How to Travis Pick on Guitar Video Lecture | Guitar: Become a Pro (English) - Music

and Travis picking is probably my third
favorite Travis related exercise after
Travis tipping and Travis jacking but if
we're talking about picking which we are
right now we're gonna learn awesome
techniques to kind of get it going what
we're gonna learn today is gonna sound
like this
[Music]
so I actually just posted an original
song I did the kind of employs a lot of
these techniques which I'm gonna link
you below so make sure to check that out
if you kind of like to sound this but
we're gonna talk about what makes Travis
picking Travis picking and basically a
lot of that is that your thumb keep it a
super steady rhythm alright so we can
talk about a few things but we're gonna
do these in counts of for Bob I was
gonna be accounted for and the very
first thing you want to do is get your
muscle memory and solid with your thumb
going from the e to the D string so you
don't even have to look at it you have
to think about it that's a way it's just
gonna be going on and on never missing
the beat you can actually kind of get
your palm down here too to kind of get
like a muted sound okay and counting it
out is really important one two three
four one two three four even if it's
super slow at first just kind of go on
like 1 2 3 or you really want to have
that steady pulse going it's the most
important part of this whole thing
alright now you can do this routed on
the E string either B or on the a string
a 2d but most the time you're gonna be
on either the a or the D string because
your other fingers are gonna be
responsible for a little bit of a melody
thing going on on the higher strings ok
so I have my pointer finger sign to the
g string and my middle finger the signs
in B string so we're gonna do a G chord
first all it is hold down the 3rd fret
on the low E string to get kind of a G
chord because if we're jumping back and
forth from 3ei which is a G to open D
which is a d g a b c d of v g is d
just like that so basically we're gonna
keep going like that and then we're
going to start adding some notes on top
to this progression this kind of example
one two three and four and one two three
and four
okay so we're adding two notes in
between the third and fourth beat and
the fourth beat in the first beat again
we've called at the end of three and
four alright so one two three and four
and alright so in between my thumb
hitting one of those lower bass notes
I'm getting the open g string or the
open B string on the end of three grab
that open g string with my pointer
finger on the end of four grabbing the
open B string with my middle finger one
two three and four one two three and
four if you're having a hard time kind
of keeping your thumb steady it does
always think of it being in between
thumb it's one two three and four and
one two three and four and don't feel
ashamed to count it out I promise you if
you count things out you're gonna be way
better doing it if you can count out if
you can say it one two three and four
and it's gonna be a lot easier to play
one two three and four and one two three
four the grain has a really cool way of
organizing musical measures just by
saying it once you say it you can play
it a lot easier one two three four one
two three four now before
I did a thing where I kind of muted some
of it and that kind of really has you
know a palm muting effect on it that
it's kind of has a drastic impact on
something like this see it now I can
still get open melody notes higher up
but now the base notes are muted because
I'm commuting the lower three strings
[Music]
so in that case the bass notes aren't
really taking over the sound of it on
some acoustic guitars it can be a little
bit Bumi if you're just playing like
you get almost too much of the lowness
so really always think about maybe kind
of adding palm mute to your finger style
stuff because it has a really cool not
to it alright so we're gonna jump from
this note over this core into an E minor
for murder
now we could play it a regular E minor
chord but you only need the second fret
on the D string because again remember
we're skipping that a string
alright so the first bar is going to be
a G 2 3 & 4 and G 2 3 and 4 and E and my
G 2 3 4 2 G 2 3 and for a minor
same pattern just between these two
really easy chords really you can
holding down one no all right so
eventually if we can kind of start maybe
making the patterns a little more
complex and alternating between certain
patterns within a couple bars or our
phrase okay so the example I want to use
too is gonna be something with different
chords we're gonna use a major seven
chord voicing on this C runo so now
we're gonna be jumping back between the
a and the D string with your thumb to
keep that pulse alright so this chord
voicing is gonna be 3 a 5 D through ring
finger for G with your middle finger and
5 B with your pinky all right now I'm
just working on these four middle
strings one two three four and one two
three four and if you want to busy it up
you can put an end in between every one
now it's going back forth one and two
and three and four and so maybe the
first one could be one two three and
four and one and two and three and four
alright so I'm just kind of maybe
getting a little creative with how I
want to do this but the thing that is
always gonna be Caston most time is
jumping back and forth having that pulse
with your thumb to the boil you don't
have to think about it's on cruise
control some autopilot alright
now the next pattern we're gonna do is
we're gonna actually have one of the
melody notes or one of your fingers join
in on one of the thumbs pulses okay on
the two one two on that - I'm grabbing
the D and the B string the same time one
two three and four alright so the first
time around the first two beats one two
and then the second two peaks of that
bar three and four and just like we did
before thumb index thumb middle one one
two three and four and one two three and
four I can mute it or sustain I can even
use my left hand or my Freddy and uh
sometimes you might actually want a
ghost note yeah like what I did here
further so one two three the and of
three I'm actually just gonna play a
note but I don't want to hear it to
sound I don't it sounded out I just want
that kind of dead sound one two three
[Music]
okay so a lot of it is keeping a steady
rhythm that is gonna be propelling maybe
looking chord progression forward you
don't even have to fret all the notes a
lot of times mutes sound good just kind
of keep that rhythm going because this
is really I think you know one of the
most rhythmic styles that you can play
so that's why a lot of times some some
great guitar players like like Taj Mahal
has a great blues player that does this
lot Elia Smith has some cool songs they
do this shaky graves is like a master it
kind of using just this kind of style to
really kind of like have things move
along and almost it almost sounds like
there's like more than one person just
playing guitar okay and that just comes
from having this steady pulse
maybe starting to mute things
all right so we're gonna take the C
major seven chord two bars of that that
one two three and four and one two three
and four and
okay and it's just kind of a minor 7
inch type D legal on your nice just rate
of you minor seven eight nine D open G
and then a PA same pattern but kind of
like an open quarter
to a D chord five a seven D keep the g
string open and then seven beer
[Music]
so we have a full bar of see you 1 2 3 4
& 1 2 3 4 and 1 bar movie 1 of D
maybe on that fourth bar the DIA I can
make it a little bit busier all I did
there is 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 you can make
things as busy or as sparse as you want
as long as that root note keeps kind of
steady moving along
[Music]
another thing you can do is maybe add a
hammer on to it so for instance go back
to that G quarry started with one two
three and four and one
that's really a cool thing that you can
do so what I'm doing there is I'm just
taking the D string hammering on to get
to that note
one two okay so I'm starting
this together with my thumb all right so
it's like 1/2 D the B string and one two
and three and four and one two and three
four
[Music]
you'll see
[Music]
so a lot of different things to do it
really start out just practicing back
and forth from the e to the D string
maybe to the a to the D string sometimes
you can do all of them in one bar like
for example a lot of that song that I'm
gonna link it to you the first in the
intro the root note changes with almost
every beat right so we've got seven this
is all just kind of around this minor
chord 1 2 open 7 a7 e8 opening 7 8 and
then muted it sounds pretty cool too so
[Music]
you know once you gotta have the pulse
of it down you get a little more
creative little fancier with your
fretting hand and then just start
rocking it out so hopefully that was a
cool intro to Travis speaking and you
learned it definitely a cool style a lot
of great players utilize and if you have
any questions or comments hit me up in
the comments section Instagram Twitter
the website talk to y'all see you thanks
a lot