The Chet Atkins Guitar Playing Method And How This Will Make You A More Desirable (Acoustic) Guitar Player

Want to become a better, more motivated, and creative guitar player? Then closely study the styles and techniques of the players you love. You can be sure they did the same with players that came before them. It’s an ongoing evolution and today we are going to take a look at some of the key elements that made up the guitar style of Chet Atkins, and how doing so will expand upon and improve your own guitar playing. With a career expanding 50 plus years, it would be impossible to try and cover every element that Chet used in his music within a single article. If we were to do this then we would be looking at several styles including jazz, classical, flamenco, and most of all country as these were all evident in Chet’s playing. Instead, we will zoom in and focus on a few key aspects of his style, and how you might go about using these in your own guitar playing. That’s the idea after all right? You want to be able to play the licks and riffs of your favourite players and get them into your own playing. I know I do. However, the more you like another guitarist’s playing, the more you will study them, and the more you study them, the more you learn about them. It will go beyond just the physical aspects of their guitar playing style. You’ll get into their head and gain valuable insights into their attitudes towards music and playing guitar. Provided they are a good role model, as Chet Atkins was, this is very powerful and valuable stuff and will go a long way towards your own successes you have with your guitar playing. This is not our focus today however, as we are going to be looking more at the physical aspects of Chet’s playing. But don’t underestimate the massive influence another guitarist’s attitude and beliefs can have on your own, and the benefits you’ll gain as a result. The Art Of Travis Picking At the core of Chet Atkins’ guitar style is a fingerpicking technique known as travis picking. The name comes from a guitarist called Merle Travis who developed this style of playing. Merle was a huge influence of Chet’s and naturally this fingerpicking technique found it’s way into his playing. Travis picking is a very impressive technique as it allows you to play the bass, harmony, and melody to a song all at the same time. It’s easy to be tricked into thinking there are two or more guitars playing when in fact it is just one. The driving force behind the travis picking sound is the bass line. This is played on the bottom 3 strings of the guitar with the thumb of your picking hand. Chet would use a thumb pick at all times with this technique and I highly recommend you do the same. The melody and harmony parts are played with your index (i), middle (m), and ring (a) fingers on the top 3 strings. Let’s take a closer look at the bass component of travis picking . Here is a picking pattern that Chet would use often: Travis Picking Bass Pattern 1 The order of the strings on which the bass notes fall is how we name these patterns. So the example above would be known as a 6, 4, 5, 4 pattern. This is best applied to chords whose root notes fall on the 6th string. Chet would sometimes simplify this into a 6, 4, 6, 4 pattern. As you can probably guess, the bass notes only fall on the 6th and 4th strings in this case. To help the melody and harmony parts stand out more, Chet would palm mute the bass when travis picking. This is important to do as it really helps both the harmony and melody to sit on top of the bass and feature, instead of getting lost in it. Here is an example of travis picking complete with melody: Travis Picking With Melody Added This is typically how Chet Atkins would add melody with his bass line, continuing to pick a 6, 4, 5, 4 pattern. The bass is like your timekeeper, and the driving force behind the line, as it always falls on the beat. Some of the melody notes are sounded at the same time as the bass, however others fall in between the beat, on the offbeat as it is known. By focusing on the bass line and using it as a reference point to then know where to play your melody notes will help you greatly in keeping everything in time and grooving along. So what about chords whose root notes are on the 5th string? Here is how Chet would typically deal with these: Travis Picking Bass Pattern 2 As you can see the bass has now changed to a 5, 4, 6, 4 pattern in reference to the order of the strings on which it falls. Chet would sometimes play a variation of this known as a 5, 4, 5, 4 pattern, however the one above was much more common throughout his playing. So let’s now take our travis picking and apply it to a 12 bar blues. As soon as I learn something new on guitar, I’m looking for as many ways possible to use it in my own playing because I know that this is the key to mastering it. The patterns used in the 12 bar blues below are from our examples above: Travis Picking 12 Bar Blues * You will need to move your second finger to the 2nd fret 6th string for one of the bass notes in the B7 chord. This is another common travis picking manoeuvre. Chet Atkins’ Approach To Harmony (3rd’s And 6th’s) Chet’s approach to harmony is another key feature of his guitar playing style. He would mostly use 3rd’s and 6th’s as these create great sounding harmonies. They can also be referred to as double stops. A double stop is when you simply play two notes together on either adjacent or non adjacent strings of the guitar. Chet would use these harmonies in his playing extensively, often creating fills that would beautifully compliment a vocal line, or to simply harmonise the melodies of his many, many instrumental arrangements. The following are two fretboard diagrams showing you how the harmonies of a 3rd and 6th look on the higher strings of your guitar. Study, learn, and visualise the patterns that these harmonies create, as this is vitally important in your ability to apply and use them in your own playing. Fretboard Diagram 3rd's Fretboard Diagram 6th's There is more than one way you can fret 3rd’s and 6th’s on the guitar. It will come down to context as always. Above I have used the most common fingering where your second finger remains on the 3rd string throughout. rnBelow are some licks in the style of Chet Atkins using the harmonies of a 3rd and 6th: The first lick is made up of 6th’s and outlines a C7 to F chord change: Double Stop Lick 1 This next lick centres around the G7 chord and mixes 3rd’s with single notes: Double Stop Lick 2 Notice the pull off to the open G string in the last bar. Chet would often add embellishments like this to his harmonies for a cool sound. This last lick starts with harmonising 3rd’s before moving into 6th’s, outlining a D7 to G chord change. Double Stop Lick 3 Chet would often slide into these harmonies from a fret below, as is the case at the beginning of the first and second bars above. I highly recommend getting these harmonies of a 3rd and 6th into your acoustic playing as soon as possible. Not only were they a big part of Chet’s style, but they also provide a nice switch up between the single note lines you play. It’s a whole different texture that comes into your playing. As was mentioned earlier, it’s impossible to cover everything Chet Atkins did with his guitar playing in a single article. This however will certainly get you started and provide you with some cool ideas for your own playing. I highly recommend you check out some of Chet’s arrangements on your guitar. There is a lot of fun to be had as well as much to be learned. rnAnother key ingredient of the Chet Atkins style are banjo rolls. Learn all about these fingerpicking patterns for playing fast on your acoustic guitar by downloading this free ebook and audio.