Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal

Subject: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST,John in Hamilton
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 09:26 PM

Well, I've been attempting to take the fingerstyle to the next level, and I believe the style I'd like to take on is what I believe would be described as "contrapuntal". It allows you to keep the 1-2,1-2,1-2 bass line going while playing a melody on the other strings. I've already managed a bit of this with Archie Fisher's song "Lindsay", and Bert Jansch's "Running From Home". I'm wondering if anyone would provide some insight into developing this technique. Its fantastic to be two guitarists at once! I'd like to be able to put the technique to songs I know, and be able to play a solo of the melody, while keeping the bass rhythmn, as a fill in between singing verses of the song. Couls someone point the way?

Cheers,

John

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 09:34 PM

Take a serious study of Mississippi John Hurt. He was a master at this. There are some good books with CD and Tab and also some good videos. Try a search for Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, where you can order this and get lots of great finger-style tutorials.
-Bill

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: khandu
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 09:48 PM

If you are interested in tab, HERE is some MJH songs.

k

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: khandu
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 09:56 PM

John, since you were good enough to give Gordon Lightfoot a wave for us when he was hospitalized and since you are interested in fingerpicking, why don't you join us. Membership has it's benefits.

khandu

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 11:14 PM

ANd try contacting Rick Fielding in Toronto for the definitive answer. You can PM him. That's one benefit of membership!

A

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST,ghost
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 02:01 AM

How in tarnation is a body spose to understand just what all them hen scratchins on that link to the MJH tabs is all about? I had my guitar tuned right for one of 'em and even already knew the tune but just ended up picked it out as best I could by ear cuz all those numbers on strings notes didn't seem to add up to much. I figgered it might be more self explanatory but I'll be jiggered. I couldn't make hide nor hair out of it.

I'm not afraid to admit I'm dumbfounded or maybe just plain dumb.

)o8}

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 07:57 AM

If you want to start out cheap and simple, get the "Guitar For Dummies" book out of your local library and listen to the accompanying CD. Read the chapter on "Travis-style" fingerpicking and listen to the audio examples on the CD. They start you out with some basic thumb rhythms and work up to a simplified version of "Wildwood Flower." The book does a decent job of explaining things along the way. You might even want to check out some of the topics covered in the other chapters. Best of luck.

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Fortunato
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 11:41 AM

I don't know, that Terrorism for Dummies book didn't do Dubya much good...

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: M.Ted
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 01:01 PM

You are probably interested in Travis Picking, which is a favorite topic around here(at least among some of us) check this thread Travis Picking for actual instructions on how to do it, with comments and fine points from our local experts--there also is a list of links at the top that will lead you to many of our other discussions on it and related topics--

This is not to imply that we aren't ready, willing, and eager to jump into any discussion that you might want to have--

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 03 - 01:20 PM

I think I've already got the "Travis" style down, if I understand it correctly. The way I'm most familiar with it is the pattern used in such songs as S&G's "The Boxer", or Gordon Lightfoot's "Steel Rail Blues". I suppose what Im trying to learn is how to be able to play a melody line on the guitar while maintaining a picking pattern such as the travis style. Hence, the two guitars at once effect.

John

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 08:22 AM

...not that I've ever been wrong before - I guess there's always a first time - but I thought Travis-style meant playing a melody line while maintaining a constant, accompanying bass rhythm with the thumb....

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: dwditty
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 09:41 AM

OK, I'll share my secret. First of all, Bill (above) is right...the MJH tape lessons are good. The best instruction I ever got, though, was a set of Dave Van Ronk Tapes (they are on CD's now - http://guitarvideos.com/audio/00vanronk.htm ). In these lessons, Dave (rest his soul) gives you fret by fret, string by string instruction to some 15-20 songs. His style is so entertaining, you may listen to these just for fun.

