Do you use your fingers when playing the cigar box guitar?  Do you want to find some fingerpicking patterns you can learn to sound better? Then maybe it’s time to master one of the most popular guitar fingerstyle techniques and apply it to your 3 or 4-string cigar box guitar.    

Travis Picking on the Cigar Box Guitar

As some will already know, this technique is called “Travis picking,” which originated in the guitar styles of Merle Travis and later popularized by many great players, including Chet Atkins, James Taylor, John Prine and Tommy Emmanuel, to name a few.

Travis picking uses an alternating bass pattern with the thumb while the fingers play the melody line.  It’s sort of like a one-man-band approach.   This fingerstyle technique is not only great for solo playing; it is also fantastic for accompanying singing.

You can keep it simple by applying finger patterns to accompany your songs or take it to a super-advanced level and create your own solo fingerstyle arrangements, in other words, suitable for beginners and pros.

If you are new to the CBG then check out this tutorial on how to read tablature and more.

Fingerpicking Pattern #1

Before you start, let’s go over the finger names.  The “T” is for your thumb or thumb pick, the “I” is for the index, and the “M” is for the middle finger.  I suggest you start with alternating the thumb until you can do it accurately without looking.  Once that repeating pattern is established, start adding the fingers in while keeping a steady rhythm.  Watch the video and try to play along, or just follow the tablature below.  In all the examples, each bar is repeated twice.

3-String Travis Picking Pattern #1

4-String Travis Picking Pattern #1

Hopefully, you didn’t have too much trouble with that!  As you can imagine, there are many variations with Travis picking.  Some subtle and some more complicated.  Let’s stick with subtle.  Ok?

Fingerpicking Pattern #2

The following two patterns are slight variations on pattern #1 with the alternating thumb and added fingers.  Though the patterns are similar, remember they often are played quite fast.  Take your time until memorized as you sort out some of the variations.

3-String Travis Picking Pattern #2

4-String Travis Picking Pattern #2

Fingerpicking Pattern #3

3-String Travis Picking Pattern #3

4-String Travis Picking Pattern #3

Good news! We are almost ready to apply our patterns to the 12 bar blues on your 3 or 4-string cigar box guitar.  But before we do, let’s learn one more important variation that requires playing two fingers together.

The Fingerpicking Pinch – Pattern #4

Up until now, you have been using your fingers consecutively, one at a time.  Now we will try two variations with the “pinch” where you pluck two strings at the same time.

Imagine you are pinching something with your thumb (T) and middle (M) finger on the 4-string cigar box guitar and the thumb (T) and index (I) on the 3-string CBG. Try to get both strings rhythmically aligned, so they sound at the same time.

3-String Travis Picking Pattern #4

4-String Travis Picking Pattern #4

Pinch Variation – Pattern #5

The next pattern uses the pinch but instead of using an alternating thumb we will use our fingers and keep the thumb on one string.  This is similar to the pattern used in songs like “Dust in the Wind” or “Landslide” which we will also explore in this post.   

3-String Travis Picking Pattern #5

4-String Travis Picking Pattern #5

So, there you go, five Travis fingerpicking patterns you can use on countless songs.   The patterns from this lesson have all been in  4/4 time. Still, Travis picking can also be applied to other time signatures by doubling notes or keeping the thumb on one string like in pattern #5.   

How about we now try and apply pattern #3 to a 12 bar blues in the key of G?  Check out the video on the 3 and 4-string below after you have learned the chords.

Fingerpicking a 12 bar blues on your cigar box

Let’s do a quick review of the chords we need in a basic 12 bar blues on the 3 and 4 string CBG in the key of G:

12 Bar Blues Chords on the 3 and 4-string cigar box guitar:

Now it’s time to put it all together and use fingerpicking pattern #3 from above and play through the blues progression below:

12 Bar Blues on the 3-String with Travis Picking Pattern #3

12 Bar Blues on the 4-String with Travis Picking Pattern #3

How cool was that?  I’m sure this will be a challenge for some players but persevere, and you will learn this essential fingerstyle technique just like you learnt to ride your bike.  If you can’t ride a bike, sorry I can’t help you 😉

For more cigar box guitar blues, check out this post.

Hey, before you go, let’s try pattern #5 to “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.

Fingerpicking to a popular chord progression

Maybe you are not a blues player, so let’s try to apply pattern # 5 to the chord progression from the classic rock song “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.  Because we are adapting from guitar to cigar box this is not the exact guitar part for the song, just the pattern applied to the chord progression.  If you would like to learn more official cigar box guitar tabs, check out the popular songs here.

3-String: Dust in the Wind – Pattern #5 

4-String: Dust in the Wind – Pattern #5 

Here’s the full version of Dust in the Wind on the 3-string CBG.  Try and play along!

That wraps it up.  I hope you learned this fingerstyle technique and can now apply it to some of your favourite songs. 

For more Cigar Box Guitar music, I recommend the books: 101 Riffs and Solos for Cigar Box Guitar or The Ultimate Collection How to Play Cigar Box Guitar. The 101 riffs book is excellent for beginners who want to learn the essential techniques by playing short blues, rock and country riffs, while the Ultimate Collection, which is also great for beginners, has a collection of short tunes like Worried Man Blues.  Both books are good for the beginner to intermediate level Cigar Box Guitar player.

Also, to spruce up your chord knowledge check out the posts: popular chord progressions on the 3 and 4-string or how to learn moveable chords on the cigar box guitar.

Please post any comments on this lesson and suggestions for more free Cigar Box Guitar lessons below.