the bridge of All My Loving. Thanks for this video. Two finger picking is better than having to hold on to a pick with those two fingers.
Dude I forgot about that (the pick-hold travis picking some people teach)! It makes it so hard, although I'm pretty jealous of people who can do it haha.
Its a hard style to learn but its one of the most fun styles to play i feel, one thing iv found is that you can use the same method on the lighter strings and play the melody on the bass strings
Interesting! I've always associated the "Boom-Chuck" with a flat pick. Basically for rhythm guitar players in the old-time and bluegrass tradition. There ya go through, tomato-potato. Thanks for stopping by the channel! Love your stuff too! Saw your RLBS vid a while back.
In response to your offer, I'd be interested in some analysis of Merle Travis's chord shapes. (It always beats me why Travis only used his thumb and index finger of his right hand -- and I think the Rev Gary Davis did the same. If you listen to Blind Blake, though -- Southern Rag, for example -- it's clear that he's using first, middle and fourth finger, which is why, in my opinion, he was the best of them all. But that's a different discussion.)
Dropping the chord shapes vid today! Regarding the thumb and one technique, yeah tons of players did it. Actually lots of people say BB did too! I don't have a dog in the fight, but as someone who's tried to learn several of BB's tunes, I'm honestly curious why you hear all four?
Thanks so much for the Teabis chord shapes video. That will be fascinating! Re Blind Blake and his use of his index, middle and fourth finger: if you listen to just the opening phrase of Southern Rag where he starts in C, goes to E7, then A7 D7 and G7, I think he MUST have had his index on the 3rd, middle on the 2nd and 4th on the first. That is the natural and comfortable way way to pick that phrase and I simply don't think it is possible to move your index finger across the first three strings in that way -- though I have not tried it. It would be terribly clumsy on comparison with using the THREE fingers!
Fascinating stuff, thanks for a great video! Greetings from Hungary! I've been working on fingerstyle things for a long time and hybrid picking seriously for the past several years. Love working on little patterns like this. If there's anything that I can recommend for someone trying this, is to go really slowly. You need to develop a bit of muscle memory in order to get it into your fingers.
Greetings!! Yep, Pete Seeger talked about that in his banjo book too -- practicing slow is the best way to get fast. I need to go ahead and learn how to hybrid pick already. Any players your studying in particular? Thanks for watching and saying hey!
@@kostringworks I actually did a video about what I did to learn hybrid picking. You can find it on my channel with the title, "How I Learned To Use All 10 Fingers When Playing Guitar". In a nutshell, I first learned Black Sabbath's Wicked World, then later got into some country picking, banjo rolls, rock a billy, etc. I mention specific artists/teachers and link to their videos too. Jim Campilongo, Adrian from Anyone Can Play Guitar, and a few others. I love Greg Koch's playing and Danny Gatton too.
My teacher taught me the T/T-1/T-2/T pattern on my second leasson when i was 10 and I eventually added the third finger (sometimes even pinkie too) and have played that way ever since :)
He didn't invent the style, but his mastery and widespread use of it led to it being associated with his name. The technique involves alternating the bass note with the thumb while your fingers play melody and harmony on the higher strings.
I make a distinction between alternating bass and Travis picking. Alternating bass is Mississippi John Hurt, Libby Cotten, John Lennon's Julia etc. Travis picking is with a thumbpick, muting HARD, picking HARD. So, Travis picking is like a subset of sorts of alternating bass. DO NOT call Travis picking "claw hammer style" because that's a totally different playing sfyle.
@@kostringworks same here. I just always called it finger picking. When I read or hear someone say “Travis Picking” I’m thinking 2 finger style (or using three fingers to the same effect, same sound). Just an aside, an excellent song to learn alternating finger picking on is “Dust In The Wind.” I personally dislike the Kansas song, but it’s a great little finger picking etude, incorporating both outside-in and (at the end) inside-out patterns.
So confusing for beginners . I can do a pretty decent Paul Simon kinda thing but the Merle Travis thing and the Everly brothers father are doing that totally independent thumb thing. Not sure if I’ll ever get it
Travis, picking, is a technique where your thumb plays the bass notes. If the chord contains six string strings, the thumb rocks between the sixth string and the fourth string If it’s a five string chord, the thumb plays the following sequence repetitively The thumb plays the following strings. 5 4 6 4 While maintaining this rhythm, the top three strings are for the melody It doesn’t matter what shape of the chord is, it doesn’t matter where you are on the fret board. This thumb pattern never deviates, and it follows the rule of six string chords or five string chords as I indicated above. It’s a technique used to produce a style that allows you to have a ragtime sort of rhythm or a stride piano sort of rhythm, going on while you play the melody with your other fingers There’s nothing easy about it, and it’s not restricting in any way, unless you limit yourself to this technique Classical style fingering is something you use if you play classical with the traditional “PIMA” technique In many cases with the chet Atkins/Travis, picking style, it is more practical to use the thumb over the top because this gives you an extra finger for melody Before you snobby jazz Musicians, criticize using the thumb over the top, I direct your attention to a famous bebop guitar player named Tal Farlow. Are you gonna criticize him too?
