How To Really Learn And Understand The Travis Picking Pattern - Part 1

by Simon Candy Musician And Guitar Instructor

How would you like to be able to pick up your guitar and easily fingerpick your way through thousands of songs.

Better yet, how would you like to be able to do this instantly.

Well, you can.

How?

With the travis picking pattern.

The travis picking pattern is the most common of all fingerpicking patterns. You will find it in thousands upon thousands of fingerpicking songs.

In this lesson, I break this pattern down for you so you can not only play it, but understand it.

It is in understanding the travis picking pattern that will allow you to easily pick your guitar up and instantly play many fingerpicking songs. Songs like Country Roads by John Denver, Let Her Go by Passenger and many, many more.

In part 1 of this lesson, I show you the all important bass component to travis picking plus drills to build independency between your thumb and fingers.

This will set you up for part 2 of this lesson where you learn variations of the travis picking pattern and how to apply it to create music.

You can check it all out in the video below:

Travis Picking Pattern Guitar Video Tutorial

Travis Picking Bass Patterns

Bass Pattern 1: G Chord

This pattern is known as a 6, 4, 6, 4 pattern in reference to the strings the bass is played on:

Travis Picking Example 1

Bass Pattern 2: C Chord

This pattern is known as a 5, 4, 5, 4 pattern in reference to the strings the bass is played on:

Travis Picking Example 2

Bass Pattern 3: G Chord

This pattern is known as a 6, 4, 5, 4 pattern in reference to the strings the bass is played on:

Travis Picking Example 3

Bass Pattern 4: C Chord

This pattern is known as a 5, 4, 6, 4 pattern in reference to the strings the bass is played on:

Travis Picking Example 4

Travis Picking Thumb Independence Drills

The drills below are very effective in getting your thumb working independently from your fingers. This is of upmost importance with the travis picking pattern and fingerpicking in general.

Drill 1

Pluck the first string on beat 1 of the bar, and at the sane time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 1

Drill 2

Pluck the first string on beat 2 of the bar, and at the sane time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 2

Drill 3

Pluck the first string on beat 3 of the bar, and at the same time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 3

Drill 4

Pluck the first string on beat 4 of the bar, and at the same time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 4

Drill 5

Pluck the first string on the "+" of beat 1 of the bar (ie. the offbeat), and at the same time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 5

Drill 6

Pluck the first string on the "+" of beat 2 of the bar (ie. the offbeat), and at the same time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 6

Drill 7

Pluck the first string on beat 2 and the "+" of beat 3, and at the same time have your thumb pluck the open 6th string on each beat:

Travis Picking Drill 7

About the author: Having taught guitar professionally for over 20 years, Simon is a highly experienced, successful, and sough after guitar instructor from Melbourne, Australia. Specialising in the acoustic guitar, running his own guitar school, Simon also provides online instruction for acoustic guitar