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Location: Wooster, Ohio | Watching Glenn Cambell on the Classical Gas Video reminded me that he uses a flat pick and the middle and ring finger to pick the guitar. I may have copied that style from him without really remembering. I really only use this technique anymore. Curious if others here use it as well. I used to flat pick and finger pick with a thumb pick, but this style won out many years ago.
Steve |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | I noticed it, too and tried it, but I've been using my thumb for so long, I couldn't coordinate the pick with my fingers. Something else to practice after I retire and have lots of time. |
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Location: chicago | Great style... I believe its called travis picking,named after Merle Travis.Steve Howe does alot of that.Its a great way to really pronounce the bass notes when you do a chickin pickin thang. |
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Location: Wooster, Ohio | Interesting I have heard of Travis Picking but never knew what that really meant. To me the advantage of the style is to be able to flat pick strum while still having the ability to finger pick when you would like.
Steve |
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Location: Tennessee | I've never tried that style until I saw Moody doing it with his three chords. Speaking of a chickin pickin thang, Burnsie makes an awesome display of the technique on the OFC-CD. While all the tunes are great to listen to, that one stands as tall as any. |
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| I've been playing like that since the beginning. Enables me to do rolls, to play straight rhythm, to play lead...I think ole Glen had a good thing goin' there.. |
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Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | I started out picking that way because Glen is my guitar idol who I wanted to copy (I can move my fingers like him but can't hit all those strings/notes he does! :D )
Lately I've been using just my fingers in various styles(depending on the song)
The pick and middle finger style adds flavor to even basic cowboy chords and is still my favorite way to pick! |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | But it's not really Travis picking. I think Travis picking is with an alternating thumb, but I've never seen anything on Travis picking that refers to a pick. |
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Location: SoCal | I've picked with a flatpick and fingers for about 30 years... can't really do anything else.
Tavis picking has come to be regarded as "fingerpicking", and for many, it means learning picking patterns (I'm in this limited camp).
True Travis picking, the way Merle did it, is keeping a bass rhythm going with a thumb pick, then picking melody with the index finger. Merle didn't use more than the thumb and index finger.
Chet Atkins used the thumb for the bass, and then used his index, middle, and ring finger to pick melody.
To do this kind of picking right, your thumb has to become independent from your other fingers, not just picking a pattern with them. I've never been able to develop this kind of independence. |
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Location: NJ | ". . thumb for the bass, and then used his index, middle, and ring finger to pick melody . ."
That was the way I learned when I was first learning to play . . .
I kinda' becomes "second nature" after a while. |
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Location: Keller, TX | Originally posted by jeff burns:
Great style... I believe its called travis picking,named after Merle Travis. Oh, that makes sense. I thought is was Randy Travis. |
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Location: SoCal | Cliff, the difference between Chet and the rest of us is that his thumb was working entirely independently of his other fingers. He wasn't just playing patterns... he was just keeping a steady thumb going on the E, A, and D strings, and then playing the melody on the top strings. |
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Location: NJ | yeah, . . .and?? . . . . |
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Location: Warwick, RI | Chet had a few things working independently. I saw him ages ago, on television, pick two tunes at the same time--one was "Yankee Doodle," and the the other was something like "America, the Beautiful," or such. It was a novelty stunt, just to show what he could do.I was impressed.
Ron |
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Location: SoCal | Yeah. |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | Travis picking is a pattern.
strings 1 and 6 together
then singly 4, 3, 5, 2, 4, 3
1 0------
2 ----0--
3 --0---0
4 -0---0-
5 ---0---
6 0------
The 6th, 5th & 4th are picked using the thumb
The 3rd with the index finger
The 2nd & 1st with the middle finger |
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Location: Parrish, FL | Thanks, I'll try to work this out. Just need to stop moving around so that I'm in the same place as one of my guitars.
Back to Knoxville tomorrow for a couple of days, then back to Kansas for another couple of weeks.
If it's Tuesday, then this must be......... |
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Location: Central Florida | Yep, I too have been using the flatpick & two fingers method since I first started playing, as ol' Glen was/is my guitar hero too! |
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Location: SoCal | Bruce, Travis picking has become known as pattern picking, but real Travis picking as done by Merle was not always pattern picking. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | According to Kerry Livgren of Kansas the song "Dust in the Wind" started out as a Travis picking exercise. It follows the Travis pattern exactly. |
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Location: Spokane, WA | Great, more stuff to practice!!! Just when I was getting bored :) |
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Location: Scotland | The most nerve-wracking demo I did at NAMM was when I did my G-band fingerstyle stuff for Thom Bresh, Merle Travis's son. No surprise that Thom's a killer Travis-stlye player. |
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Location: Chicago | The current Guitar Player has two or three articles explicitly devoted to M. Travis, his "heir" and a lesson on Travis Picking (April 2006 I think)
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dobro/v
"the Sumerians were the first to employ hybrid picking" |
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| I have never been able to do this. It just don't seem natchrul.
Somebody show me at the Tour. |
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| It's not... you have to continually repeat the process until it becomes second nature. For some it comes quickly for others it takes a while. Took me a while then one morning you wake up and you can just do it... My problem is I play so many differnt songs and styles I am "still" ! not practiced and experienced enough to jump from one style to another. I get jumbled up sometimes on the first few notes of a song when I jump from one style to another. Only way I have found to correct this is to play a song in between that is mostly just strumming. and take my time starting the next one. when I jump right in I mess up! Hate that. It sounds so unprofessional and I sometimes know the songs so well it is frustrating. Love it though mistakes and all! I'm Makin music.
Randy |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
Cliff, the difference between Chet and the rest of us is that ...Eric Clapton thinks he's god! (I never heard of him saying it, I just think it's true-ish. :cool: )
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I just flail away with all the fingers of both hands. Sometimes they even touch the guitar! |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by schroeder:
I have never been able to do this. It just don't seem natchrul.
Somebody show me at the Tour. On the Friday morning I'll be presenting a workshop on this very subject. Al will be posting more info shortly. |
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Location: North Carolina | I saw Chet play "Yankee Doodle" and "Dixie" at the same time. Kinda had a Mason/Dixon thing going with the Bass/Treble strings. Let's face it, Chet was a freak! His thumb and fingers each had their own little brain. He was also very gracious, helping many up and coming artists get their foot in the door. |
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Location: Flushing, MI | Hybrid picking - yes! My dad wanted me to be a jazzy player and use a pick. He thought of that Chet/Merle stuff as being old fashioned. He caught me trying to fingerpick one day and I seriously thought I was going to get an ass beating over it! So, I developed my hybrid picking technique as a means to accomodate both styles into my playing. Sorry Dad. |
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Flat pick and two fingers