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 10:00 AM

Yes-Travis picking is playing a single note melody with a constant and usually alternating bass line--as mentioned in the thread link above, it is properly done only with the thumb and index finger, and has chord arpeggios,( done by brushing down with the thumb and up with the index finger) sandwiched in--

The thing is that the term "Travis Picking" is often erroneously applied to other styles of finger picking--the give away here is this comment "I think I've already got the "Travis" style down", you don't just happen to learn it, Doc Watson said it took him a year and a half to get the thumb movement right--

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Giac
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 10:15 AM

I shouldn't jump in, when I can't play effectively, but when I was first trying to learn this style, I was taught to work on the thumb part first, to the exclusion of all else, until that pattern becomes automatic. Then worry about the melody lines.

Forty years later, I'm still worrying about melody lines, but, By Jingo, my thumb takes on a life of its own and does the freakin' bass lines with no help from me!!

Good luck,
Mary

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 10:41 AM

What do mean by 'contrapuntal'?

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 10:44 AM

In my experience (almost 40 years), you have to earn to play a repetitive pattern first, and keep at it until the thumb/bass is absolutely rock steady. Then start learning tunes from tablature (or however you're most comfortable learning), where each measure is a pattern, but a *different* pattern from the measures before and after. Keep worrying those strings for a few years, and you might gradually become able to introduce a few variations in the treble/finger part.

I remember -- back before I started trying to actually *do* it -- imagining that I would soon be freely improvising on the upper strings with my fingers while the thumb independently kept a steady rhythm.

It didn't happen the way I had anticipated. For me, anyway, every four-beat figure (whether a repetitive background pattern or an element in a hard-won memorized piece) was a different exercise for the whole right hand. Eventually, the many different combinations of pinches and alternations of thumb and finger(s) each became a riff, and I *very* gradually gained the ability to build different combinations of these riffs in a process aproaching improvisation.

I would also recommend the Stephan Grossman books, and I also dearly love, admire, and recommend John Hurt. In the early 70s I discovered another book of tablature, "Masters of Fingerstyle Guitar" [I think] by Donald [somebody-or-other], which contained several MJH tunes I hadn't ever seen elsewhere in tab form, plus equal numbers of tunes by Mance Lipscomb and one or two other greats. My copy of the book is long-gone, so I can't provide the exact title or the author's last name -- anybody out there familiar with this? In any event, I discoverd this book when I was very active and enthusiastic, playing full-time, and learned a lot from it.

Another issue: attack. For the first 5-6 years, my fingerpicking was overly careful and, in retrospect, too quiet. I made a breakthrough of sorts after a few months of full-time streetsinging, whaling on the guitar with my fingerpicks. At first I would do some fingerpicking tunes (too muted to get much attention out there competing with the noise of traffic), alternating with louder pieces where I'd just strum all six strings, down with the thumbpick and up with the two fingers. Very gradually, and mostly unconsciously, the two different styles of playing kinda melded together and developed a much more emphatic style of fingerpicking, often catching two or three strings at a time with a thumb- or finger-pick rather than carefully aiming every stroke at a single string.

The two-finger (thumb plus one) style is usually more suited to that kind of rough hard approach (e.g., Mississippi Fred McDowell), and in retrospect I wouold proably have gotten there sooner had I not already become a dyed-in-the-wool three-finger picker thanks to Stephan G.

Also: once you develop a little freedom in your attack and become able to play harder, you then have to explore various little tricks like dampening the strings (especially bass strings) with the heel of your picking hand. And, of course, you need to develop enough control to play some parts with delicacy and exactitude and others hard and rough.

Have fun!

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 06:37 PM

Thanks for your responses. I'd been to see Archie Fisher with Garnet Rogers a week and a half ago, and although I'd most like to play like Archie, it was Garnet who went into a recollection of brother Stan telling him to learn to play like John Hurt. He went on to demonstrate the build-up from the alternating bass, to more complex variations and layers. I suppose I'll look into the MJH stuff.

