Travis picking is named after the famous country guitarist Merle Travis. It is a popular style of playing with acoustic guitar fingerpickers which features extensive use of the right hand thumb skipping between strings.

In this short course we are going to learn the basics with two patterns that you can apply to your playing. We will look at good technique and how to produce a good strong sound.

Here is the basic P I P M / P M P I Travis pattern. It is important to consider your right hand wrist height. If you usually play with a slightly arched wrist, try flattening it for Travis picking as it enables you to achieve more power with the thumb.

With the right hand thumb being so important in Travis Picking, it's worth spending some quality time perfecting the thumb stroke, tone and accuracy.