Video lesson

Instructional PDF 9 pages

Editor’s notes

Hey friends! New lesson & PDF today where I walk through the process of learning any difficult song on guitar – specifically, using a Travis Picking song which requires complicated coordination of right thumb (bass notes) and right index finger (melody notes). This is a style of fingerpicking I’ve grown to love, but learning songs in this manner can be incredibly difficult. In my video, I’ll walk through the step-by-step process I recently used to learn a 17-measure John Prine arrangement that had eluded me for years. Since I finally got over the hump and learned it, I wanted to make this lesson to share my process. This will assuredly apply to any Travis Picking song you might learn in the future.

The arrangement I use in this lesson is inspired by “In Spite of Ourselves” by John Prine.

Video timestamps for my lesson:

• 0:00 Overview & lesson summary
• 2:50 Learn the basic chord shapes
• 6:44 Learn the chord progressions
• 8:51 Right-hand melody notes by themselves
• 11:38 Simple melody notes w/ single bass note
• 12:43 Alternating bass notes, by themselves
• 14:28 Simple melody notes w/ simple alt. bass notes
• 16:43 Simple melody notes w/ advanced alt. bass notes
• 18:15 Add final rhythmic complexity to melody notes

My Other Travis Picking Technique Videos

• Travis Picking vs. Normal Fingerstyle
• Fingerstyle F with Wrapped Thumb
• How I Composed An Original Travis Picking Song
• Travis Picking Finger Technique: Anchoring Left Pinky
• How I Learned to Travis Pick
• Travis Picking Exercise in C-G-Am-F

My Other Travis Picking Song Lessons

• Let Him Roll by Guy Clark
• If I Had a Boat by Lyle Lovett
• My Old Kentucky Home by John Prine
• Clay Pigeons by John Prine
• Hello in There by John Prine
• Souvenirs by John Prine

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