And this from the great Elijah Wald: Another pet peeve, posted previously but coming up again because I just read an otherwise good piece that used the term for Dylan's guitar style: "Travis picking." That's exactly the right term to use for people who play like Merle Travis, with all those brilliant up-the-neck chords referencing jazz harmonies, and thumb-and-index picking -- but relatively few people play like Travis, and its generic use for any fingerpicking guitar style is sloppy and borderline racist. Why? Because that style of playing was largely developed and disseminated by Black players. Travis mythically learned from a Black guitarist named Arnold Shultz, and almost all the early white southern fingerstyle masters credited their styles to Black players. In fact, white southerners often referred to that style as "n----r-picking." As best I can determine, the term "Travis picking" began to be used in the early 1960s as a euphemistic substitute for the racist term -- that is, the removal of the racial slur went along with erasure of the Black roots of the style. Virtually all the white urbanites who took up fingerpicking in the 1950s and 1960s were learning from Black players -- Josh White, Rev. Gary Davis, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, and on and on. Dave Van Ronk came out of Lead Belly, Furry Lewis, Hurt, and Davis; Dylan's fingerpicking came largely out of Van Ronk and secondarily from Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who learned from Cotten and Davis, among others -- and that's not to mention all the people who dedicated themselves to mastering the styles of other Black models. I can't offhand think of a single urban "folk" or "folk-blues" guitarist in that period who played at all like Travis. So, please... if you are talking about someone who plays like Merle Travis, feel free to credit Travis, but if they play like John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Dave Van Ronk, or anyone else in that lineage of people who learned from Black players (like me), do not call their style "Travis picking." (UPDATE: I originally wrote that Travis learned from Arnold Shultz, because that was the story I always heard, but apparently it's a legend. Barry Mazor writes, "He learned from Ike Everly and Mose Rager. Shultz had a profound impact on rhythm in the Muhlenberg County style, but the fingerpicking style was spread by Kennedy Jones, a white guy, who learned it from his mother.)
I thought I learned Travis picking decades ago but it's not. It's thumb, index finger, thumb, middle finger & repeat. Then switch it around to do hammer-ons. More like banjo style picking I guess.
As far as whether this style is improper finger picking or not. I can tell you this. The best musicians are the ones who break the rules, not the ones who are afraid of the rules.
Everyone calls it Travis picking ( and there are plenty of variations ) But he only made the style “famous” he didn’t invent it, nor was he arguably the best at it…. Elizabeth Cotton was doing it long before Merle, ( tho in reverse upside down )
Why would pick a song that MT plays in a basic folk style and tell people THEYRE playing the style wrong? A great example of Travis style or Travis picking would be cannon ball rag.
You may wanna watch this whole vid and then check that tune again. He def does not do the “Travis Picking” that is taught in so many book and tutorials in Cannonball. Good looking out though!
Calling various fingerpicking patterns "travis picking" is a labelling fluke that developed, word-of-mouth, in the guitar-playing world quite a few decades ago (at least since the '60s), and we probably can't totally correct that. The way I look at it (and teach it), as long as it's in 4-4 time and the thumb is playing alternating bass strings on every quarter note, then you can call it "travis picking" -- as long as you are aware that there are many variations, only one of which is playing the way Merle T did (and Doc and Chet did) with muted bass and lots of swing. The earlier black players like Blind Willie McTell, Miss. John Hurt and others, also had that quarter-note alternating bass thing but were obviously closer to the original way the style developed, coming from ragtime (or maybe from the same roots as ragtime drew on). None of those guys sounded like Travis, but they all played slightly differently from each other, too. They had the same feel though, caused mainly by that pumping thumb plus syncopated notes on the treble strings. The most popular style now that gets labelled travis picking came out of the folk guitar of the '60s, and doesn't have that swing/rag feel. It was used by people like Tom Paxton and early Dylan (Don't Think Twice), then Paul Simon and Donovan -- really just about every folkie guitarist in that era, and then later by guys like Steven Stills, Bruce Cockburn, John Lennon. But again, none of them did it exactly like the other. They all had the essential steady alternating thumb, but added their own variations in what happened in the treble strings. To my mind, ALL the above is travis picking! Maybe an easier way to think about the issue... (Btw, you can't just call it "fingerpicking". That very non-specific term applies to all kinds of styles, patterns and rhythms that do not use the quarter-note alternating bass. Basically, anything played with the fingers [not flat pick] that isn't simply strumming could be called fingerpicking, imo.) Another point: we need to differentiate between travis picking in a repeating pattern (for vocal accompaniment) and travis picking with melodies, riffs and lead lines being created in the treble strings, which seems to blow the pattern apart and is quite a bit harder for most learners. Both ways maintain that alternating bass, though, and I don't think require separate names! (When I was first learning to play the folk style in the '60s, some people called it "double-thumbing", which made sense -- but obviously that didn't stick! Haven't heard that term in eons...) OK, I wasn't planning on a whole dang tutorial here, but... guess it's one of my favorite topics!
Good take. I think this video is misleading to say that "Merle Travis never used Travis picking" - the video displays two very similar fingerpicking patterns that both use the same alternating bass with thumb.... not sure how Kyle Orla jumped to the notion that a slight rhythmic difference on the high strings discounts the foundational thumb-based technique that Merle Travis is credited for when people refer to alternate bass picking as Travis picking. The title is certified clickbait, and the amount of comments praising the wisdom of this video is concerning. I hope nobody embarrasses themselves by trying to re-explain this video to a guitar player who actually knows what they're doing!
Yo! My goal for the vid was to lift Merle and his innovative style by gleaning ideas from what he actually did, instead of the pattern based stuff folks usually learn. It's a lot more than a rhythmic differences, but there I go trying to re-explaining this video.
@@kostringworks Well yes, it is all "fingerstyle" and "fingerpicking". But to me those blanket terms also include a whole bunch of playing styles that do not use the quarter-note, alternating bass -- such as something in 3/4 time, and James Taylor's playing. Of course, none of this terminology matters until we need to communicate with other players!
Yes, but she was left handed and played a right handed, right strung guitar, held left. This meant that the bass was played with her index finger, everything else with the thumb. Amazing what she accomplished. There is a video of her playing Freight Train that clearly shows her technique. I suspect that these styles draw from clawhammer banjo.
Forget about Travis picking and learn to fingerpick properly. You will not regret it in the end. Look at any flamenco or classical guitarist or Joe Pass as a prime example. Travis/Atkins picking is mickey mouse. I know people will say but Merle and Chet were brilliant, and they were, but they were basically plectrum guitarists who developed their own style. it is very limited because your hand is anchored to the soundboard and you do not make full use of your three right hand fingers.
