Just read through the Travis picking lesson 1 and wanted to confirm something, and I think (or hope) that this IS one of those things that has a yes or no answer. :-)
When you pick the parallel motion pattern and the fingers (not the thumb) pick downward, does that mean that you pick with the back of your nail, as opposed to the meaty part of the finger as you do with the counter motion pattern?
Earl
Hi Earl
I hope I'm understanding you correctly and my apologies if I'm misunderstanding the question.
"Contrary" and "parallel" are referring to the movement and not the finger movement. In "contrary" you are going from two outer strings (such as the D string and high E (first) string in Example #3 in this lesson) to two inner strings (the G and B strings in the same example).
In "parallel" motion, the fingers are moving in the same direction. In Example #2 in this lesson, your thumb shifts from the D string to the G string while the fingers also move in the same direction, going from the B string to the high E (first) string. The fingers are moving in parallel motion to the thumb.
You can strike the string with your fingers either way - nail or fleshy part - whichever pattern you choose to use. In the MP3s for this lesson, I'm not using any nails, it's all the fleshy part of the finger. That's just the way I like to fingerpick.
I hope this helps. And I'm sorry (a) for not explaining it well enough in the lesson and (b) if I got your question wrong!
Peace
David,
Ahhh.... I understand now. When you described "parallel movement" I was thinking that you were describing that the fingers picked each string in the same direction as the thumb, i.e. downward. This gave me an image of the fingers picking with the back of the nail, and somehow flicking the string in a downward motion, which seemed really odd. Anyway, I'm clear now.
Thanks so much for the clarification and thank you as well for all the incredible (and free) contributions you make to the GN site. They have been incredibly helpful for a struggling beginner guitarist (I'm also kinda old and you know what they say about old dogs...).
Sincerely,
Earl