Cheers,

John in Hamilton

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 10:32 AM

Thanks for sharing your experiences, PoppaGator--I went through the same experience with attack--it took me a while to discover that about half the time I wasn't getting enough out of the strings, and the other half of the time, I was putting too much in for what I was getting-

Also agree with you wholeheartedly on the four-beat figure experience--you can't really just wind up and go in this style of playing--every time the melody voice moves out of range, you've got to figure out how re-position your hand to keep the voicing consistant--most important, you've got to get the segue from one position to the other down so that it doesn't sound like you are just stumbling through the tune--

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Willie-O
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 03:19 PM

John, I'm wondering what tuning you use. DADGAD is good for the artists you are emulating. Archie anyway. In fact you're setting the bar pretty high, Jansch is impossible and Archie is amazing (particularly in his seemingly effortless approach).

A lot of times you can do what you want by hammering on the bottom string with your left hand thumb--mostly 2nd, 4th, 5th frets. You need all five fingers.

Good luck
W-O
Willie o'Ottawa

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST,John in Hamilton
Date: 20 Apr 03 - 12:08 AM

I did my bit of research with Archie. He was the one that told me that Lindsay was done in "open D-DADF#AD", with a capo on the fifth fret. I feel I'd done a reasonable approximation of it. I learned it while I was layed-over truck driving down in Carlisle PA, based on what he had told me above. In fact, he played it at the recent show, and appeared to have left it behind a wee bit, saying that although he had written it(over 25 years ago), John Renbourn had taught it back to him, as he had forgotten it. I was just that determined to be able to learn that song, that I suppose I put a bit of extra effort into getting it down. I still stumble on it if I have to perform it live, when my fingers and voice are "cold", but its my showpiece, if I have such a thing. I've actually learned the basics to the open G tuning(DGDGBD) to do other Archie Fisher songs. Archie epitomizes the approach I love best on all of these old and new songs, and the "contrapuntal" styling is one of the things he does that I'd like to have a go at. I wish I had his unique knack for chording as well, and that doesn't help when the altered tunings are brought into the equation. He's one of the original and most influential performers on either side of the water, but I don't think he's lost any of the magic. I wish he'd put out a guitar book or tutorial so that buggers like me aren't hounding him on the too few occasions when he gets over here!

John

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: M.Ted
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 11:15 AM

Maybe you don't want to travis pick after all--to each his own;-)

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Bernard
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 12:50 PM

Most of the ragtime counterpoint I play uses standard tuning, with an occasional 'dropped D' for Powder Rag, for example. It's difficult to advise someone without being there to see what they can already do - certainly I would never advise my guitar students to learn the thumb part first, any more than I would advise my piano or organ students to learn one hand at a time (although organists often need to learn the pedal part separately, for technical reasons - heeling and toeing is rarely straightforward!). It is far better to learn both parts simultaneously, but very slowly and in strict rhythm.

There are occasions, of course, where you may need to work out the way a particular phrase hangs together, and playing the melody line or bass line on its own can be useful to hear how it should sound. But the guitarist's left hand is best learned as a series of chord progressions, with the right hand choosing the individual strings...

Analysing what you wish to play, and breaking it up into 'learnable chunks' is the musical approach - play a small section over and over in strict rhythm. Don't let the timing slip when you repeat, either - play it as if there are repeat marks in the score. Gradually increase the speed as you gain confidence - if you make mistakes you are pushing yourself too fast, so SLOW DOWN!

It is essentially a mechanical process which becomes musical as you take control.

My best advice is that, unless you can accurately hear what someone is playing on a recording, it is best to find someone you can watch.

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Dustin Laurence
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 05:20 PM

Hi, John, for my money "contrapuntal" would mean that you are playing more than one distinct melody line at the same time. What you describe seems to go by the name of "alternating bass" or a host of other things.