I disagree, I think the proper “pima” fingerpicking is quite limiting. It can have its place for sure, a song like “Helplessly Hoping” comes to mind. But it’s a one trick pony, you can’t really add dynamics or strum partial chords. You’re just stuck one finger per string in a fairly rigid grip. Just my opinion. I use mostly thumb and pointer but occasionally add in a third or fourth finger. Thumb for bass or partial chord and same with pointer, sometimes I’ll sparsely pick and sometimes upstroke for a chord. It allows me to shift dynamics/patterns bar to bar really fast and play to the song. I’m not sure what it’s called but it’s some sort of hybrid.
@chupacabra3331 You are open to as much variation as you like on top of the basic technique. But the travis limits your hand movement so you cannot vary the sound. It is basically a half arse system. As I have said already look at Joe Pass!!
@@raymonddixon7603 travis picking is proper finger picking. I’ve been playing this style for seven years, it’s definitely proper finger picking. The objective is to master more than one technique. Nothing wrong with knowing regular finger picking and picking, but I wouldn’t consider Travis picking improper… That’s only if you follow some old bullshit classical rule. Who cares about that? The best musicians are the ones who break the rules not the ones who fear them
@ do you have your own opinion, or do you just ramble everyone else’s? Travis is a very specific technique for the Travis picking/Chet Atkins style if you’re trying to play jazz, it’s going to restrict you, but not if you’re trying to play Chet Atkins Your comment is ignorant, and it’s a reflection of you. It’s not a joke at all, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts you can’t do it. I can do it… Can you?
Thanks for getting it right! This has been one of my pet peeves for years...calling pattern picking (for lack of a better word) Travis Picking.
Thanks dude! Yeah it's always confused me how the term got so far away from his style. Coulda been a weird game of a musical telephone I suppose!
The style Ike Everly, Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, et al., used is not called “fingerpicking” or “Travis style,” it’s called thumbpicking or thumbstyle. Folks interested in this style of playing would do well to use the word “thumbstyle” in their search terms. There is a lot of information available and top players are very willing to share their “secrets.” You need a thumb pick and you need to use palm muting on the bass strings. Learning to use the thumb properly is the foundation without which nothing else is going to work. That will take longer than learning Travis’s chord shapes and riffs.
For me it was like learning to ride a bicycle as a kid, but once I got the coordination down I can apply it to lots of songs.
First song I learned to use it on about 40 years ago was Deep River Blues.
Looks like regular old fashioned old style
I’m from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, where Travis was born. It’s only referred to as “thumb picking” there.
Thumbstyle! I dig it! Thanks!
@@kostringworks Loved the video btw. It inspired me to intro my son to Merle's music and maybe dust off the ol' thumbpick and try again myself!
I started playing guitar in the 50s. My mom started teaching me. She played with a thumb pick and index finger. I played with a flat pick and used my middle finger when I wanted to use her thumb picking style. Eventually I started using thumb and two finger picking when I started learning Chet Atkins songs. I still play three finger picking and flat picking depending on the type of music.
I consider what they call Travis picking as being not a finger picking pattern but the idea that the thumb is independent of the finger or fingers. Such that the thumb does the bass and keeps rhythm and the fingers are lead and some strumming.
Developing the muscle memory of thumb finger independence is the hard part and takes time and practice . Although people always associate the alternating thumb with Travis picking. But Travis just learned that from the blues players like Mississippi John Hurt and his other contemporaries. I would say Elizabeth Cotton but it wasn’t thumb independence so much as she played right handed guitar left handed without switching the strings. Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb used mostly steady steady single bass but only index finger. My theory is they only call it Travis picking because he was a White Guy that used it and became famous. If you really want to see an advanced evolution of the style watch and study Justin Townes Earle’s and Malcolm Holcombe’s playing . May they RIP. You can thank me later.
The independence is what Knopfler points out when he's demonstrating his style. Or Tommy Emmanuel. The alternating thumb seems to be the main element, so, pinch or no pinch, regardless of the other elements, I called that Travis. Knopfler throws brushes or strums in, so it's a definite modification. We learned 'Dust in the Wind', 'Blowin in the Wind' and 'Landslide' in guitar class at junior college, and those are all picking, so in a truist sense they're a picking style. Paul Simon's 'The Boxer' is a pinchless form that also works as accompaniment for 'The Train they call New Orleans'. I'm a Bruce Cockburn fan, so I want to get my ring finger in on the action, too. Harmonies with the right hand! Still Travis to me (modern definition).
Except there's no pattern to thumbstyle. It's just the thumb playing bass and chords with the fingers playing melody and harmony notes wherever they need to fall.
@ Or many possible patterns. I'm getting the picture. I guess you're right. Thumbstyle's the all-inclusive category, and alternating thumb is one thumbstyle. One string thumbstyle, like old blues guys, or Bruce Cockburn could be called 'drone style', among other things.
Love how you say you don’t think in patterns. I refuse to use the down downed up down etc with my guitar or ukulele students. I teach them to learn intuitive rhythms with their strumming and picking
Yeah man, I'm totally with you. At least in the idioms I teach, understanding rhythm is at the forefront, the "patterns" generally appear once you have the motor going. Just to play devils advocate though: drummers study rudiments all the time, are those equivalent to our "picking patterns"? Maybe there's something to it after all?
Merle Travis had a son Thom Bresh. Bresh has instructional videos on Homespun Tapes (Woodstock NY). If you would like to learn from the source!
For that matter, a few videos exist of Merle Travis himself showing how he does what he does. .
Tom Bresh is still playing.
@ I believe he passed 5-23-22.
@@michaelslawrie Oh, I didn't know. He was a great guitar player like his dad.
I learnt thumbstyle from those tapes years ago back when they were on video tape. I also learned from an old ragtime guitar book that had a flexible record in a sleeve on the back cover. Good times.
Hi Kyle, you couldn't be more right. The only thing I'll add is that you thoroughly have to believe that it can be done. That was the hardest mental block that I had in the beginning. I really appreciate your approach here. I'm looking forward to your next one, brother man 👍
Dude I love that.Couldn't agree more. Whether it's guitar, diet, fitness (whatever!), that's totally the mantra. You gotta believe.
