Travis style playing on steel guitar

[Roy Thomson]

I liked Buddy's post above. I agree with everything therein. I am glad he left a door open for thumbstyle on E9th. Quote:
""has a pedal for the 6th, so it is possible to pull it off"".
Buddy and Bobbe know what they are talking about when it comes to Travis Pickin'. I remember "Little Rock Callin", part of the break in "Rose City Chimes". I have the album "Tribute To Travis" which Bobbe gave to me right at Steel Guitar Nashville in '97. Bless his heart! I also have the Bobby Garrett album "Thumbs Up". This stuff is all so great I feel guilty posting here.
Having said all that when I first went after Thumbstyle on steel it was on C6th.,,and it works. I also come up with some custom tunings that put a low "E" on the bass and I am experimenting with that now when time permits.
My real focus is Standard E9th. (1F#-10B). The more I work thumbstyle on this tuning the more encouraged I become with the possibilities. True it is high end and it takes a special right hand approach in "feel". The glory of it is you can keep everything you have been doing ie speed licks, banjo rolls, famous steel licks and incorporate 'em all with thumb/fingerstyle....and it can be pulled off with no back up. In other words it makes for an honest and interesting Solo presentation.
I would like about half a dozen good steel players to work at it for a year and I know we would have something. I am only scratching the surface.
I beleive it so much that I just finished writing a Thumb and FingerStyle Course for the Standard E9th, the tuning most of us use all the time. It is presently at the publishers now and should be out and around fairly soon hopefully. Maybe it won't make it, we'll see. Maybe noone will want it, again we'll see. All it will take is one brave soul!!
My inspiration has been Buddy, Bobby Garrett's playing and BobbeSeymour.Of course Chet, Merle and all the other great guitar pickers. Without them I would be minus one full truck load of dreams,fun and enjoyment.

Roy"Weirdo"Thomson

[Kenny Dail]

I have found "Alabam Jubilee" to be a good 'Travis Style' piece in the key of C. I start with 8th pedal depressed on the 15th fret and descend to the 12 fret with a vamp and from there start the thumb/finger style. The melody is sort of a 'free style' thing with the root/five thumb work being the most important thing in this tune rather than melody.

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kd...and the beat goes on...


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Kenny Dail on 20 October 2002 at 02:07 PM.]</p></FONT>