After some earlier false starts, I have spent somewhat less than the last year working on this style and from my experience I agree with the others that it takes a while as the thumb gradually requires less and less attention from you. I'm about to the point now where I am able to arrange and play simpler pieces for myself in this style and make them sound good to me (i.e. like performable pieces, not exercises), and the experience is recent enough that I can tell you how I got there. Some of these others guys are no doubt much better at this game, but it might be useful to describe a process that is still fresh in my mind.

My main guide was Ken Perlman's _Fingerstyle Guitar_ book, which is nearly entirely devoted to this style, and I recommend it highly. I've been able to make the book work for me without a teacher (I don't actually know anyone who plays in this style), which is pretty high praise. I have also found a few exercises I invented and a book by Steve James called _Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar_ very helpful supplementary exercises. Given that Ken places heavy emphasis on Mississippi John Hurt pieces at the beginning of that book, all the advice from other posters about looking into his music sure sounds right to me.

My main failing (and the reason for those false starts I mentioned earlier) is impatience, so if you suffer from that as well I can offer some warnings. Ken's book essentially starts you with pattern picking over standard chord forms, which I was a bit bored with ("I wanted to learn melodic picking, not this!"). Thus, after working out a piece that way, I wanted to push on immediately. This is a mistake, because the patterns he presents are chosen to build the finger skills you need (the bass and treble notes appear about in the locations and relationships you'll need them later for melodic picking).

The best thing that ever happened to me was that I needed to have some actual songs to perform, so I had to stop working through the book at this point and work on a small repertoire. I arranged some songs of my own choosing as pattern-picked pieces using the patterns he gives (feeling that I might as well use what I'd learned alongside stumming styles I already knew), and in learning them far better than I would have as exercises I really drove them into my fingers. Coming back to the book after a couple of months of solid work, I found moving ahead easy, whereas before I wasn't making much progress simply because I hadn't yet absorbed the previous material completely. I think the key is, as Ken mentions somewhere in one of his books, to stop when you seem to really bog down and go back and work on the previous material, then return at a later date. The best way to do this is to build repertoire. At the pattern-pick level, all you really need is some lyrics and chords to songs you know how to sing, if you can't arrange a harmony for yourself. These are easy to get in print and on the web.

BTW, a *good* teacher would no doubt tell you all this. I don't have one, and I no doubt wasted a lot of time working it out for myself.

After the pattern picking, Ken first touches on inserting the melody into the pattern, then on discarding the pattern entirely. I found that inserting the Freight Train melody into the pattern was pretty easy, so I can't offer much help at this point. But if you don't find it easy, I strongly suspect it would be a mistake not to grit your teeth and nail it down cold. Moving on to the first pure melody plus bass piece (Louis Collins), my experience was (just as another poster said) that at first you learn each measure as a new pattern, which is slow but doable. At about this point I really started to be frustrated; I could feel that the thumb and fingers were ready to be independent, but I couldn't feel them actually operating that way as I played. At this point I highly recommend trying the following additional exercise which I invented out of desperation: begin to play scales over the alternating bass.
So first make sure you know where the scale notes are! Try, say, a basic open C chord, and get a steady bass going. This should be very easy after all the pattern picking you're supposed to have done already. Now drop the bass and play a C scale up and down *while holding the C chord.* You want to restrict it to first position on the first three strings, so for open C this would be (going up):

third string: G, A
second string: B, C, D
first strong: E, F, G

You'll have to move a finger from the chord form to make the fretted notes, but again if you've worked through Ken's book or something similar you'll already be familiar with this from playing patterns with melody notes inserted. Play it up and down until you more or less know without thinking much where the notes are located.

Now the exercise: get the steady bass going again, then when you are ready try to play the scale over it. Go as slow as you like; the first time I think I would play a new scale note on the 1-beat (as a pinch) of every other measure. This left me two measures to think about where the next one was and made it very very easy. After I got this down, I did it every measure, then two per measure (i.e. half notes), then quarter notes. Then I went back and did the same thing, but with the notes in between the beats (i.e. on the "and" of each beat). Again start slow (say on the "and of 1" of each measure), then speed it up (two, then four per measure).

