Travis picking with a melody: fingerstyle guitar
A melody on the top strings over the alternating thumb, through C, Am, Dm and G7: the thumb keeps its steady bass while the fingers play a tune instead of a fixed pattern. This is where Travis picking turns into fingerstyle guitar, one player sounding like two. The fingers have to move freely while the thumb carries on without them, which takes the thumb being fully on autopilot first.
Opens in the player looped and counted in, with drums playing along, and speeds up 5 % every 2 loops to 80 bpm. No account or microphone needed.
- Goal tempo
- 80 bpm
- Starts at
- 48 bpm
- Length
- 4 bars, looped
- Tuning
- E standard
- Time
- 4/4
- Level
- Advanced
- Plays with
- Drums
How to play it
The thumb keeps the bass on every beat; the melody notes on a beat are pinched together with it.
The thumb part is plain Travis picking, a bass note on every beat alternating between two strings, but the fingers now play a tune: E, C, E, G over C, then down through Am and Dm to a G7 that leads back. Where a melody note falls on a beat, it's pinched together with the thumb's.
The fretting hand's fingers are written next to the fret numbers. Some melody notes sit outside the chord shape: the G at the high E's 3rd fret over C takes the little finger, as does the D at the B string's 3rd fret over Am, while the rest of the chord stays down.
Play the melody alone first, with the right fingers, then the thumb part alone, then put them together at the player's slowest tempo. The thumb keeps going no matter what: if the melody stumbles, let it, and keep the bass steady.
Mistakes to watch for
- Melody and bass at the same volume. Let the melody sing over a softer thumb.
- The thumb waiting for a melody note, or doubling up with it, instead of keeping its own beat.
- Lifting the whole chord to reach a melody note when only one finger needs to move.
A speed plan
The player starts at 60 % of the goal and plays each tempo twice before stepping up:
- 48
- 52
- 56
- 60
- 64
- 68
- 72
- 76
- 80
That's 16 loops and about 4 minutes before you're playing at 80 bpm. If it stops being clean on the way, stop the ramp there and loop that tempo until it is. With a microphone or an audio interface you can record while you play instead: Demiurg checks every loop and steps up only after two clean ones in a row, and back down after a poor one.
Questions
How fast should I play Travis picking with a melody?
The goal is 80 bpm in eighth notes, which is 2.7 notes a second. Start wherever every note is clean: the player begins at 48 bpm. Signed in, you can set a goal of your own, slower or faster, on the Exercises page.
What is fingerstyle guitar?
Playing a melody, a bass line and the harmony together on one guitar with the fingers. Travis picking is one of its foundations: the thumb is the bass player, and the fingers play the chords and the tune.
Should I learn plain Travis picking first?
Yes. Until the thumb runs on its own, a melody on top keeps pulling it off the beat. The Travis picking exercise trains that first; this one is the next step.
More acoustic exercises
All 20 acoustic exercises · Strumming patterns · Fretboard notes trainer · All 107 exercises