Merle and Chet

In the last issue in which we featured Tommy (GT 294) he was talking about using a thumbpick and demonstrating general picking-hand technique. So this time, we thought we’d ask the maestro to turn his attention to the fretting hand. In the accompanying video and the music examples below, Tommy will be demonstrating some of the stylistic attributes of another of his influences, country picker Merle Travis. He’ll also be taking a look at the question of thumb position and how that particular