Literally about an hour of this was like a dam breaking as far as feeling the separation of fingers and thumb and being able, which means I should have done it far sooner. If it isn't like that for you, it probably only means you started earlier than I did, as you should. The key, I think, was that I was (a) playing the simplest possible "melody plus bass" and (b) doing it by ear. I realize that "playing scales" is anathema to a Real Folkie, but as the easiest possible step to playing melodies by ear I doubt it can be beat.

At this point I also learned the first song in the Steve James book I mentioned, "Take Me Back." It is essentially at the same level as "Louis Collins," so you're ready for it at the same time (I actually learned it first). Remember what I said about repertoire? Each of Ken's songs introduces some new technique, which makes sense, but you want to nail them down before you continue. Having a second song at this level (one I like well enough to consider playing it for others) was very, very helpful, so find other books to use as repertoire books or get a teacher who can help you do this. I found I made better progress by "making haste slowly" than by trying to tackle Ken's songs one after the other. Louis Collins and Take Me Back worked very well together to get the system working.

I have actually stopped working on Ken's book again at this point, because I now have enough skills to arrange some songs this way and so would you. Remember the bit about driving the skills home? That's what I'm doing right now, finding songs I want to play and working them out in this style. When I feel ready for it, I'll go back to the book and continue. At this this point, with the skills Ken has presented you need songs whose melodies can be played on the first three strings in first position in some open-chord key, but fortunately it isn't that hard to find folk songs that fit this description. I actually don't mind barre chords (which Ken can't assume in the book) and so I can invent my own ways to stretch the melody up the neck a bit, but that wouldn't be necessary.

Hope that's useful. It's great fun to be playing melodies, so I think you'll find it worth it to stick with it however long it takes.

Dustin

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:27 AM

Thanks Dustin,
               it sounds like you've nailed down what I'm looking for.
I have been pattern picking for about six years now, and feel like I've "plateau'd". I just need to locate this book you've referred to.

Cheers,

John

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST,guest godfrey
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:47 PM

I've been finger picking for approx. eight years. If you really want to learn, check out the masters of it. Chet Atkins who furthered the Merle Travis style is my fav. Lenny Breau who idlized Chet is awesome and to name a few others... Tommy Emanuel, Thom Bresch(Merle's son),Alex DeGrassi, Adrian Legg.

When I first started finger style I couldn't put my mind around it until someone told me to think of it as simply pinching. That works great for the simple piece's like Chet's arrangement of Mr.Sandman. Perhaps you can start there, it is fairly easy.

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Dustin Laurence
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 10:57 PM

John,

For Ken's book, try Elderly Instruments. There is more information at Amazon.com. There is an accompanying instructional video as well, but I must warn you I've been having quality problems with the video. (Centerstream exchanged my first one very nicely, but the second one is also screwed up.) There also seem to be two versions of the video--the original that only covers the first half of the book, and another with the rest of the songs added in a recording made several years later.

The Steve James book I mentioned that I've started using as a repertoire book is also at Elderly and Amazon. The author has a video with a subset of the songs in the book.

Hope that makes it easy. :-)

Dustin

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 11:20 AM

Thanks again Dustin,
                   I ordered the book and video from the man himself, yesterday. I look forward to receiving it soon.

Cheers,

John

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: KateG
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 12:04 PM

Dustin,

I like your idea of playing scales over an alternating base...I'll have to give that a try this evening.

