Brad's Paul Simon Guitar Tablature Page
A beginner's guide to Travis picking

Travis picking, is a pattern of alternating bass fingerpicking.   Paul Simon makes extensive use of the Travis picking pattern in many of his songs.

The basic pattern is easy to learn by the following stepwise approach.   Finger a basic D chord with the left hand so that you'll only be playing on the first four strings of the guitar (ignore the uppermost two strings).   With the right hand:

	(1)  Pluck the outer two strings of the D chord (the 1st and 
		the 4th strings) simultaneously with the middle finger 
		and the thumb, respectively.
	(2)  Pluck the 3rd string with the thumb.
	(3)  Pluck the 2nd string with the forefinger.
	(4)  Pluck the 4th string with the thumb.
	(5)  Pluck the 1st string with the middle finger.
	(6)  Pluck the 3rd string again with the thumb.
	(7)  Pluck the 2nd string again with the forefinger.

That's all there is to the basic pattern.   The tablature for this sequence with the D chord would look like:

		e:|-2--------2-----|
		B:|------3-------3-|
		G:|----2-------2---|
		D:|-0------0-------|
		A:|----------------|
		E:|----------------|

An easy way to remember and think about this pattern is that it is:

	(1)  "Pinch" the outer two strings of the chord with the thumb
		and middle finger.
	(2)  Sequentially pluck the INNER two strings of the chord with
		the thumb and forefinger.
	(3)  Sequentially pluck the OUTER two strings of the chord with
		the thumb and middle finger.
	(4)  Again sequentially pluck the INNER two strings of the
		chord with the thumb and forefinger.

Usually when using the pattern in a song, there is a slight pause or syncopation after the first step, i.e. "pinching" the outer two strings of the chord, and then the other steps are done without any pause.

This syncopation is well illustrated in the Kansas song Dust in the Wind, perhaps the best song to learn the Travis picking pattern because the left hand chord changes are quite simple and don't distract much from learning to Travis pick with the right hand, and also because it (at least the intro to the song) only uses four strings with no strings skipped in between the strings you're working with.

Learn to play the intro for Dust in the Wind with the tab below.   When you are able to play along with the speed of the studio recording, you will have learned the pattern well enough to use it in other songs as well.

Intro to Dust in the Wind:

e:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B:|-1--------1-----|-0--------0-----|-3--------3-----|-1--------1-----|
G:|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|
D:|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|
A:|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|
E:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
                                                  

e:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B:|-0--------0-----|-3--------3-----|-1--------1-----|-0--------0-----|
G:|------2-------2-|------2-------2-|------2-------2-|------2-------2-|
D:|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|
A:|-0------0-------|-0------0-------|-0------0-------|-0------0-------|
E:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
                                                  

e:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B:|-3--------3-----|-1--------1-----|-0--------0-----|-3--------3-----|
G:|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|------0-------0-|
D:|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|
A:|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|-3------3-------|
E:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|


e:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B:|-1--------1-----|-0--------0-----|-3--------3-----|-1--------------|
G:|------2-------2-|------2-------2-|------2-------2-|------2---------|
D:|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-------2---|----2-----------|
A:|-0------0-------|-0------0-------|-0------0-------|-0-------0---2--|
E:|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

Then, for practice, just keep repeating the tab from the beginning.

There are many ways to vary the Travis picking pattern.   For a detailed study of the variations, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a copy of Mark Hanson's book, The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking, sold by Accent on Music (see the link on the main page).

The most common ways Paul Simon varies the pattern are to create a "rolling" pattern by not "pinching" the high string of the chord along with the low string in the first step:


		e:|----------2-----|
		B:|------3-------3-|
		G:|----2-------2---|
		D:|-0------0-------|
		A:|----------------|
		E:|----------------|

and to hammer-on the high string of the chord during the first step:


		e:|-0h2------2-----|
		B:|------3-------3-|
		G:|----2-------2---|
		D:|-0------0-------|
		A:|----------------|
		E:|----------------|

Both of these variations, as well as the basic Travis pattern, are well illustrated in Leaves That Are Green.