IN THE WOODSHED
Charlie Griffiths shows you how to traverse the strings using a trademark picking technique that, to this day, bears a country legend’s name.
Charlie Griffiths shows how to build your ability at a fantastic technique - Travis picking..
Merle Travis was born in Rosewood Kentucky in 1917, and found fame in the 40s and 50s hosting his country music TV show, Merle Travis And Company, and with an appearance in the 1953 movie From Here To Eternity, alongside Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra.
Although being an all-round and highly influential blues, jazz and western swing musician, he is best remembered for his trademark fingerpicking style, known today as Travis picking. This can be thought of as boogie-woogie for the guitar. The thumb plays an ostinato bassline, which can be thought of as the pianist’s left hand, against which an independent melody (the pianist’s right hand) is played with the fingers. This style inspired the likes of Chet Atkins, Doc Watson and James Taylor, who extensively incorporated Travis picking technique into their styles.
In this lesson we’ll use the same alternating bassline pattern throughout and add some different melodic approaches on the top. We’ll start by playing the independent bassline and slowly adding some melody notes. Example 1 demonstrates a simple exercise to help you develop independence in your picking hand. It’s a good idea to repeat this bassline over and over until it becomes second nature and you can play it almost without thinking. Next add the C note on top of the bass-line. Notice in the notation throughout the article that there are downward stems and upward stems. This is a visual cue you can use to separate the thumb and fingers; thumbs are down and fingers are up.
Example 2 adds more melody notes to the bass. In this case the fretting hand is a relatively motionless C chord, with only the third finger moving between the fifth and
IN THIS LESSON WE’LL USE THE SAME BASSLINE THROUGHOUT AND ADD SOME DIFFERENT MELODIC APPROCHES ON THE TOP
sixth strings. Hold this chord shape and use your picking fingers to create all the rhythms and melodies.
So far the bass notes and melody notes have happened simultaneously. In other words the thumb and fingers have plucked the notes at the same time. Examples 3 and 4 introduce syncopated melody notes, which means playing rhythmically in-between the bass notes. This is a little tricky at first, but the effort is worth it as the end result is a fantastically intricate and complete effect with a bassline and a melody interacting together.
The final example has a subtly different bassline and an arpeggiating melody which is interwoven with the bass part; effectively using all six strings to create the full effect. For this technique it’s particularly important to start very slowly and break the examples down into small chunks on which to focus.
NEXT MONTH Charlie brings you a basic guide and introduction to the art of Sweep picking