Around 2017 or so, it became painfully obvious that (a) I was falling deeply in love with so many songs that required Travis Picking; and (b) I had zero experience with the Travis Picking technique, and kept putting off learning it.
In the summer of 2018, the dam broke - and Clay Pigeons was the song that got me over the hump. In this entry into my Practice Log, I’ll show you some of the exercises I used to get familiar with the technique, and eventually gaining the ability to play the “Clay Pigeons” intro in the style of John Prine. These exercises are based on G, C, and D chord shapes.
A few years after making the video above, I finally made a full tutorial for Clay Pigeons! You can view it here:
Be sure to check out my Clay Pigeons lesson page for all additional notes and resources for this song — including a link to my licensed song sheet.
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