Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

George Harrison
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
David Gilmour
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
Adrian Smith on stage in 2025
Artists “He said, ‘Your upstrokes are weak!’ I’m like, ‘You effin’ what?’”: Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith never stops learning
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
Music Theory And Songwriting 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Music Theory And Songwriting Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights performs onstage in 1985 with his red Fender Stratocaster. He wears a dark suit and a burgundy shirt with an open collar.
Artists How Mark Knopfler grew up wanting to be Jimi Hendrix until he ditched the pick and went fingerstyle
Fender Player II Advanced FSR
Guitars Seymour Duncans, ebony fingerboards? Fender launches Player II Advanced Telecaster HH and Strat HSS
  1. Tutorials
  2. Guitar Lessons & Tutorials

Quick licks: advanced #16

News
By Guitar Techniques ( Guitar Techniques ) published 20 December 2012

Two tricky picking examples to test your technique

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Advanced lick one: Travis picking style

Advanced lick one: Travis picking style

Dial in a clear clean tone for this Travis picking example. Harmonically this one is close to Travis and Chet Atkin’s musical vocabulary featuring 6ths and 13ths on the dominant chords. The trick is to mute the bass tones whilst leaving the top voices ringing for their full value.

Page 1 of 2
Page 1 of 2
Advanced lick two: Faux classical pick style

Advanced lick two: Faux classical pick style

Try this pick workout. It’s designed to emulate classical fingerstyle technique. The chordal sequence and patterning is based on a Villa Lobos etude. Watch the quick change of direction of the pick to keep the tempo as even as possible and make sure the chord shifts are clean and accurate.

Page 2 of 2
Page 2 of 2
Guitar Techniques
The worlds best high-quality guitar tuition from the UKs foremost teachers and players image
The worlds best high-quality guitar tuition from the UKs foremost teachers and players
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
David Gilmour
How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
Adrian Smith on stage in 2025
“He said, ‘Your upstrokes are weak!’ I’m like, ‘You effin’ what?’”: Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith never stops learning
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights performs onstage in 1985 with his red Fender Stratocaster. He wears a dark suit and a burgundy shirt with an open collar.
How Mark Knopfler grew up wanting to be Jimi Hendrix until he ditched the pick and went fingerstyle
Latest in Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
MusicNomad fret tuition
Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
MusicNomad guitar fret cleaning
"You owe your guitar the chance to be its best": How to clean and polish your guitar frets a better way
Jimmy Page
Play like Jimmy Page! Exclusive video lesson
Music Theory
How learning and understanding chord symbols can prove a major benefit for sharing your musical ideas
Pentatonic Scale
Proggy pentatonic! How to use the good ol’ pentatonic scale in cool new ways
Latest in News
Home studio
You don't need to be a music theory expert to make electronic music, but it helps - here's our guide to the basics
Ed Sheeran, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix
How Ed Sheeran generated royalties for Bob Dylan by borrowing from Jimi Hendrix
Richie Hawtin
“All my equipment kind of glowed and then shut down”: The weather event that shaped a Richie Hawtin classic
Bono black and white in glasses
“Our band is...three musicians. And a salesman”: Bono suggests next U2 album will have a looser feel
Apple's new Automix
Sack The DJ: Apple launches its new feature that can mix tracks using AI
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: My pick of Father's Day deals for musicians include $400 off the Polyend Play+, $200 off a Martin acoustic and so much more

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...