M.Ted asked: " Is anyone out there trying this, and can you give feedback on how it is going, or are you overwhelmed?"

Yes, OK, and no.

I'm taking home three things from this thread:

1. Trying it with only thumb and index, rather than middle as I've been doing;

2. Using thumbpick brushes on beats 2, 3, and 4 rather than just beat 2, and alternating between a higher brush and a lower brush;

3. Renewing efforts to play C chord with ring finger on two strings rather than moving it back and forth.

I think there's all the information necessary here for these things, and that they're in reasonable reach.

On the other hand, I'm leaving JP's description of the "rolly and classical" part of Cannonball Rag for another day. If I tried to absorb everything at once, it might be overwhelming.

I should add that Rick has shown me (in real life) another Travis-picking pattern, so I'm looking at this information as an adaptation on what I know, not as something totally new. But even if it were totally new to me, my impression of JP's "lesson 1" is that it's followable. I've managed to successfully learn lots of stuff from verbal explanations at Mudcat or elsewhere.

On the other hand, in the way Rick showed me beats 3 and 4 consist of a 4 note roll with a dotted rhythm, and that would probably be harder to communicate in a post.

Marion