Learn Any Travis Picking Song, Step by Step
Lesson #375 • Jul 11, 2021
Video lesson
Instructional PDF 9 pages
Editor’s notes
Hey friends! New lesson & PDF today where I walk through the process of learning any difficult song on guitar – specifically, using a Travis Picking song which requires complicated coordination of right thumb (bass notes) and right index finger (melody notes). This is a style of fingerpicking I’ve grown to love, but learning songs in this manner can be incredibly difficult. In my video, I’ll walk through the step-by-step process I recently used to learn a 17-measure John Prine arrangement that had eluded me for years. Since I finally got over the hump and learned it, I wanted to make this lesson to share my process. This will assuredly apply to any Travis Picking song you might learn in the future.
The arrangement I use in this lesson is inspired by “In Spite of Ourselves” by John Prine.
Video timestamps for my lesson:
- 0:00 Overview & lesson summary
- 2:50 Learn the basic chord shapes
- 6:44 Learn the chord progressions
- 8:51 Right-hand melody notes by themselves
- 11:38 Simple melody notes w/ single bass note
- 12:43 Alternating bass notes, by themselves
- 14:28 Simple melody notes w/ simple alt. bass notes
- 16:43 Simple melody notes w/ advanced alt. bass notes
- 18:15 Add final rhythmic complexity to melody notes
My Other Travis Picking Technique Videos
- Travis Picking vs. Normal Fingerstyle
- Fingerstyle F with Wrapped Thumb
- How I Composed An Original Travis Picking Song
- Travis Picking Finger Technique: Anchoring Left Pinky
- How I Learned to Travis Pick
- Travis Picking Exercise in C-G-Am-F
My Other Travis Picking Song Lessons
- Let Him Roll by Guy Clark
- If I Had a Boat by Lyle Lovett
- My Old Kentucky Home by John Prine
- Clay Pigeons by John Prine
- Hello in There by John Prine
- Souvenirs by John Prine
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