Although known for his flat picking, Doc Watson also used the 2 finger style on some of his repertoire. I expect he listened carefully to Merle on record and radio and encountered other players in North Carolina that used this style. His son was named after Merle Travis and was a fine fingerpicker who did not restrict his style to 2 fingers.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken was a 3-LP set released in the 1970s that featured legendary country and bluegrass musicians jamming with younger players and each other. My favorite moment that set comes from a hot mic in the room when Merle Travis and Doc Watson meet for the first time. Merle gushes that he's a longtime fan of Doc's playing, and Doc replies, "I named my boy after you."
I'd love to see the chord shapes MT used. Thanks for bringing some clarity to "Travis Picking"
Dude they’re nuts! I’ll see what I can figure.
For that question, may I suggest you look for the video "The Real Merle Travis Guitar, Like Father Like Son", by Merle's son, the late Thom Bresh. It goes into some detail and he plays Merle's guitar - a Martin with a neck by Paul Bigsby.
The late, great Marcel Dadi also used and taught the Travis style, and there are many videos of him demonstrating it, plus an instructional video "The guitar of Merle Travis ".
He used a few different voicings. But at the very beginning he is playing G in the position you would play a G barre chord. But he uses his thumb for the bass notes. It’s not too tricky on this chord shape, but on the C7 it gets a bit harder to reach your thumb around to the A string to reach the C note on the 3rd fret with your thumb. For the C7 voicing you’re fretting the second fret of the D string, the 3rd fret of then G and E string and the first fret on the B string. From listening and watching that’s what the first two chords seem to be. I haven’t learned this song but it sounds and appears to be a similar technique that Rev. Gary Davis uses. Now he uses some cool 9 chords later on but if you’re not familiar or comfortable with using your thumb on the E and A strings for bass notes, that would be a good place to start.
He also liked the root-position open C7 shape, which becomes a moveable shape if you just don't play the two open E strings (up 2 frets = D7 etc).. He'd usually alternate that 5th-string root in the bass with the note at the same fret on the 6th string. As a colleague commented above, more often than not, he fretted the 6th string (and sometimes 5th) with his gigantic left thumb so he could grab more notes with his fingers.
His solo instrumental of The Sheik of Araby blew my mind many years ago and still does: th-cam.com/video/TG-PMNOytL0/w-d-xo.html
I’ve been playing this style for the past two years, and I can tell you this. There’s not a single complicated chord in any of it…
Most of the chord shapes for Travis picking are your standard conventional chords. You never have to reach for a note.
Need palm muting and a thumb pick to get the thumb style sound.
Yes, I'd love to learn more about Merle's playing. Your channel is a real gem. You're a great teacher and presenter. And there are almost no people out there covering this music who possess the same level of passion and deep knowledge as you. Thank you for sharing it!
Thanks dude! Put together the chord shapes video and I'm dropping it today!
I harp on this to anyone who will listen. Driving thumb hitting all the bass strings helps too not always alternating. Thanks!
Knowing and watching while you are listening to the live Merle was a fantastic thing I got see once when I was young. Yea a lot of want a be players tried to play like Merlre but never did. The way he used his thumb pick and the way he positioned his fingers on the strings. And the different guitars he played on.
Great example of learning with your ears instead of getting into the weeds with tab. AMAZING that he used just ☝️ finger and thumb.. kinda like Rev. Gary Davis 🤯. Would love to see more on Merle’s left hand. Thanks Kyle! ❤
Oh yeah, I'm all ears all the time. I don't trust anyones tab, and barely trust my own haha. And yeah, him, RGD and Parr's playing will make anyone wanna streamline their right hand down to just two fingers. Pure magic.
Don’t most finger style blues musicians just use thumb and fore with an emphasis on the palm mute? We wanna hear that thump in the bass.
Bracing your right hand is great for keeping your hand from flying up each time you pluck while you are learning.
As someone who learned fingerstyle by watching Merle Travis, Thom Bresh, and Doc Watson videos, I had no idea people were calling that other thing Travis picking XD
I'm no guitar teacher, but I don't hear much difference in the two patterns you demonstrate. It's not like Merle Travis stuck with a single pattern. Instead, the difference is that you establish the alternating thumb first in the latter example -- what Pete Seeger called getting an "educated thumb." Once you have that on autopilot, it doesn't really matter what patterns you use on the treble. And once you get enough treble patterns under your fingers "on demand," you can throw away the patterns and use your ear to play most anything in the folk/ragtime blues finger style.
Yes, I am 100% getting at Pete's idea. Streamlining your efforts, and freeing up your playing.
I'm old enough to remember the tail end of the so-called "folk revival" and there was many a guitar-strumming teenager around when I was a child. I don't think country music was very popular among the urban listeners of folk music, so many people who learned picking patterns probably didn't listen to Merle Travis or Maybelle Carter, for that matter. As I remember it, Doc and Merle Watson played in folk clubs, so people knew about them. I discovered Merle Travis and Chet Atkins as an adult. I would say their styles are more based on chord melodies and they rarely if ever picked a whole song using a single pattern. I was already playing chord melodies and it was a revelation to me to hear them.
Travis played in Hank Penny's band, which was excellent. Penny was an excellent banjo player and Noel Boggs was the pedal-steel guitarist, at least for awhile. You don't hear much about Hank Penny anymore, at least I don't. Pee Wee King, the accordionist and author or co-author of many good songs, including "The Tennessee Waltz", is someone else you don't hear about much anymore. But I digress.
Also known as “The Great Folk Scare” !
@@longjonwhite And lo! a great plague descended upon the land ...
Great insight dude. Probably something to it! I'm not familiar with Hank Penny I'll check him out!
@@kostringworks Thanks. I think you'll like Hank Penny.
