Travis Picking help

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

LOL!!!! I have always said the goal for my guitar playing is to play so well that nobody notices it!

That's the common experience of the bass player! (I've probably done as much of that live as guitar playing.) As long as you keep playing (and get it right) nobody pays you any attention at all.
As soon as you make a mistake - or just stop playing - it's "whoah, wtf just happened?"

That's why bass playing attracts a particular type of person, IMO (and IME). Not necessarily introvert, but happy to be in the background, steady and reliable, appreciated by their fellow musicians, quite content with being ignored by the audience.

[6L6]

I've been Travis picking since 1965 and was inspired mostly by this Patrick Sky tune, "Separation Blues".

The best advice I can give you is to get this sound in your head and try to follow it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNxcQVyqp_U

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by 6L6

I've been Travis picking since 1965 and was inspired mostly by this Patrick Sky tune, "Separation Blues".

The best advice I can give you is to get this sound in your head and try to follow it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNxcQVyqp_U

I remember Patrick Sky!

You've got one year on me. I probably started with Donovan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGLCFaBfxtk

I'd been a Donovan fan for nearly a year before I saw that film (Jan 1966), and playing guitar for about one month. I was 16, and I still remember the impact it had. I wanted to live in that world - who wouldn't?

It would be a while before I realised he'd taken most of that song from Dylan's Boots Of Spanish Leather (which of course Dylan cobbled together from one or two older songs).

I found my way to that bluesier/jazzier/ragtime style (as in Separation Blues) via:
Cliff Aungier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmJ_...Y_pm7w&index=3 (clearly ripped off from the Beatles She's a Woman!)
Dave Van Ronk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYJLOiPGZY
Stefan Grossman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMICKJQMldA

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by nickv6

When I watch Merle Travis picking it seems to me that he just chuggs away at the bass, he doesn't seem to alternate much just ploughs the thumb in wherever.
Chet seems to me to have refined it into proper and disciplined alternate pickiing.
They don't sound the same to me.
Just my thoughts.
Nick

I read somewhere that Merle T didn't allways alternate the bass on different strings he could play a fretted bass note and alternate with an open string.