View Full Version : Fastest thumb in the US -Merle Travis
Spudman
September 16th, 2006, 02:21 PM
For those of you who know little or nothing about Merle Travis...join the club. I don't either, but the boy sure do know how ta play. Watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJhnExStaw
Those of you who know of Travis maybe you can shed some light. He's quite the picker.
tot_Ou_tard
September 17th, 2006, 05:45 AM
That's why they call that style of playing "Travis Picking".
Notice that he only uses his thumb and index finger.
But other than that, I don't know anything about him.
t_ross33
September 17th, 2006, 09:32 AM
Merle Travis had a huge influence on the "Nashville" sound, and wrote a number of hits. Here's a bio (http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/travis_merle/bio.jhtml).
jpfeifer
September 17th, 2006, 10:33 AM
Spudman,
That was a great find on Youtube. I've only known of Merle Travis from reading about Chet Atkins. It seems that they had a similar style although Chet Atkins took it a little further. It's really cool to see this video and notice the he only used two fingers of his right hand to pick with. That's a lot of sound that he is getting from only those two fingers.
Thanks for sending this link.
-- Jim
Spudman
September 17th, 2006, 11:36 AM
The reason I even looked for him on youtube was because as I was learning to play guitar it was the thumb and forefinger that I was using on my picking hand too. A friend saw it and said "hey, that is the Merle Travis style of finger picking."
I was thinking about that yesterday and just thought I would check the tube. Glad you liked it. He's pretty cool.
Robert
September 17th, 2006, 02:15 PM
Absolutely awesome! That stuff is so cool, yet so hard to master.
SuperSwede
September 18th, 2006, 12:17 AM
Very cool.. was that guitar a Country Gentleman?
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