Lesson Length: 11:39

Instructor: George Goodman

Concepts:
* Travis Picking
* Downbeats played with the thumb
* Offbeats played with fingers
* Anchoring the right hand

George Goodman's Guitar and Harmonica Method

Takamine EG541SC
I am playing my black tak in this one.

This is a Takamine G Series EG541SC bought in North Carolina when I was playing in a band called Double Take.
Specs:
Top - Solid Spruce
Back - Nato
Sides - Nato
Finger Board - Rosewood
Electronics - TK40
Finish - Gloss Black
Check out more Takamine G Series Guitars

Travis Picking

Travis picking is a common folk style of picking which is characterized by the bass notes being played by the thumb on the down beats and treble notes played with the fingers on the off beat. Typically, the thumb will be used to play strings 4, 5, and 6 while finger 1 will be assigned to string 3, finger 2 to string 2 and finger 3 to string 1.
You can use thumb and finger picks if you like but I prefer to use my fingernails. And if you don't have or want long fingernails, the ends of your fingers work fine as well.

Anchoring The Right Hand
There are three basic ways of holding your right hand while finger picking.
The first way is to place your fourth finger on the body of the guitar just below the first string with the rest of your hand positioned over the sound hole.

Another way of holding your right hand is by resting the heel of your hand on the bridge. This will leave your fingers a bit short of the sound hole and so changing the sound a little bit.
This position allows for muting strings if desired.

A third way of holding your right hand when finger picking is to allow the right hand to free float over the strings. This doesn't really give you as much control or feel for where each of the strings are but can still work well with practice.

Pattern 1 - 4 String in C Major
There are any number of different finger picking patterns and we will be going through a bunch of them.
The first pattern I want to look at is the four string pattern pictured below.

This pattern uses strings 5, 4, 3, and 2.
Start by fretting C Major with the left hand.
On the right hand, the thumb alternates between strings 5 and 4 and will play on every down beat so first practice playing with just the thumb on the down beats. That's the basis for Travis picking. Practice that until it's comfortable. You might as well sing the root note as you go.

In this pattern, your first finger will be used to play the third string and your second finger will be used to play the second string.

Add your second finger on the second string with the thumb on beat 1 and practice that counting out the beats while you're playing.

Next, on the second half of beat two play the third string with your first finger.

Next step, on the second half of the third beat, play the second string with your second finger.

Final step, on the & of 4, play the third string with your first finger.

Pattern 1 - 4 String in A Minor
This pattern also works excellently with A minor. Don't change what you're doing with the right hand, just change the chord with the left hand.

Once that's comfortable, practice alternating between C and A minor.

Things To Work On
If you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast.
Start slowly and build up speed.
This technique may take months of practice so don't get discouraged. Keep going and you'll get it.

Ear Training
Keep practicing singing the root notes.