Top 4 Fingerpicking Guitar Patterns (Travis Picking Style)

i'm going to show you the top four finger picking  guitar patterns in the travis picking style travis   picking is a finger picking approach named after  the guitarist merle travis these four patterns are   the most common and most basic finger picking  guitar patterns to learn you can play them as   they are or you can expand on them in the future  to play some very advanced sounding finger style   guitar and solo guitar arrangements which is what  players like chet atkins did these finger picking   patterns are used all over the place in any music  that has somewhat of a finger picking guitar   sound folk guitar country music singer  songwriter music the beatles used them   simon and garfunkel bob dylan and tons and tons  of artists today are using some of these exact   fingerpicking patterns to accompany themselves  the signature of this travis picking sound is   that one's thumb is constantly alternating bass  notes keeping a really really consistent sound   going in the bass role and then the fingers are  filling out the chords with various patterns and   notes on top of that and then melody can even  be played on top of those two things as well   when you put that all together it creates  this very appealing fingerpicking guitar   sound because we're playing the role of at least  two musicians if not three we get this full rich   self-contained kind of full music sound with just  one instrument i'm going to show you each of the   four finger picking guitar patterns with different  string groupings because different chords use   different strings i'm going to demonstrate each  pattern through a common chord progression slowly   and then fast and then i'll also demonstrate  each finger picking pattern with a section of   a real song so we can hear how it sounds in real  music that's what we're going to cover let's do it i'm jared borkowski from soundguitarlessons.com  where i help guitarists gain more creative   control over music so we can express ourselves  more freely if you're new here welcome please   follow and subscribe i have new videos every week  okay so the first pattern is called the inside   outside pattern we're gonna use a g chord for  this and every pattern is named based on what's   happening above the bass because the bass in  all four patterns is going to be the exact   same so this is the bass line if you're playing  a g chord it's the one five one five of g okay   so that's just going this alternating base and  then the inside outside means that you're going   to play out of these two notes the third string  and the second string the inside note and then   the outside tone it's just very simple alternating  between those you have base inside base outside   base inside base outside that's it as simple  as it is inside outside pattern this is on g   quick side note here don't ever put fingers  down with the left hand that you don't actually   need we're not playing a g chord like this  with this finger down with this finger down   i'm just only playing holding down at least  this third fret on the sixth string and then   with any sixth string rooted chord you're skipping  the a string and you're going to play the rest of   the notes above the root on the fourth third and  second string so we're playing the root down here   on the sixth string and then you're playing  string three thumb jumps up to string four   second and then second string with your m finger  with your middle finger okay this is the pattern   the inside outside pattern now if you're going to  play a fifth string rooted chord let's go to a c   chord here then the pattern is just  contained in all four metal strings   so this is the inside outside pattern on c or  any chord that's rooted off the fifth string   by default these things can make  alterations on them which we'll talk about   another time but that's the fifth string rooted  chords if it's a fourth string rooted chord then   you're just playing top four strings only so this  is a d chord and you're playing the same pattern and then you got thumb inside thumb outside  thumb inside thumb outside okay so with all of   these patterns the string groupings are the same  sixth string rooted chord you're playing strings   five and then four three two fifth string rooted  chord you're playing the middle fourth strings   fourth string rooted chord you're playing the  top of four strings again as default you can   venture away from that later and add more  complexity to the patterns but this is the   foundational version of these fingerpicking  patterns so here's a very common chord progression   that i'm going to play each pattern through this  is the chord progression of one of my favorite   country songs of all time by buck owens called  love's gonna live here i'm gonna play half of it   at half time speed so you can see the pattern  really slowly and hear it functionally working   nice and slow through a chord progression then  i'm gonna double speed for the second half so   you can hear how it sounds when it's sped up  so here's the demonstration one two three four so now i'm going to sing the first verse  of this song love's going to live here   just so you can hear how this super simple  inside outside pattern which at first might   seem so basic how we're going to use it in  real music well it really works quite quite   well over real music it also is the foundation  to get more complex finger picking patterns down   but it's great on its own too i'm going to speed  it up quite a bit just so you can hear how it   might sound if you work towards getting this  faster and using it as your own accompaniment oh   the sun's gonna shine in my life once  more love's gonna live here again things are gonna be the way they were  before love's gonna live here again time for pattern two we're not gonna  need to spend much time here because   it is just the flip it's called the outside  inside and you already know what it's to be we're   keeping the base the same all the time and you're  going to play thumb outside thumb inside thumb   outside thumb inside the groupings of the  notes along with the chords stay the same   everything's the same you're just flipping  outside and inside so so here's that same   progression nice and slow and then doubling  the speed halfway through one two three four now let's listen to it in the context  of our song in real music i'm gonna   play it nice and fast again and this  is the chorus of love's gonna live here   the progression is the same throughout  the whole song this is the chorus   love's