Chords for Acoustic Guitar Lesson - Doc Watson-style Lesson

_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Hello, I'm Scott Nygaard, a senior editor for Acoustic Guitar, here to demonstrate the musical examples in Acoustic Guitar's 20th anniversary lesson on Doc Watson.
_ Watson has been an inspiration to generations of folk, bluegrass, and country musicians,
and while he is an accomplished Travis-style fingerpicker, clawhammer banjo player, harmonica player, and unaccompanied ballad singer,
he is probably best known as the first modern virtuoso flatpicker.
His 1964 rendition of Black Mountain Rag stunned acoustic guitarists at the time,
directly inspiring Clarence White, Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, and countless other flatpickers.
Watson's repertoire is primarily composed of songs, and he often accompanies his voice with elaborate fills between vocal lines.
This C chord fill in example 1 works well after the first line of a song like New River Train.
_ [F] 1, 2, [G] 3, 4, 1
[C] _ _ _ _ _
Now I'll play that a little bit slower. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ Watson plays runs like this one in example 2 to get from a G chord to a D.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I'll play [N] that one again a little bit slower. _
[C] _ _ _ [A#] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] While he grew up playing traditional mountain music, Watson started his career playing electric guitar in a honky-tonk band,
and he's just as likely to accompany songs like There's More Pretty Girls Than One with rockabilly bass lines like this [A] one in example 3.
[G] _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ [G#m] I'll play that one again, and then again a little bit slower.
_ [C#] _ _ [G] _ _ [C#] _
_ _ [G#] _ And now [E] slowly. _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ Watson's swing influence can be heard in syncopated melodies like example 4.
_ [F] _ _ [E] 1, 2, 3
_ [Fm] _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [C] _
I'll play that one again slower.
[F#] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
Watson's flatpicking [F#] is not just about cool licks, however.
He also plays a sophisticated version of Carter-style picking on melodies to songs, as in [D] example 5. _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ Let me play that [C] a little bit slower. _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] Watson was a master of strict alternating picking, with downstrokes on the beats and upstrokes on the ands of the beats.
Sticking to this will provide a great foundation in flatpicking technique, as well as a direct link to Watson's playing.
You can see the sheet music for these examples and my accompanying article about Doc Watson online at acousticguitar.com,
or in the February 2010 issue of Acoustic Guitar.
_ Thanks for watching.
I'm Scott Meynard.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _