Music and Songwriting/The Songwriter's Grooves Project - A Guide to Singing and Playing Guitar/The Travis Picking Song Series/1952 vincent black lightning

Almost certainly Richard Thompson's most popular song, it's renowned both for it's moving lyrics and innovative guitar work. The Travis Picking in this style is typical of Thompson's dronal techniques where he changes chords relatively infrequently while playing sophisticated variations on riffs interwoven with his picking patterns. Especially at the speed of his more recent performances of this song it's quite challenging to play, and not to be done lightly given the heavy subject matter of the song.

For more information on the song and the album, check out the album wiki

Performances
This song has evolved substantially from its earliest performances and it is very educationally to study its progression. The speed of the song picks up over time, and the improvisations become increasingly sophisticated and sensitive, although it always maintains at least some of the raw quality of early performances.

By Richard Thompson
Original Album

2006 Cambridge Folk Festival Performance

Songwriter's Circle

Earliest Live on YouTube, from 1990

A version with some slapback reverb on the vocals

w/ Nancy Griffith

Done in a bedroom somewhere, some special licks worth studying

1992 in a Brooklyn Church, starts 2:46

By other artists
Del McCoury

Sean Rowe

Reckless Kelly

Amanda and Jack Palmer

The Red Molly Band

Simplified
Simplified Verses

Tab

This is designed to get you into the song and teach the outline of the verses. You should be able to sing and play the song easily with this version, but it also builds up to the later versions since it uses the same tuning, chords and picking that Richard Thompson does, albeit in a simplified manner.

Intermediate:
Detailed Verses anThis lesson shows you how to do a lot of Richard's signature licks including the intro to the song.d Main Theme/IntroLesson

Short Score Tab Link

Live Transcription of the 2006 Cambridge Folk Festival Performance
Video Link

Tab Link

This is the most difficult set of riffs to learn for the song. There's a very specific set of licks that he does, which most folks will benefit from breaking down to an exact version. In practice, Richard messes with these quite a bit. The trick is that the syncopations are very intense and difficult at this high tempo, so having an exact version of the riff to get started with is often helpful. The tab can also be helpful in breaking down the challenging riffs.

Other Lessons
Andy Gimbel Lesson

Summarizes some techniques to get you through the song and play with the ideas.

Notable techniques
Travis Picking, Snaps, 2-stroke bass, 4-stroke bass, Walking Bass Fills, Improvisation, Pattern Variation.

Original Key
Bb Major

Tempo
116-140 BPM

Tuning
CGDGBE, Capo 3

Key fingering
Special G Dronal

SWG Level/Sequences
Practice logs Name Previous Experience Current Playing Level Minutes in Practice Room

sequence links