Travis Picking exercises for ukulele

Travis Picking refers to a fingerpicking pattern that makes use of an alternating bass. On the four-string ukulele, the right hand can fingerpick outside strings alternating with the inside strings using two, three, or four fingers. We explore five different variations in exercises for both low G and high G ukuleles in this blog post.

American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist Merle Robert Travis (1917 – 1983) is credited with originating a guitar fingerpicking pattern that uses the thumb to alternate between two strings.

Travis Picking is heard in a lot of folk songs.

It’s possible to fingerpick with just two fingers (thumb and index).

Then try three fingers (thumb, index, and middle).

Finally use, all four fingers (thumb, index, middle, and ring finger).

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?

Access to the sheet music

• There are five sections of 8-bar exercises, all on one sheet of paper. One for low G ukulele. One for high G ukulele.
• The pdfs will be e-mailed to all those who registered and paid for the 8-week Ukulele Winter 2025 course. See the Classes Webpage for further details.
• Annual subscribers to 3 Chord Thursday 2025 may request and receive these new arrangements as part of their package, for supporting the thematic song sessions for 2025.
• In due course, these arrangements will be available for purchase.

Notification of new and updated work

There is no ONE way to find out. The best way is ALL the ways.

• Sign up for the celebrated Ukulele Enthusiast e-blast (newsletter) to get on the mailing list for notification of such new arrangements. Use the Google Form.
• Subscribe to this website to get instant notification of these daily tabs. Use the form at the top right hand corner of any webpage.
• Subscribe to the YouTube Channel to get notification of new livestreams and uploads. It’s my intention to record my new work within a week of publishing on this website.

Catalog of new music by Anne Ku

Below is what I know and have done so far and what I plan to do for this week. Each piece is followed by exercises to prepare and support that piece. The “day” column refers to the day in the project, starting on the 1st day of 2025. As you can see, I am several days ahead.