Some Basic Chord Progressions to Use with Travis-Style Guitar Playing
For the past several lessons, I’ve been going over the basics of Travis-style technique.
Today, let’s actually apply all that fun picking-hand work to some actual chord progressions!
In this video, I demonstrate three different chord progressions and how you can experiment moving through them using Travis-style accompaniment:
Now, I’m going to be honest with you–the more basic music theory you understand, the better for knowing which notes you can use in the bass. However, even if you don’t know any music theory, you can still work on each of these chord progressions and make some really fun music happen.
Here are the chord progressions I played in the video for reference:
Progression I:
C G/B Am G/B
Progression II:
G D/F# Em D/F#
Progression III:
G C G C G D
These progressions are very standard. Mastering them will set you up to play hundreds and thousands of popular songs using the Travis-style accompaniment patterns to guide you.
Over time, I’ll include more and more actual tabs with songs played through using Travis-style accompaniment.
For now, though, one thing you can do to find new progressions to work on is to just go hunting around online for tabs to your favorite songs. Even if the original version of a song you love was in no way played using Travis-style guitar, you can still create your own arrangement by playing through the chord changes using the basic Travis-style patterns you now know.
Often this kind of experimentation leads to all sorts of fun new versions of familiar songs. And some of them can even be more beautiful than the originals!
Just remember–have fun and work these things S-L-O-W-L-Y at first until you’re able to maintain both the rhythm and great sound as you move through the changes using the Travis-style patterns you know.
