Chords for The LEGENDARY picking pattern - 'Travis Picking'

Hi my name is Paul Davids and today we're looking at the most legendary [D#] fingerpicking pattern of all time
[E] Travis picking [F] and how it can turn three simple chords into something wonderful
It's named after the great Merle [F#] Travis and although there's a ton of variations on this [G] pattern
what they all have in common is the thumb _ _ _
It's a bass pattern that starts on the root note, in this case the G
and alternates to another bass note to give the illusion of a bass player accompanying us
_ And if we were to move to another chord, let's say A minor, I simply grab that chord
[A] and move my thumb to the new root note, the open A string
So [Am] if we want to add another chord we can add the C major for example
[C] and we don't have to change anything because the root note is already on the A string
Great, now we can move back [G] to the tonic, the G chord
We play each chord for two bars so in total we've got this
One, two, three, four
And [A] _ _ _ _
[C] I'm slightly palm muting the bass notes with my right hand
[G] _ _ Sweet, but the beauty of Travis picking isn't here yet
You see we create a nice and elegant play between the thumb
and the index and middle finger [Gm] of my picking hand
On beat one we add the second string to the pattern
_ [G] One, two, three, four
I'm playing it with my middle finger
One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four
On the first afterbeat, the one and, I play the third string with my index finger
Here we go _ _ _
Let's slow it down a little bit
_ _ _ So this note falls on the offbeat exactly in between the thumbs like this
_ All right
Let's add one more and this one falls exactly in between the second and third beats _
And it is the B string again
_ And we play this twice on the G chord and then we move over to the A minor chord
[Am] _ And we play exactly the same
Only make sure your thumb moves up to that A string
_ Wonderful
And when we move to the [C] C chord, our picking hand doesn't change at all
We simply grab the C major chord and we play it twice again
[G] And back to G
And now we have eight bars and let's speed it up again
Something like this
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ All right
And this is the fundament of our little fingerstyle part
[Gm] But we can add a lot of little things to make it sound even more magical
For starters, let's add a melody that runs [G] through this harmony
The first bar stays exactly the same like this
But halfway bar two, our melody walks up from the B via the C to the D
_ _ fret one and three on the B string that is _
And these melody notes fall exactly on the offbeats in between the thumbs _
So play it a few times to get the hang of the timing
And don't forget to keep that thumb going _ _
_ Awesome
So it's really turning into a song instead of just three chords
Now move to the A minor and [Am] we do exactly the same
_ _ But now our melody walks up from C via D to the high E string
And the [A] timing is [Am] exactly the same
_ _ _ Wow, this is so good
But we have to go on
We go to the C chord
But right before we get there, [A] we play the open B string
After which we hammer on into the [C] C
_ _ _ _ Like this
And now let's add the pattern back
_ _ [Am] So it transitions from A minor to C
_ [C] _ _ _ _ Great
So now we have to move back to G
And let's walk down via the B note, the bass note
[G] _
And just before we go to the G chord, let's add a B string again
Like this from C
[C] _ _
_ _ [G] That high B string is lovely
So now we've got eight beautiful and vibrant bars sounding like this _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ Sweet
So the little ending I played is a sort of a turnaround
[Am] Which is the notes A, B [C] and C and back down
Played on the afterbeats
_ [G] _ _ _ _ And there we are
Each finger has [Am] its own basic role
But combined it's an intricate play of notes that just [C] sounds wonderful together
And there's a few ways we can [G] spice this up again
We can add some rolls to make it more dramatic _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ Or we can add the slap of course
So we add some drums to our playing
[Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [E] _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ All right, so that was the legendary Travis picking pattern
All the tabs are available at [Am] my Patreon page
And I want to thank you so much for watching
It really means a lot
And what would even mean more is if [C] you like this video
Because it tells me you enjoyed watching it as much as I had making it
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[Am] Thank you so much
Have a wonderful day
This was Paul
And I see you next time with another video Cheers
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _