The Trick to TRAVIS PICKING Learn it in 10 Minutes! (Plus free chord charts!)

ok, i took up the challenge. after about 100 hours and 2 months into it i am finally approaching ludicrous speed with getting a more acceptable number of stumbles per minute. it will takes months to eliminate them completely while changing chords and/or string sets. getting to this point was in no way easy. doing this at a walk is easy to learn and pretty easy to do once your right hand gets the basic idea. getting competently past a walk takes serious work, dedication, perseverance, and...pain. your picking hand will fight back, you have to force it, even when it wants or demands you stop KEEP GOING! as fast as you can, even if you are to the point that your fingers refuse to move. everyday. If you don't, you will be stuck in walk land forever. its work. i started with 5 minute forced marathons and progressed to 10, 12, 15 min at a time. now much more. I didn't really worry about doing the picking pattern perfectly while forcing, it was more about getting the picking hand to do the motion and not stopping. thanks, rob, for showing that that i could actually do this. signed: a 40 year power chord poser.............

Years ago, I had the pleasure of socializing with a young man who had been a professional Las Vegas pit band guitarist. This was in Memphis, TN. They had a blue grass "opry" out in a neighboring small town, Lucy. It was simply called the Lucy Opry, and almost everyone knew what you meant. After he had been in Memphis a few weeks, he found his way out to the Opry, and just a while later, he played in the "opry" talent show and won. When asked how long he had been playing "grass" he replied, "about 2 weeks. Point is, if you are proficient at one form of music, it does not take much time to learn another. As one poster here referred to it, "pattern" picking is the basis of all finger picking styles. That's what I did for years because, as the poster implied, I used it as accompanist for my singing. However, once I decided to try adding melody notes along with the pattern, it was not that hard. I did learn the intro lick to Fogelberg's "Leader of the Band" in just a few minutes. One more thing, you don't see many "pickers" doing any complicated riffs while singing. When they start sing, they resort to the patterns.

Really good, fundamental lesson.........that is absolutely essential. You are a great teacher. And this is coming from ( me ) a 62 yr old, lifelong guitarist. I gigged professionally ( guitar/singing/blues harp ) for many years & eventually grew tired of the club/lounge scene & "retired" back in 2003. But the music lives on with me, as I'm back into playing again.

Really helpful and easy to understand video, the first of yours I've seen, will be checking out more - thanks a lot. ATB

Priceless, always thought I could never finger pick but your breakdown has changed that thought. I'll be 64 next week and learning something new. Thanks.

Thank you. My great grandfather was Earl Travis, first cousins with Merle Travis. Merle got his first guitar from my grandfather. I grew up hearing the stories, and now I am trying to learn Travis picking and this was very helpful.

Thank you, you made me understand this so much quicker than anyone else.

Happened upon your channel and I had to stop to compliment you for your no nonsense, direct and intelligent manner of instruction. Thank you for as much and for sharing your excellent talent for playing, too!

Outstanding, short, clear and concise tutorial. Much appreciated!

Love your style Rob , demystifying the guitar and making it simple , cheers .

Amassing work, Rob. Very easy and helpful.👍

Just stumbled across this - never seen your channel before. Been playing 30+ years but learned something straight away. Like everyone says, you're an excellent teacher and I'm now going to burn hours and hours going through your old videos. Subscribed!

Excellent lesson ! Simple and concise. Thank you.

Really great approach, no frills and easy to follow instructions. Thank you!

This is just great! I've just found your channel. And I love Travis picking. End your lesson helped me. A lot! Thank you so much!

I am so glad that I found you. Now that I have retired, I can practice heaps. I am more of a singer than a guitarist, but I am working to put the two together.

Thank you, Travis picking and folk picking is a very hard pattern picking to understand and learning. Great video

Very good pattern for folk music. Paul Simon uses this on the song The Boxer on the intro. Peter, Paul, and Mary used it on most songs they sang. Donovan a major influence on The Beatles taught them how to do this or tried to. Paul came up with a method that worked for him. I have to say this video covered things very well. Being a five string Banjo picker as well I'm use to all this already but I still found information in this video that's helpful to anyone be they new or accomplished. Excellent.

You demonstrate and explain it so well you sir are a very good teacher!

Excellent Tutorial!!! Direct and to the point unlike many long winded tutorials. A natural approach spot on. Thanks!! Musician/Artist USA- ThomMeinert