I have a book about different fingerpicking styles by Happy Traum with examples and/or transcriptions in standard notation and tab. It seems to be out-of-print. I bought it a long time ago, maybe 30 years ago or more. Merle Travis is one of the players he used as an example, along with Dave van Ronk, Elizabeth Cotten, Joseph Spence and some others I can't recall off-hand. He made the same point about "Travis picking".
He couldn't get permission to transcribe a solo from Travis' management or record company, so he made up a solo "in the style of" Travis. I played a couple of the solos from that book, but I never really liked playing transcribed solos for any instrument. They never seemed to "come to life".
@@kostringworks I just watched the video about the chord shapes. I'll be a little more specific about what I meant about the chord melodies. For anyone who doesn't know, chord melodies are when you play the melody as the top note in chords. This requires knowing chords that allow you to do this all the way up and down the neck. Roughly speaking, there are about 7 possibilities for each kind of chord. For example, you can play an E maj. with the root on the open low E string, one with the root on the second fret of the D string, on the 7th fret of the A string or on the 9th fret of the G string. The same applies to the other chords. Of course, there are "E"s on the higher strings, but then the chord shapes repeat themselves. (By an amazing coincidence, this is also true of the corresponding scales.) The list doesn't add up to seven, because there can be different shapes for a given position on a string, for example, the "open C major" shape and the C maj. chord using a barre on the 3rd fret both have the root at the same place, namely on the third fret of the A string.
For a given melody, you just have to find a voicing that allows you to play the melody note on one of the top strings. Usually, it will be on one of the top three strings. Some things aren't possible at all, some are possible, but you have to leave something out. Sometimes you can use one or more open strings (the chords don't have to be barre chords).
Once you get accustomed to doing this, then of course you can pick the other strings in whatever pattern or order you want, until you move your hand. You can also play runs and fills in between or do whatever you want. I think this is what Travis and Chet Atkins are doing.
There's no better way of learning the fretboard. It's not easy at first, but it gets easier with practice.
I liked how he slowed it down so a beginner could grasp it, and with tabs, I like doing hybrid picking, first finger holds the guitar pick, and the last 3 fingers along with the guitar pick, it's a lot harder, because when you first try, your first finger and thumb wants to fly apart, but now you can go from Travis picking to full all out rock schread, sweeps, taping, and not need to put the pick down
Thanks! I wish I could hybrid pick, that style looks so convenient!
Loved the who and the why not just the how 😎
But who knows where or when?
Any chance you can make a video showcasing/breaking down Davy Graham?
I'd have to learn some, but I'll put some of his stuff on today and see if something jumps out. Any song in particular?
Great lesson and insight, thank you!
Thanks dude!
Hey Kyle, would you ever consider doing a video on some fingerpicking patterns?
You're right I haven't done one of those! The truth is I don't really know any patterns, but maybe that's the vid right there. I'll think about this cause there's def something to your question for sure!
@@kostringworks haha sounds great dude! Will keep a look out for that 😄
As if his picking style wasn't exotic enough, Merle Travis employed unorthodox instrumentation in his chart-topping 1940s country group: himself on guitar/vocals, along with upright bass, pedal steel, fiddle, trumpet, and accordion, and sometimes drums. Besides being one of the best-known performers on earth in the 1940s and 1950s, Travis was also the first guy to think of playing a solid-body electric guitar with 6-in-a-row tuners (which greatly inspired his pal Leo Fender after he got his other pal Paul Bigsby to build one for him in the mid '40s), acted in movies including From Here to Eternity with Frank Sinatra, was a world-class lyricist and songwriter, an excellent amateur taxidermist and cartoonist, and an ex-Marine who enjoyed the occasional drunken fistfight. How wild and humbling that such a hugely famous & talented celebrity is virtually forgotten today except by eccentrics, less than 70 years after his peak success. And by guitarists who learn the simplified fingerpicking pattern misnamed for him.
Great video and explanation! Is that what Charlie Parr does with fingerpicking as well??
He's also a thumb and one player, but Charlie's style is a thing of its own. I guess we could call what he does parr-picking haha.
hey mate, such a great lesson lesson keeping things simple and sharing them in a beautiful way keeps the good vibes in the music. Right on Man.
Thanks Phil!!
Love your explanation and your example
Thanks Donnie!
For me there is way more torque, percussive force and volume projection when stabilizing the hand on the sound board for the 1 thumb + 1 finger style. I learned the technique in the UK in the early 70's and it was acknowledged as Travis picking back then.
I agree with you. Hand orientation has a lot to say about control and volume!
I’d love to learn about Merle’s chord shapes and the theory behind them!
Chord shapes vid dropping today, and I'm def trying to rationalize them!
Yes Kyle, I see so many people practising Country Folk picking while pretending its really Travis picking. Thumb and first and second finger will never sound the same as thumb and index. Good vid.
The problem is that many of us play it correctly, but you’re insinuating that we’re not when you’ve never heard us play
God i remember learning finger picking and how ridiculously impossible it was to coordinate my fingers. Just keep working and all of a sudden one day youre doing it.
Chord shapes please.
Roger!
Excellent video Kyle. Made me smile too 😀
Inside out/outside in does get boring even when you get good enough to play it fast
You make a good point! Nice to be able to break away from patterns once you’re comfy with them.
Thx for your explanation and tips!
Cord shapes...have you created a lesson for them?
Dropping it today!
What kind of guitar picking technique did Tampa Red use? Could you analyze The Jitter Jump? (yeah i know there was another guitarist on later era songs like Evalena-i forget his name) what were those two ending chords with Ernie i think they are famous 9th chords. tough to count frets here. what key?
I'm not too familiar with Tampa Red's style. I dig his stuff though, just not my field of study. I'll try to dig into to these chords though and def make a vid on it! He's in G!
Tampa Red used a thumbpick, but he was mostly a slide player, so he usually used the constant bass rhythm with his thumb while playing single notes on the top strings.
Nice job. Doc Watson picked with thumb and first finger, too.
Dude it's crazy, so many players did just used thumb and one.
