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  #1  
Old 05-24-2014, 07:12 AM
Tanque Verde Tanque Verde is offline
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Default Easy Songs for Travis Picking?

After a couple of years of strumming cowboy chords, I am trying to teach myself Travis picking. I'd be very grateful for recommendations of basic songs, preferably with simple chords and changes so I don't have to worry about my left hand. Thanks.
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Last edited by Tanque Verde; 05-27-2014 at 09:35 PM.
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Old 05-24-2014, 08:29 AM
JerrysGuitarBar JerrysGuitarBar is offline
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Hi. I have this free lesson which is a simple introduction to Travis Picking

https://www.jerrysguitarbar.com/guit...n-a-jet-plane/
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Old 05-24-2014, 10:14 AM
adamalltogether adamalltogether is offline
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCz...q0Z7yAk4DqwP2g
This youtube channel helped me when learning the basics! His appraoch is pretty good, breaking down everything, starting with the thumb and adding fingers in as you go. Simple chord changes too.

try also, "hang me, oh hang me" as that's simple too.
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Old 05-24-2014, 10:14 AM
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Toby Walker Toby Walker is offline
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How about Freight Train? Liz Cotton is famous for doing it but the technique remains the same... alternating bass with a melody on top.

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Old 05-25-2014, 01:15 PM
rickwaugh rickwaugh is offline
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Dust in the Wind. The writer wrote it as a way to learn Travis picking. His wife said it sounded nice, turn it into a song.
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Old 05-25-2014, 03:35 PM
Luke_ Luke_ is offline
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+1 Freight train, bye bye bluebell, don't think twice, windy and warm
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Old 05-26-2014, 01:38 AM
T1mothy T1mothy is offline
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freight train, windy and warm, chaplin in new shoes, baby s coming home, sixteen tons
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Old 05-26-2014, 08:36 PM
Tanque Verde Tanque Verde is offline
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Many thanks to all who have replied. I appreciate the lessons and videos and will study them. I welcome additional song recommendations from anyone who might encounter this thread.
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Old 05-26-2014, 08:46 PM
Tanque Verde Tanque Verde is offline
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Toby, maybe I'm just dodging the rough stuff, but I can't find a tab of Freight Train that I'm entirely comfortable with. The version on Songsterr is hard to read (what do the Xs signify?) and the most popular version on UGT has a G7 that gives me fits. Practice, practice, practice. Incidentally, my boss attends Swannanoa and loves it.
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Old 05-26-2014, 09:51 PM
clintj clintj is offline
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Check out Mark Hanson's books. They'll give you a good route into basic to intermediate alternating bass playing, which is basically what Merle Travis played. Some easy songs I like are Landslide and Can't Find My Way Home. Neil Young's Needle and the Damage Done can be played as alternating bass. Julia by the Beatles is a pretty one with an easy pattern, but there's a G9 chord in there that gave me fits for a few weeks.
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Old 05-27-2014, 12:19 AM
Earwitness Earwitness is offline
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I learned Freight Train as my first detailed fingerstyle song--it's not just a pattern picking song (which might be easier to learn first). For me, anyway, to do the simple alt bass and pinches and plucks was a little trickier than I expected, but I got it down. Then, though, when I switched it to an off-beat syncopated style with a couple of "extras" thrown in, it grew in challenge such that now after five months it is still a full challenge to get it all right. Anyway, the point is that depending on what you bite off, some versions of that song can be hard.
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Old 05-27-2014, 06:15 AM
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My suggestion would be to take the song it the most simplest version (maybe no melody) and practice the song structure. Next play the melody by its self then practice with the melody looping each measure. The repetition will help you get thru the parts. Lemme know if you don't find any tabs that you like and maybe I can write some up. Best bet is to do 15 to 30 minute burst sessions practicing. It may take all day but your mind needs time to process the info. Usually when you feel you start to get a part down, you accidentally speed up.... This causes more mistakes which leads to practicing the song incorrectly. That's counter productive IMO
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Old 05-27-2014, 06:39 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tanque Verde View Post
Toby, maybe I'm just dodging the rough stuff, but I can't find a tab of Freight Train that I'm entirely comfortable with. The version on Songsterr is hard to read (what do the Xs signify?)
I guess you mean the one titled as the Elizabeth Cotten version?
They mean the tabber couldn't be bothered to give you fret numbers, by the look of it. (Normally X's on tab mean unpitched, muted notes, ie indistinct thumps. That's obviously not correct in this case)

I suggest you look at the Marcel Dadi one:
http://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/marce...in-tab-s5856t0
His first 16 bars are pretty much how Elizabeth Cotten did it. The rest is him embellishing and showing off! (Nice stuff, but definitely not beginner level.)
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Old 05-27-2014, 06:47 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickwaugh View Post
Dust in the Wind. The writer wrote it as a way to learn Travis picking. His wife said it sounded nice, turn it into a song.
Good answer: I'll second Dust in the Wind. There are also lots of good Youtube lessons on it, which break down the picking pattern nicely.
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Old 05-27-2014, 08:17 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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One issue here is whether you want solo instrumental pieces, or vocal songs with Travis-style accompaniment.

The latter offer easier pickings (in both sense ), because there is no need to contain a melody, just a pattern to outline the chords. (Although some of them do pick out the melody in part at least.)

Dylan's Don't Think Twice is one of these. It does contain hints of the melody, but would not normally be treated as a non-vocal performance. Similarly his Girl From The North Country on the same album (not the later version with Johnny Cash).
There are countless examples of classic songs with alternating bass accompaniment:
Ralph McTell: Streets of London
Jackson C Frank: Blues Run the Game
Joan Baez: There But For Fortune
Bert Jansch: Needle Of Death, Running from Home, Courting Blues
Paul Simon: Kathy's Song
Fleetwood Mac: Landslide
Kansas: Dust in the Wind
Beatles: Dear Prudence, Julia
etc etc

... and if you want older, bluesier ones, Mississippi John Hurt is the go-to guy. Almost everything he recorded is in that style, and most of them are pretty simple. For beginners, I'd go for Payday (open D, no chord shapes, just a major pent melody up the top 2 strings), or Lonesome Valley (EADGBE, again no chord shapes other than an open G he moves up and down.)

For something a little more complex, there's Blind Blake: Diddie Wah Diddie being a good example.

And of course, Freight Train itself was a song-with-accompaniment originally. Cotten just happened to play the melody as well as sing it - and it's simple enough to have become a beginner instrumental classic (and ripe for fancier development by the likes of Marcel Dadi or Tommy Emmanuel).

Fully instrumental pieces (originally written that way) are harder to find - and also tend to be more challenging. Eg:
Blind Blake: Guitar Chimes, Southern Rag, Blind Arthur's Breakdown
Merle Travis: Cannonball Rag
Stefan Grossman: Dallas Rag
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