Session 8 Merle Travis Technique

[Late Starter]

I have recently become interested in bluegrass music for fingerstyle guitar.  So I went back to Session 8 of the Fingerstyle course to look at the Merle Travis exercises.

There are 6 exercises on pages 115 - 118 of session 8 on the Merle Travis Technique. Exercise 5 and 4 are exactly the same in the pdf, but are different in the videos.  I believe the Exercise 5 "Adding Syncopation and Chromatic Base Line" in the pdf is not correct.  It is just a repeat of Exercise 4 (by mistake?).  Is there a correct version of Exercise 5 (page 117) available?

Also, does anyone know of some good fingerstyle bluegrass sheet music (with tabs)?  Most everything I have seen is for "pic" playing.

Thanks, Tom

[UncleHammy]

@Late Starter first off welcome to the forum.

Most bluegrass is flatpicking.  Your best bet for fingerstyle bluegrass/traditional would be to find anything by Doc Watson.  Doc did a lot of fingerstyle playing but mostly traditional tunes rather than bluegrass but they are very similar. 

 

[matonanjin]

@UncleHammy, I don't understand bluegrass vs. flatpicking vs fingerstyle vs I don't know what else.  But would Tuesday's Live Lesson about Flatpicking with Molly Tuttle be helpful to @Late Starter?   That's not my area of interest so I watched very little of before going to go practice.  But it sounds relevant

[Late Starter]

For me, the issue of fingerstyle vs. flatpicking is that my thumb cannot stand to hold a pic for more than a few minutes. (Due to many years of riding a bicycle with my thumb joint spread across the brake-hoods on dropped bars.) But no problem with my thumb in fingerstyle.

Thanks for the tip on Doc Watson, I will take a look.

[Late Starter]

The difference for me with most flatpicking music (including bluegrass) is that flatpicking is mostly one note at a time, maybe with occasional strums.  No melody and accompanying base at the same time.  Fingerstyle can allow the thumb to be off working the base while your three fingers (sometimes all four) are working independently on the melody at the same time.

[Odie]

3 hours ago, Late Starter said:

The difference for me with most flatpicking music (including bluegrass) is that flatpicking is mostly one note at a time, maybe with occasional strums.  No melody and accompanying base at the same time.  Fingerstyle can allow the thumb to be off working the base while your three fingers (sometimes all four) are working independently on the melody at the same time.

Based on your posts (can't hold a pick with the thumb), perhaps consider only Fingerstyle and Travis Picking provided your thumb is ok with a thumbpick or you can do with only the thumb. As UncleHammy stated, when discussing bluegrass playing then that's with a flatpick. Perhaps you got confused when you stated, "Also, does anyone know of some good fingerstyle bluegrass sheet music (with tabs)?  Most everything I have seen is for "pic" playing." I too am interested in Travis Picking and someone posted some lessons on another thread, not sure which one, but here's the link below. Just type in "Travis Picking," to see lessons available. And you may be interested in finger style blues (not bluegrass) as I am too but have more work to do in the Gibson Fingerstyle Course. 

https://truefire.com/beginner-guitar-lessons/fingerstyle-blues-handbook/c38

[Odie]

On 2/22/2018 at 9:11 AM, Late Starter said:

I have recently become interested in bluegrass music for fingerstyle guitar.  So I went back to Session 8 of the Fingerstyle course to look at the Merle Travis exercises.

There are 6 exercises on pages 115 - 118 of session 8 on the Merle Travis Technique. Exercise 5 and 4 are exactly the same in the pdf, but are different in the videos.  I believe the Exercise 5 "Adding Syncopation and Chromatic Base Line" in the pdf is not correct.  It is just a repeat of Exercise 4 (by mistake?).  Is there a correct version of Exercise 5 (page 117) available?

Also, does anyone know of some good fingerstyle bluegrass sheet music (with tabs)?  Most everything I have seen is for "pic" playing.

Thanks, Tom

Tom, 

I'm working on Exercise 6 now, going ok. Also started playing scales using Travis Picking Style -slowly- @ 60 bpm after finding this vid. 

 

[Maybellene]

Thank you Odie for posting the Jon Michael Swift video. It led me to his lessons page. He is very clear in his teaching style.

[Odie]

5 hours ago, Maybellene said:

Thank you Odie for posting the Jon Michael Swift video. It led me to his lessons page. He is very clear in his teaching style.

Sure thing. Years ago, I learned the entire fretboard using Steve's pattern in the LMG. However, I forgot it then learned it again and maybe one other time. Since not playing up the neck so many years and just strumming/singing open chords and some bluegrass stuff, I just never got back to the entire fretboard. Recently, I bought the scales workout by Steve and started on that with the flatpick and some limited fingerpicking. After stumbling onto this video, have incorporated this into the scales workout. It's like learning two things at once: Travis style & Scales. Swift really caught my attention at the start, for some reason more than many others most likely as you stated, "very clear in his teaching style." Going okay thus far.