Travis picking

seagullplayer, I went through the same thing around 10-12-ish years ago.  Travis picking is great.  I used to only pick with 2 fingers as well, just like he says in the video (self taught because that's all I could manage to teach myself on my own). 

What I've discovered since is there seems to be different styles of Travis picking as well.  Some use 3 fingers, some use 4 and some use different pattern orders for the fingers.

The one I learned, not saying it's better or worse, just saying the one I learned was this one:

3 finger style.  Pattern is: Thumb, Middle, Index, Middle (and repeat) where the Thumb is alternating between the base note string and the string below it which is usually but not always the 3rd note in the chord scale.

Fantastic style again.  It's fairly easy to learn and fairly quick to learn with a little bit of constant practice each day, like say even just 10 minutes a day.  Within a couple of weeks to a month, if you do it every day, you'll have it.

I use this on many songs and it even inspired me to write a few songs using this style.  My favorite song to use it on is Sunshine On My Shoulders by John Denver.  I don't think he used Travis for the song, but it fits so perfectly!

Enjoy the process and the discovery! 

I would recommend a book called, 'Contemporary Travis Picking' by Mark Hanson. He goes through a lot of different patterns of Travis picking and has songs to try them with. The book also goes from relatively easy to, 'this one's going to take a while to learn'. Oh ya, and there's also a cd included. It's a good book, really helped me.

I'm pretty sure I had/have that book also, I know I have lost the CD somewhere along the way.

I may find the book handy again someday. Could be I just was not ready for it, could be I was overwhelmed by the content at the time.

HAH!! I did the same thing!! Boy was I wrong!!

The style the video teaches is what we used to call "pattern picking". If you vary the pattern a bit it can add interest to your playing. Just delaying the first finger pick by a half beat is a nice variation. You can also add some bass runs. I started out teaching my thumb to hit on the beat, alternating strings.

Here are 4 measures. The first is a repeat of the one shown in the video. Next is a variation with the first finger pick delayed half a beat. Next comes a run down to G. Then we have the first pattern in a G chord.

__0________0____ ____0_______0___ __0__________ __3________3___
_______1________ ________1_______ _____________ _______0_______
________________ ________________ _____________ _______________
_____2_______2__ ______2_______2_ _____________ _____0_______0_
__3______3______ __3_______3_____ __3__3__2__0_ _______________
________________ ________________ _____________ __3______3_____

I teach my students to begin the bass notes on the root of the chord and usually the first and third bass notes are on the root. an exception is the C chord where I'll often play the third thumb note on the 6th string.

My brother and I learned this style in the sixties by listening to the records of Libba Cotten, Dave Van Ronk and Mississippi John Hurt. We called it "Cotten Pickin'".