I, too, have been working through Ken Perlman's book, using it in conjunction with Mark Hanson's _Intoduction to Travis Picking_. Hanson takes the intro pattern picks even slower than Ken does, and breaks them down into a variations on four basic themes. I found his book helpful and he has some good songs to learn. And I agree with you 200% on not rushing. Some patterns come easily, because they are variations of the arpeggiated strums I'd learned in my youth, but others...and singing over a syncopated pattern still throws me. I've stepped back and tried singing over just the alternating bass, no problem; put the treble strings back in and it goes to hell in a handbasket. Hanson's book has a CD which is quite good, so I've been playing with that. I haven't got Ken's video -- and the VCR is on the fritz. I'm gonna look up Steve James' book now.

Happy pickin'!

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 11:06 AM

A couple of random additional thoughts:

One essential step that enabled me to start making renewed progress at some intermediate stage of learning to counterpoint-pick (especailly in the keys of C and G) was to reconfigure the way I used my left hand to make the basic first-position G chord. I had first learned to put the index finger on the A string, middle finger on the bass E, and ring finger on the high E -- the alternative method is to fret low E with the ring finger, the A string with the middle finger, and use the pinky for high E.

This allows the left hand to remain more still when changing between G and most other chords, and frees up the index finger to play some essential melody notes. It also makes it easier to slide the left hand up the neck to hit, for instance, an "A" on the high E string. Sometimes you might need to slide quickly up to this note and back down, other times you might hit it as part of a D chord made by taking the first-position C-chord-plus-G (fretted with the pinky) and sliding it up two frets. (Since you're fingerpicking and not strumming, you can avoid the open G string which isn't part of the D major chord.)

(All of the above only applies for standard tuning, of course.)

Also: at a much earlier stage of the learning process, I found that the first thing I could do to introduce a bit of variation into my straight repetitive pattern-picking was to "walk" the bass line at each chord change while maintaining my pattern on the treble strings. This may seem counterintuitive -- what you ultimately want to do is to play melody against a steady bass -- but I think it's the easiest and best way to start training your hands to break out of the pattern and begin operating a bit more independently and fluidly.

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: M.Ted
Date: 25 Apr 03 - 10:00 AM

I agree completely on your devices, PG--As per the bass/treble thingyou have to change voicings a lot in order to provide some texture, so it is important to learn to keep that stead beat on a treble string while moving around in the bass, as well as learning how to play a steady bass while moving around on the treble strings--

Also, it is probably worth noting(for some of the folks who are trying to learn this stuff and just sorting it out) that ragtime picking is different from Travis picking--the ragtime features a "four beats to the measure" feel,, accent on the 1st and 3rd beats, while the Travis picking features a solid "Eight-to-the-bar" feel--

Subject: RE: Fingerstyle guitar-contrapuntal
From: Dustin Laurence
Date: 26 Apr 03 - 02:07 PM

Now that I think of it, John, the better copy of the video with the additional material did come straight from Ken, so you probably picked the right source. For anyone else interested, you can find details at his website.

I should also add a truth-in-advertising note about the Steve James book; don't expect it to be a big collection of songs at an easy level. The first song is about at the level I said, but it is really a survey of different roots styles and moves ahead very quickly. It isn't a step-by-step instruction book like Ken's book is. On the other hand, it should remain a useful companion for a long time; when Ken does alternate tunings Steve's book will have an appropriate song, and so on.

KateG, the Mark Hanson book sounds interesting, moreso because I'm slowly teaching my small nephew to play and he doesn't have any previous background to draw on. I didn't find a book called Introduction To Travis Picking. I did find The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking; is that the one?

I'd like to hear if the scales exercise works for you, since I can only recommend it based on how it worked for me. I think it could be developed into a whole series of exercises designed to get you to the point where you are playing entirely by ear over an alternating bass; in fact, this all motivates me to go back to this idea and work out some more exercises for myself. One thing I should have said is probably obvious; if you're going to go between open G on the third string to G on the third fret of the first string, all played over a C chord, you probably want to start and end on C regardless of what you do in between so the key center is really plain to the ear. That's what I did, at any rate.

Dustin