|
|
Joined:
March 2003
Posts: 555
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 |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12759
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2004
Posts: 256
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2003
Posts: 555
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 |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| 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.. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 2178
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! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 12759
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 1116
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | yeah, . . .and?? . . . . |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 37
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 |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | Yeah. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
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 |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 1132
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......... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 863
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! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15677
Location: SoCal | Bruce, Travis picking has become known as pattern picking, but real Travis picking as done by Merle was not always pattern picking. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2004
Posts: 2150
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 48
Location: Spokane, WA | Great, more stuff to practice!!! Just when I was getting bored :) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
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. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 2120
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)
------------------
dobro/v
"the Sumerians were the first to employ hybrid picking" |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 4413
| I have never been able to do this. It just don't seem natchrul.
Somebody show me at the Tour. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 2487
| 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 |
|
| |
Flat pick and two fingers