Y'know man
There a lot of music channels out there, but you embody a "musician" to me, it's the kinda of vibe that's hard to get
Keep up the good work
Hey thanks bud! That truly means a lot! I'm stoked it comes across that way and hope to keep getting to know you too in comments to come!
@@kostringworks hell yeah, watching your newer one as we speak.
great vid!! I'm going to have to revise my nine pound hammer after this :)
Oof dude, I hope you haven't got too used to your chords yet, cause I just learned his and they are bonkers!
@ I’m only on the new g with the thumb at the moment so all good
My hammer goes slow!
Great video, and yes, please make a video of the chord shapes he utilized. Thanks!
@@bobsealey6899 interesting thing about this style, all of the chords are your most common shapes that most people already know
Dropping it today! They are amazing dude and totally inspiring!
George Harrison used some Travis picking style on the bridge of All My Loving. Thanks for this video. Two finger picking is better than having to hold on to a pick with those two fingers.
Dude I forgot about that (the pick-hold travis picking some people teach)! It makes it so hard, although I'm pretty jealous of people who can do it haha.
Its a hard style to learn but its one of the most fun styles to play i feel, one thing iv found is that you can use the same method on the lighter strings and play the melody on the bass strings
Definitely need more Travis. He is name dropped too often by people who really dont know who he is.
Whole heartedly agree. Such a beast.
Yep that's right- great video! I call "travis picking" patten picking. And what Mearle did was Boom Chuck (or Boom Chick if you're outside US) 🙂
Interesting! I've always associated the "Boom-Chuck" with a flat pick. Basically for rhythm guitar players in the old-time and bluegrass tradition. There ya go through, tomato-potato. Thanks for stopping by the channel! Love your stuff too! Saw your RLBS vid a while back.
@@kostringworks I play that way with a flat pick and fingers.
In response to your offer, I'd be interested in some analysis of Merle Travis's chord shapes. (It always beats me why Travis only used his thumb and index finger of his right hand -- and I think the Rev Gary Davis did the same. If you listen to Blind Blake, though -- Southern Rag, for example -- it's clear that he's using first, middle and fourth finger, which is why, in my opinion, he was the best of them all. But that's a different discussion.)
Dropping the chord shapes vid today! Regarding the thumb and one technique, yeah tons of players did it. Actually lots of people say BB did too! I don't have a dog in the fight, but as someone who's tried to learn several of BB's tunes, I'm honestly curious why you hear all four?
Thanks so much for the Teabis chord shapes video. That will be fascinating!
Re Blind Blake and his use of his index, middle and fourth finger: if you listen to just the opening phrase of Southern Rag where he starts in C, goes to E7, then A7 D7 and G7, I think he MUST have had his index on the 3rd, middle on the 2nd and 4th on the first. That is the natural and comfortable way way to pick that phrase and I simply don't think it is possible to move your index finger across the first three strings in that way -- though I have not tried it. It would be terribly clumsy on comparison with using the THREE fingers!
I’ve never been able to get “Travis picking” down. I this is actually how I’ve always kind of gotten away with it.
Super useful and fun . It would be very interesting to see his left hand chords !
Dropping the chord vid today!
I’ve always liked the term Cotton picking.
Fascinating stuff, thanks for a great video! Greetings from Hungary!
I've been working on fingerstyle things for a long time and hybrid picking seriously for the past several years. Love working on little patterns like this. If there's anything that I can recommend for someone trying this, is to go really slowly. You need to develop a bit of muscle memory in order to get it into your fingers.
Greetings!! Yep, Pete Seeger talked about that in his banjo book too -- practicing slow is the best way to get fast. I need to go ahead and learn how to hybrid pick already. Any players your studying in particular? Thanks for watching and saying hey!
@@kostringworks I actually did a video about what I did to learn hybrid picking. You can find it on my channel with the title, "How I Learned To Use All 10 Fingers When Playing Guitar". In a nutshell, I first learned Black Sabbath's Wicked World, then later got into some country picking, banjo rolls, rock a billy, etc. I mention specific artists/teachers and link to their videos too. Jim Campilongo, Adrian from Anyone Can Play Guitar, and a few others. I love Greg Koch's playing and Danny Gatton too.
Great vid as usual
Thanks dude! Been meaning to make this one for a long time. Feels great to get it off my mind!
My teacher taught me the T/T-1/T-2/T pattern on my second leasson when i was 10 and I eventually added the third finger (sometimes even pinkie too) and have played that way ever since :)
A fantastic pattern!
Thanks Kyle, at there many thumb first finger patterns
I'm not sure how many patterns there are, but lots of folks were playing two-finger before MT -- so there's def an endless amount of study to be had!
Excellent
Chord shapes, please 🙏
Dropping it today!
Well, there's something to relearn! 😂
Thank you, Kyle! 🙏🏻🤍
I always say that if you're always learning, you'll never have to unlearn a thing!
Mose rager style?
He didn't invent the style, but his mastery and widespread use of it led to it being associated with his name. The technique involves alternating the bass note with the thumb while your fingers play melody and harmony on the higher strings.
Interesting stuff young dude. Yes. Do the chords shapes. 👍
Right on dude! Dropping the chord shapes today!
do the chord shapes too please
Great video
Dropping chord shapes today!
I make a distinction between alternating bass and Travis picking.
Alternating bass is Mississippi John Hurt, Libby Cotten, John Lennon's Julia etc.
Travis picking is with a thumbpick, muting HARD, picking HARD.
So, Travis picking is like a subset of sorts of alternating bass.
DO NOT call Travis picking "claw hammer style" because that's a totally different playing sfyle.
I guess in the end just “finger picking” works for me!
I also adore clawhammer on guitar. So fun! Thanks for your insight!
@@kostringworks same here. I just always called it finger picking. When I read or hear someone say “Travis Picking” I’m thinking 2 finger style (or using three fingers to the same effect, same sound).
