How to Add Harmony and Chord Hits to Your Travis Picking
by Simon Candy
In this video, you learn the secret to getting that rich, full Travis picking harmony on guitar.
Most people focus all their attention on the bass or the melody when they learn Travis picking — and sure, those matter — but the real magic lives in between… in the harmony and chord hits.
By harmony, I mean your Travis picking chords — those chord hits that sit between the alternating bass notes and make the whole thing sound alive.
If your Travis picking ever sounds thin or flat, this is why.
The trick is learning how to make your chord hits pop while keeping your muted bass technique grooving underneath — and that balance is what creates the warm, textured sound you hear in great fingerstyle playing.
In this lesson, I walk you through how to get that balance right, how to mute your bass, and how to add chord hits that really fill out your chordal fingerpicking sound.
Watch the video below to learn more:
Travis Picking Harmony
Watch the video above for a detailed explanation and demonstration of each example below.
The Harmony
The harmony is what happens between the bass and melody components of Travis picking.
By harmony, we mean chords — and adding these chord hits is what gives your Travis picking its depth and character.
I’ll be using the first 4 bars of “Aura Lee” throughout to demonstrate each harmony approach.
Harmony: On The Beat
To begin, pluck the chord on the first beat of each bar:
The idea is to use a muted bass technique so the chord hit stands out clearly.
Harmony: Syncopation 1
Next, we can add syncopation by plucking the chord on the off-beats.
In this example, we pluck the chord on the 1 and the “+” of 2 in each bar:
Harmony: Syncopation 2
Here’s a variation of the previous syncopation idea.
In this example, we pluck the chord on the 2 and the “+” of 3:
Harmony: Mixing Syncopation
We can also mix these syncopated chord hits together.
This example alternates between the two previous approaches:
Harmony: Arpeggiation
As well as plucking chord tones together, we can also arpeggiate them — playing the notes separately for a more delicate fingerstyle harmony texture.
Here is an example of arpeggiated harmony applied to our progression:
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Travis Picking Guitar Beginner Guide
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Travis Picking Patterns Part 1
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