Music and Songwriting/The Songwriter's Grooves Project - A Guide to Singing and Playing Guitar/The Travis Picking Song Series
If you've never done anything with Travis Picking before, I suggest getting your guitar and playing along with this introductory lesson by the great Don Ross
Don Ross intro to Travis Picking
Another legendary free lesson is the Gibson Learn-and-Master Series when Thom Bresh was guest. Thom Bresh is the biological son of Merle Travis and a real heir to the lineage of the Muhlenberg County Travis Picking Style.
Travis Picking with Thom Bresh
Once you've gotten your feet a bit wet, try finding a song or technique you want to study from the lists below.
If you do decide to edit a lesson page, please consider using a lesson template.
Travis Picking Song Title | Composer | Technique | CR | Key Fingering |
/Sounds of silence | Simon and Garfunkel | Mini Travis Patterns, Expansions | 1 | Am |
/begin again | taylor Swift | Easy Travis variations | 2 | G |
/Blowin' in the Wind | Bob Dylan | 4 part bass, walks | 2 | C |
/breath | faith hill | false travis picking/G box | 3 | G |
/Crazy Love | Poco | finger displacements | 3 | C |
/get lucky | Mark Knopfler | Pinches | 3 | C |
/In Spite of Ourselves | John Prine | placed melody over 4-note bass | 3 | C |
/Jesus: The Missing Years | John Prine | 4 note patterns | 3 | C |
/landslide | Fleetwood Mac | improvisation over patterns | 3 | G |
/Leather and Lace | Fleetwood Mac | Descending Bass Riff | 3 | D |
/Let Her Go | Passenger | Pinches | 3 | Am |
/Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian | John Prine | 4 part bass, walkups | 3 | C |
/Sixteen Tons | Merle Travis | Boom Chick technqiue | 3 | Em |
/Such Great Heights | Iron and Wine | Slow Groove | 3 | C |
/Can't Find My Way Home | Steve Winwood | Chromatic Chords/Walks | 4 | D |
/Casanova lament | Frank Turner | Open G/False patterns | 4 | C |
Country Roads | John Denver | 4 note patterns | 4 | A |
Danny's Song | Kenny Loggins | Walking in key of D | 4 | D |
Driving South | The Early November | bass lines over drone pattern | 4 | G |
Dust in the wind | Kansas | isorhtythm/open C | 4 | C |
Homeward Bound | Simon and Garfunkel | slow/mini travis | 4 | G |
/Marry Me | Train | Open C | 4 | C |
Tuolumne | Eddie Vedder | - | 4 | C |
Leader of the Band | Dan Fogelberg | - | 4 | G |
blackbird | The Beatles | false travis picking/G box | 5 | G Open |
can't take it back | Lucas Carpenter | open F/repeating thumb/ | 5 | F Open |
If I Had a Boat | Lyle Lovett | Trip Roll | 5 | G |
Just Breathe | Pearl Jam | - | 5 | C |
kathy's song | simon and Garfunkel | Open G/double stops | 5 | G |
Leaves that are green | Simon and Garfunkel | syncopated melodies/bass lines | 5 | D |
Nights Become Days | Frank Turner | - | 5 | G |
The Boxer | simon and Garfunkel | - | 5 | C |
Wednesday 3 am | simon and Garfunkel | - | 5 | D |
You can close your eyes | James Taylor | - | 5 | D |
Alice's Restaurant | Arlo Guthrie | circle of 5ths/syncopations/patter | 6 | C |
chicken fried | zac brown | - | 6 | G |
January at the Halifax Airport Lounge | Bruce Cockburn | integrating complex melodies | 6 | ? |
How to Rob a Bank | Willy Porter | syncopations/bridge? | 7 | G |
Lost John | Merle Travis | - | 7 | G |
That's too much sugar for a dime | Merle Travis | - | 7 | Bb |
/Treetop Flyer | steven stills | - | 7 | Dm |
Troubles will be gone | Tallest Man on earth | - | 7 | Open G tuning |
Casino Night | Sonic 2 | double stops over boom-chick | 8 | C |
Midnight Special | Merle Travis | - | 8 | E |
Nine Pound Hammer | Merle Travis | - | 8 | G |
1952 Vincent Black Lightning | Richard Thompson | displacements/polyrhythms/speed/improvisation | 9 | G, Drone Tuning |
Kaouding Cissoko | Toumani Diabate | Complex Pattern shuffling, Fast rolls and Pinches | 10 | E |