Just an aside, an excellent song to learn alternating finger picking on is “Dust In The Wind.” I personally dislike the Kansas song, but it’s a great little finger picking etude, incorporating both outside-in and (at the end) inside-out patterns.
So confusing for beginners . I can do a pretty decent Paul Simon kinda thing but the Merle Travis thing and the Everly brothers father are doing that totally independent thumb thing. Not sure if I’ll ever get it
Well here's hoping the little breakdowns here help!
Thanks! :)
hell yeah do the chord shape video
Dropping it today!
Travis, picking, is a technique where your thumb plays the bass notes.
If the chord contains six string strings, the thumb rocks between the sixth string and the fourth string
If it’s a five string chord, the thumb plays the following sequence repetitively
The thumb plays the following strings. 5 4 6 4
While maintaining this rhythm, the top three strings are for the melody
It doesn’t matter what shape of the chord is, it doesn’t matter where you are on the fret board. This thumb pattern never deviates, and it follows the rule of six string chords or five string chords as I indicated above.
It’s a technique used to produce a style that allows you to have a ragtime sort of rhythm or a stride piano sort of rhythm, going on while you play the melody with your other fingers
There’s nothing easy about it, and it’s not restricting in any way, unless you limit yourself to this technique
Classical style fingering is something you use if you play classical with the traditional “PIMA” technique
In many cases with the chet Atkins/Travis, picking style, it is more practical to use the thumb over the top because this gives you an extra finger for melody
Before you snobby jazz Musicians, criticize using the thumb over the top, I direct your attention to a famous bebop guitar player named Tal Farlow. Are you gonna criticize him too?
Super video
Thanks Gary!
Way cool. You truly understand. Thanks. But I can't take it I just pick. And I have fun.
Pickings fun!
Let’s see his chord shapes!
Dropping the chord shapes today!
Travis chords are more orchestral or jazz oriented. What people call often Travis picking is usually (Elizabeth) Cotten picking
They are so dexterous! Been figuring out his nine pound hammer chords, the man was a king.
YOU know what you are talking about!
Ha, I just watched his right hand in the video is all!
And this from the great Elijah Wald:
Another pet peeve, posted previously but coming up again because I just read an otherwise good piece that used the term for Dylan's guitar style: "Travis picking."
That's exactly the right term to use for people who play like Merle Travis, with all those brilliant up-the-neck chords referencing jazz harmonies, and thumb-and-index picking -- but relatively few people play like Travis, and its generic use for any fingerpicking guitar style is sloppy and borderline racist.
Why? Because that style of playing was largely developed and disseminated by Black players. Travis mythically learned from a Black guitarist named Arnold Shultz, and almost all the early white southern fingerstyle masters credited their styles to Black players. In fact, white southerners often referred to that style as "n----r-picking."
As best I can determine, the term "Travis picking" began to be used in the early 1960s as a euphemistic substitute for the racist term -- that is, the removal of the racial slur went along with erasure of the Black roots of the style.
Virtually all the white urbanites who took up fingerpicking in the 1950s and 1960s were learning from Black players -- Josh White, Rev. Gary Davis, Elizabeth Cotten, Mississippi John Hurt, and on and on. Dave Van Ronk came out of Lead Belly, Furry Lewis, Hurt, and Davis; Dylan's fingerpicking came largely out of Van Ronk and secondarily from Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who learned from Cotten and Davis, among others -- and that's not to mention all the people who dedicated themselves to mastering the styles of other Black models. I can't offhand think of a single urban "folk" or "folk-blues" guitarist in that period who played at all like Travis.
So, please... if you are talking about someone who plays like Merle Travis, feel free to credit Travis, but if they play like John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotten, Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Dave Van Ronk, or anyone else in that lineage of people who learned from Black players (like me), do not call their style "Travis picking."
(UPDATE: I originally wrote that Travis learned from Arnold Shultz, because that was the story I always heard, but apparently it's a legend. Barry Mazor writes, "He learned from Ike Everly and Mose Rager. Shultz had a profound impact on rhythm in the Muhlenberg County style, but the fingerpicking style was spread by Kennedy Jones, a white guy, who learned it from his mother.)
Good info! Love Elijah Walds stuff. Currently reading his new Jelly Roll book.
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Excellent video, Kyle. I like the new location, and the content is as good as ever. Thanks for carrying on. I enjoy your videos! 🙂
Thanks dude! I'm digging it too!
I thought I learned Travis picking decades ago but it's not. It's thumb, index finger, thumb, middle finger & repeat. Then switch it around to do hammer-ons. More like banjo style picking I guess.
my Travis style is different than that too. but maybe it was his right hand that was being Travis.
Yes
As far as whether this style is improper finger picking or not. I can tell you this. The best musicians are the ones who break the rules, not the ones who are afraid of the rules.
I def agree on that!
Right on
I bet most of the people criticizing Travis Pickett can’t even do it. And yes, I can.
I kinda make a point to strum. Haha, Cowboy chords. Check me out!
Thom Bresh He will teach you well
I think my new guitarist just wanna finger pick. They don’t give a rat’s ass about Merle Travis… somebody named it Travis… just wanna finger pick.
Everyone calls it Travis picking
( and there are plenty of variations )
But he only made the style “famous” he didn’t invent it, nor was he arguably the best at it….
Elizabeth Cotton was doing it long before Merle, ( tho in reverse upside down )
Why would pick a song that MT plays in a basic folk style and tell people THEYRE playing the style wrong? A great example of Travis style or Travis picking would be cannon ball rag.
You may wanna watch this whole vid and then check that tune again. He def does not do the “Travis Picking” that is taught in so many book and tutorials in Cannonball. Good looking out though!