gonna live here love's gonna  live here love's gonna live here again no more loneliness only okay the next pattern is when it gets fancy  this is called the pinch pattern and it is   the most common finger picking pattern of all  time and the most useful if there's one you're   ever going to learn it should be this one it is  just fantastic sounds good slow sounds good fast   it is just a wonderful pattern and the  first two are a great foundation to then   creating this pattern especially the outside  inside because the pinch pattern is simply   two outside inside patterns in a row except  the first one we're going to do this motion   that is called the pinch motion because you're  playing thumb you're plucking with thumb   and the m finger the middle finger  at the same time towards each other   in this pinching motion so that's called the  pinch so we're pinching and because we played   those two together we're letting it sustain or  you can think of it as kind of resting for a note   instead of going base outside base inside  you're going together weight base inside instead of okay so you got a little a  little syncopation there which is what   makes this is gonna sound like it kind  of bounces and has more texture to it so   okay and the second time you're just playing  a normal outside inside so you got pinch thumb   inside okay so pinch weight thumb inside thumb  outside thumb inside that is the pattern pinch   weight thumb inside thumb outside thumb inside  except and that's totally the pinch pattern i   like to take away the very last eighth note  the very last inside as well so it gets even   a little more of a bounce to it okay so i like  to take that last note away which will be this the reason taking that last knot away is  nice is that if you want to work towards   playing really fast finger picking it gives you  a little space the syncopation sounds great too   but it gives you just a little space to switch  chords and to just have it feel more relaxed   with the right hand so i typically play it that  way if we filled it in it would sound like this just a little crammed to throw that in and  get back to the pinch so i like to leave that   out so that's the pinch pattern the  grouping of the strings is the same   here it sounds here's what it sounds like on c   i'm swinging it a little bit too you can play it  nice and straight or swing nice and straight or swinging a little either way here it is on d  okay now here it is through our progression   it's nice and slow and then speeding it up  double speed halfway through one two three four all right let's plug it into our song we're gonna  do the second verse of love's gonna live here   same tempo same progression just so we can hear  that context of the pinch pattern as accompaniment   in a real song i hear bells are ringing i hear  birds are singing love's gonna live here again you hear how the pinch pattern has that bounce  to it it's just so effective as an accompaniment   pattern it's just fantastic finger picking pattern  to play with that's the one i used in the intro   of this video as well okay the fourth pattern  in our top four finger picking guitar patterns   is called the descending arpeggio because it does  exactly that it arpeggiates the chord from the top   downward we're going to do a pinch and then  play the middle note and then the thumb does   its thing it's never going to change the thumb is  always doing it so now the top note of the thumb   baseline is part of this arpeggio descending  arpeggio structure okay so i'll just let you   look at it on the screen while i play it really  really slowly so you can mimic that if you need to   the descending arpeggio part is so the thumb the bass is kind of taking part of   this melodic sound if you want to listen  to it that way okay that's what it is on g you can just apply that to the middle  four strings or the top four strings   okay here it is through our progression  super slowly than speeding up halfway   through like we've been doing one two three four as for plugging it into the song well this song  is so beautiful and so simple it just has those   two verses and then it has the chorus so we could  sing the chorus again for this but you heard the   chorus before let's do a guitar solo over this  descending arpeggio pattern so we can hear it in   context of music so i'll play through the  progression exactly the same way with the   descending arpeggio pattern and then play a guitar  solo on top of it for our song one two one two if you want some really beautiful really amazing  cords to practice your finger picking guitar   patterns with then definitely download my chord  chart called chords with color it's unlike any   other chord chart out there it shows a bunch  of chords through several keys and then tons   of alternative options for each of those chords so  you can add color to them and extensions and just   beautiful alterations that still work equally  well in whatever setting your chord was in   a song you're working on or performing and it's  just wonderful for listening to sounds practicing   technique studying the chord theory of something  and working on finger picking guitar patterns   so check that out free download you can go to  chordswithcolor.com or just click the link in   the top of the description so which fingerpicking  guitar pattern out of the four was your favorite   and which one are you going to commit to learning  so you can use it in any and every song that you   work on next was it the inside outside pattern  the outside inside pattern the pinch pattern or   the descending arpeggio pattern let me know in the  comments i would love to hear from you i post new   lessons every week next week i am going to share a  solo guitar arrangement of autumn leaves beautiful   simple easy arrangement and share  the sheet music for that as well so   hope to see you in that lesson take care  thanks for watching and happy practicing

Channel: Sound Guitar Lessons with Jared

Views: 594,039

Keywords: fingerpicking guitar patterns, travis picking, best guitar fingerpicking patterns, easy guitar fingerpicking patterns, guitar fingerpicking tutorial, guitar fingerpicking technique, guitar fingerpicking lesson, guitar lesson fingerpicking, guitar fingerpicking, guitar fingerpicking patterns, fingerpicking patterns, fingerpicking guitar lesson, fingerpicking tutorial, fingerpicking guitar tutorial, fingerpicking guitar, fingerpicking, finger picking, finger picking patterns, Jared

Id: 7bpHxOdFtYc

Length: 14min 58sec (898 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2022