OK, beginner here chiming in, but my brain is far more advanced than my fingers.
You use your thumb for the bass notes, alternating low bass and high bass (in that order usually). The bass notes depend on the chord. You play treble notes between the bass notes, not necessarily 1 for 1, but that's a basic pattern that is used in many songs.
When I was first learning (okay, I am still learning), I created a simple notation for myself so I could write down how to play a song. This was before I learned tab, but it is useful as a shorthand to describe picking patterns. It does not tell you the chord or how to fret it, but it is a simple way to communicate the pattern.
T is thumb, I is index, M is middle (there are other ways to play, but this is the most common and usually easiest to learn). Here are two very similar patterns that are can be used to play a number of Lightfoot songs. I use them for Sit Down Young Stranger and Song For A Winter's Night, and they are very close to the way the recordings sound. The number is the string. This is only the picking hand, and doesn't show the timing.
T6-T4-I3-T6-M2-T4 (6 beats to the measure)
T6-T4-I3-T6-M2-T4-I3 (7 beats to the measure)
You can use either or a combination of both. The 6 then 4 string is low bass then high bass for chords like G, E, and D/F# (a GL favorite). For C and A, as examples, the bass would be strings 5 and 4 but C/G, another GL favorite, would use 6 and 4. It is the alternation of the bass notes played by the thumb that establishes the rhythm of Travis picking and gives it its distinctive sound. Not everybody plays it this way, but this is how it is intended to be played.
If you play around with these patterns, or the simple alternation (with 8 beats to the measure), you'll find that you can play most of Lightfoot's Travis picked songs (and Dylan's and Simon's and others).
Of course, it helps if you practice more often than I do. As I said, my brain is far ahead of my fingers.
If you want to learn SFAWN or SDYS, I can send you the specific picking for the intro of the first and the bridge of the second (all figured out and written down by Cathy).
Have fun. Travis picking is great, and really makes the songs.
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