Named after country guitarist merle travis, the travis picking technique is achieved. Click on button for pdf of this and other fingerpicking patterns. This is a common fingerstyle pattern for ukulele, as well as three finger banjo or guitar but thats another blog or two. This is sometimes referred to as playing broken chords. Travis picking rock class 101 the best online ukulele. In this episode of fret dojo tv, i cover how to play the travis fingerpicking pattern in detail. The ring finger is rarely used in true travis picking but many other offshoots of this basic style use all three right hand finger and thumb to great effect. Fingerpicking exercises for ukulele tabs to download. Patterns played over chord sequences 1 24 chapter 10. Mozart for uke snippet of a beautiful minor melody by w. Tips for melting chords and creating your own picking. I have made that a pdf download too which i hope you will find very easy to use.
They are not for complete beginners, you have to be able to play a bit and be comfortable changing chords. Of course the picking patterns have to be modified a bit because of the different number of strings on the uke. This type of picking made its way into pop, country, rock, and folk. Mearle travis was a great and innovative guitar player, and his style of country finger picking became a very commonly used pattern in folk fingerstyle and all the other fingerstyle genres that followed. Famous examples of this picking style include dust in the wind by kansas and our example song. Start with a c chord and simple finger picking, add a chord progression around it, and soon it builds to complex tunes. Named after merle travis and popularized by chet atkins, it became a. Travis picking is divided into three parts, each dissecting and discussing the three essential elements of the travis style. Apply the 3 finger and 4 finger picking patterns to a two chord.
Other masters in the tradition of folky country fingerstyle include chet atkins, tommy emmanuel and. Some people call it travis picking, after the brilliant fingerpicking guitarist merle travis. February 5, 2015 ukulele practice lessons erxercise, fingerpicking, fingerstyle, practice, ukulele jonathan these exercises are for players who want to learn to play fingerstyle ukulele. Fingerpicking a basic lesson by ukulele mike ukulele. See more ideas about ukulele fingerpicking, ukulele and ukulele tabs. One popular guitar style i sometimes use on the uke is the alternatingthumb fingerpicking popularized by acoustic blues guitarists of the 1930s, like mississippi john hurt and blind blake. This post follows on from those and the fingerpicking ukulele first steps post with patterns using those picking methods. The 16 examples in this post are a good source to learn the most common fingerpicking patterns you will ever come across. Travis picking ukulele mike lynch all things ukulele.
Berkeley ukulele club fingerpicking exercises instructions a 3 pluck 3 rd fret on the a string 2 mpluck with middle finger e 1 ipluck with index finger c 2 t pluck with thumb g 1 thumb pluck and pinch, thumb alternating betw een c and g string hold a c chord with left hand. Funny enough the guitar part for this song was written originally as a guitar fingerpicking exercise so makes for not just an awesome song but also a good. This is one of the most common guitar fingerstyle patterns to learn, and features in many classic songs such as dust in the wind by kansas. The patterns can be used individually or in combination for a more interesting feel. In this video lesson, youll be learning the basics for creating your own simple finger picking patterns on the ukulele. The most basic form of ukulele fingerpicking is thumbstyle picking. Very basic fingerstyle starts with learning how to use your thumb to pick the strings of the ukulele. It is named for merle travis, a country guitarist who was one of the early developers of the style doc watson was so impressed he named his son merle. Something perhaps a little more sparse, spacious, woven together. Uses righthand thumb and fingers 1 and 2 only not 3. The video below demonstrates the two travis picking patterns below plus two other patterns all available for download as a pdf. I am just offering a different angle at showing you how. You can play fingerpicking patterns as accompaniment while you sing instead of strumming, or you can mix it up by strumming in some places in a song and fingerpicking in other places.
A simple pattern using each finger in order with the thumb starting on the gstring then moving to the cstring. The top line of the tab is the a string, below that is the e string, below that is the. The fingerpicking patterns can be applied to almost every folk, pop, country or rock song. Travis picking a classic picking pattern from the folk era. So with the c chord you were alternating your bass notes between the 5th and the 4th strings. Get a free pdf download for lyric and chord reference. A 3 pluck 3rd fret on the a string 2 mpluck with middle finger. How to play tennessee waltz on ukulele ukulele lesson w jam track available. Travis picking for the ukulele by ukulele mike duration. Brian ward picking patterns 4 marlow ukulele group travis picking alternative 6 simple variation on the first travis use righthand t humb and fingers 1 and 2 only not 3. Joni mitchell, james taylor, katie melua, and even metallica have some great examples in their back catalogue. There are lots of usersourced tab sites that get a ton of traffic, such as the massive ukulele and even massiveer. The important part is the picking order of the strings.
I did just order baritone ukulele from scratch and it seems to have what im looking for. It involves playing a bass pattern with the thumb while plucking the higher strings with the index, middle and ring fingers. For a fingerpicking pattern, you can use a basic travis pattern. So, it can sometimes be nice to pick the notes of a chord one at a time, instead of strumming it. Travis picking patterns using thumb, middle, index fingers. So i refer to this as 2 finger travis picking you can also use your 3rd finger, but its definitely more common to use on your thumb and 2. How to create ukulele fingerpicking patterns ukulele. Now youve got a simple ukulele fingerpicking pattern, apply it to some songs that you know the chords for. Think of dust in the wind, dont think twice, its all. This is a typical chord movement that appears in many songs, and, i also feel that its important to practice these fingerpicking patterns or.
Ten arpeggio exercises plus a song to improve your fingerpicking on ukulele if you dont know that i wrote ukulele for dummies i obviously havent been doing enough shameless selfpromotion. In this tutorial ive attempted to teach a version of travis for the ukulele. Very few pdf files of even the basic travis patterns. My ukulele basics dvd is currently available for purchase. Great examples of fingerpicking patterns for guitar are everywhere. Dont worry too much in the early stages about trying to find a perfect pattern, but be happy to just make one up at all and be able to play it. There are lots of usersourced tab sites that get a ton of traffic, such as the massive and even massiveer. Travis picking is a fingerstyle guitar technique named after merle travis. Patterns played over chord sequences 2 26 chapter 11. The most important thing you can do at this stage is to explore the idea. Named after merle travis and popularized by chet atkins, it became a staple of all folk musicians in the 60s. The term travis picking is used to describe a wide variety of fingerpicking.
Having basic fingerpicking skills allows a player to provide not only a great depth of styling to accompaniment for. One of the most popular fingerstyle folk guitar techniques is known as travis picking. As you can hear from the video, travis picking creates a beautiful layered texture where the thumb of the right hand lays down a steady beat as the fingers or finger in the case of merle add chord and. Pick some easy songs that use 34 chords to begin with and rather than strum them, fingerpick your way through using the pattern youve just learned. The fingerpicking pattern on your right hand will always be the same. And ukulele mike lynch has many really good fingerpicking tutorials on. You can hold any chord with your left hand as you play these patterns. Merle travis had such a unique approach at the time he had a whole technique named after him travis picking which separates out the melody, harmony and bass lines. By learning how to use the travis picking technique on guitar, you can add interest when you play not only folk music, but everything from ragtime to the blues.
In this manner, you dont need to look at your picking hand. The example below is based on an open d major chord. One of the favorite styles among folk guitarists is called travis picking. Fingerpicking patterns for guitar fundamental changes. In this guitar lesson we are going to focus on using your thumb with your 1st and 2nd fingers. You may be used to thumb strumming, and fingerpicking with the thumb is not much different. Again, the 6th and 1st strings are not going to be played. In this lesson, we will learn how to travis pick on the ukulele using fleetwood macs landslide as an example.
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