When a musician dies, we hear and play his or her music. When I learned of Peter Yarrow‘s passing this morning, I immediately heard “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Travis picking on the chord progression, which is very similar to that of Pachelbel’s famous canon, makes a lot more sense than the chords I chose in my previous blog post on travis picking exercises.
The fingerpicking motions for high and low G ukuleles are exactly the same though the sounds produced are different.
As we near the end of the year of the dragon, I am reminded of fond memories of playing “Puff the Magic Dragon” in our 3 Chord Thursday sessions in Zoom as well as in person. I included a segment of this song in my medley based on Pachelbel’s Canon.
Practice suggestions
Don’t immediately jump into using pima fingers (four fingers of right hand). Try using just the thumb and index. Then thumb, index, and middle. Repeat each section until fluid and fluent.
Can you come up with your own variation on Travis Picking?
More information
Get access to the sheet music, notification of new work, and table of contents of this Daily Music Writing Project.
Pingback: Daily Music Writing Project – Anne KuAnne Ku