Calling various fingerpicking patterns "travis picking" is a labelling fluke that developed, word-of-mouth, in the guitar-playing world quite a few decades ago (at least since the '60s), and we probably can't totally correct that. The way I look at it (and teach it), as long as it's in 4-4 time and the thumb is playing alternating bass strings on every quarter note, then you can call it "travis picking" -- as long as you are aware that there are many variations, only one of which is playing the way Merle T did (and Doc and Chet did) with muted bass and lots of swing. The earlier black players like Blind Willie McTell, Miss. John Hurt and others, also had that quarter-note alternating bass thing but were obviously closer to the original way the style developed, coming from ragtime (or maybe from the same roots as ragtime drew on). None of those guys sounded like Travis, but they all played slightly differently from each other, too. They had the same feel though, caused mainly by that pumping thumb plus syncopated notes on the treble strings. The most popular style now that gets labelled travis picking came out of the folk guitar of the '60s, and doesn't have that swing/rag feel. It was used by people like Tom Paxton and early Dylan (Don't Think Twice), then Paul Simon and Donovan -- really just about every folkie guitarist in that era, and then later by guys like Steven Stills, Bruce Cockburn, John Lennon. But again, none of them did it exactly like the other. They all had the essential steady alternating thumb, but added their own variations in what happened in the treble strings. To my mind, ALL the above is travis picking! Maybe an easier way to think about the issue... (Btw, you can't just call it "fingerpicking". That very non-specific term applies to all kinds of styles, patterns and rhythms that do not use the quarter-note alternating bass. Basically, anything played with the fingers [not flat pick] that isn't simply strumming could be called fingerpicking, imo.) Another point: we need to differentiate between travis picking in a repeating pattern (for vocal accompaniment) and travis picking with melodies, riffs and lead lines being created in the treble strings, which seems to blow the pattern apart and is quite a bit harder for most learners. Both ways maintain that alternating bass, though, and I don't think require separate names! (When I was first learning to play the folk style in the '60s, some people called it "double-thumbing", which made sense -- but obviously that didn't stick! Haven't heard that term in eons...) OK, I wasn't planning on a whole dang tutorial here, but... guess it's one of my favorite topics!
Good take. I think this video is misleading to say that "Merle Travis never used Travis picking" - the video displays two very similar fingerpicking patterns that both use the same alternating bass with thumb.... not sure how Kyle Orla jumped to the notion that a slight rhythmic difference on the high strings discounts the foundational thumb-based technique that Merle Travis is credited for when people refer to alternate bass picking as Travis picking. The title is certified clickbait, and the amount of comments praising the wisdom of this video is concerning. I hope nobody embarrasses themselves by trying to re-explain this video to a guitar player who actually knows what they're doing!
Thanks for the insight! I think of what you descried as just the blanket term "fingerstyle", but it all works!
Yo! My goal for the vid was to lift Merle and his innovative style by gleaning ideas from what he actually did, instead of the pattern based stuff folks usually learn. It's a lot more than a rhythmic differences, but there I go trying to re-explaining this video.
@@kostringworks Well yes, it is all "fingerstyle" and "fingerpicking". But to me those blanket terms also include a whole bunch of playing styles that do not use the quarter-note, alternating bass -- such as something in 3/4 time, and James Taylor's playing. Of course, none of this terminology matters until we need to communicate with other players!
A rose by any other name....
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If you have a good ear, you can figure out exactly how anyone is playing.
Skip to 4:30 if you want to get to the point quickly.
I feel sorry for you for not having an attention span and lacking interest in the explanation behind things.
@JordonBeal it's intended to be helpful.
Travis picking is easy… Nothing complicated about it
Travis picking is not a pattern
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And Merle didn't even invent that style..it was a common style in folk music..Elizabeth Cotten for example used that same two finger style
Yes, but she was left handed and played a right handed, right strung guitar, held left. This meant that the bass was played with her index finger, everything else with the thumb. Amazing what she accomplished. There is a video of her playing Freight Train that clearly shows her technique.
I suspect that these styles draw from clawhammer banjo.
Also Kennedy Jones, Mose Rager and Ike Everly
You talk too much and don't get to the point.
But Mr. sb3wh3dd4v, the talking is the point!
Then you didn't pay attention.
Your wrong young lad
Forget about Travis picking and learn to fingerpick properly. You will not regret it in the end. Look at any flamenco or classical guitarist or Joe Pass as a prime example. Travis/Atkins picking is mickey mouse. I know people will say but Merle and Chet were brilliant, and they were, but they were basically plectrum guitarists who developed their own style. it is very limited because your hand is anchored to the soundboard and you do not make full use of your three right hand fingers.
I disagree, I think the proper “pima” fingerpicking is quite limiting. It can have its place for sure, a song like “Helplessly Hoping” comes to mind. But it’s a one trick pony, you can’t really add dynamics or strum partial chords. You’re just stuck one finger per string in a fairly rigid grip. Just my opinion. I use mostly thumb and pointer but occasionally add in a third or fourth finger. Thumb for bass or partial chord and same with pointer, sometimes I’ll sparsely pick and sometimes upstroke for a chord. It allows me to shift dynamics/patterns bar to bar really fast and play to the song. I’m not sure what it’s called but it’s some sort of hybrid.
@chupacabra3331 You are open to as much variation as you like on top of the basic technique. But the travis limits your hand movement so you cannot vary the sound. It is basically a half arse system. As I have said already look at Joe Pass!!
@@raymonddixon7603 travis picking is proper finger picking. I’ve been playing this style for seven years, it’s definitely proper finger picking.
The objective is to master more than one technique. Nothing wrong with knowing regular finger picking and picking, but I wouldn’t consider Travis picking improper… That’s only if you follow some old bullshit classical rule. Who cares about that?
The best musicians are the ones who break the rules not the ones who fear them
@JoeDeCarlo-km9nf Travis picking restricts your right hand and is a joke. Joe Pass.
@ do you have your own opinion, or do you just ramble everyone else’s?
Travis is a very specific technique for the Travis picking/Chet Atkins style if you’re trying to play jazz, it’s going to restrict you, but not if you’re trying to play Chet Atkins
Your comment is ignorant, and it’s a reflection of you. It’s not a joke at all, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts you can’t do it. I can do it… Can you?