Chords for Black Water Acoustic Guitar Lesson - Doobie Brothers

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ [A] _ _ [Em] _ _ [A] _ [Em] _ _
_ [A] _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] In this lesson, we're going to take a look at a really, really [Gb] neat [F] finger-picking song
by Pat Simmons of the Doobie Brothers.
It's, of course, Blackwater.
It was on their fourth album.
This one here, What Were Once Vices, are now Habits.
The title of it is hard for me to get the words straight, but that's what it's called.
_ Interesting things about this song.
Well, first I'll tell you a little bit about what we're going to do in the lesson.
It's played in a double-drop D tuning, so we'll talk in a theory segment a little bit
more about that, with some very easy chords.
So there's not a whole lot going on with what you have to do with your left hand.
There are a [G] few tricky things, but [F] most of it is the picking and the percussive side
of what we have to do with your right hand to get it to sound as cool as Pat does here.
Now, this song has a lot of different flavors, kind of.
It's sort of bluesy, sort of southern-sounding, and they're sort of following in the tradition
they've done with some other songs.
They had Toulouse Street on their second album that had little references to New Orleans.
And then they, of course, had Dark Eyed Cajun Woman on the next album, on The Captain and
Me, their third album.
The Vices album was their fourth album.
Pretty much the same lineup that they've had since the second album, so it really continued
kind of their signature sound, which was getting pretty well-defined as at least two different sounds.
There was the Tom Johnston rockers, China Grove, Long Train Runnin', some just scream
and electric guitar songs.
And then Pat Simmons was kind of the acoustic fingerstyle bluesy guy of the band.
Matter of fact, he learned a lot of this stuff from Alan Beilharz, who I also took
lessons from around the same time, but Pat is a few years older than me, [Gm] so I don't think
we ever met back then.
[B] But it was this style of alternating fingerpicking, meaning alternating bass fingerpicking, kind
of in Travis style, that [E] this song is rooted in.
And so we're going to, most of the time, [Gb] keep a steady alternating bass going with just
some nice little hammer-ons, little [F] bluesy bends in and out of some of the chords.
The chords are very simple.
You don't even really have to be able to play bar chords.
No.
Let me think about it.
No bar chords involved.
But the song is still very tricky to get the swampy, bluesy feel that's going on down here.
Now the subject matter of the song is really interesting because not only does it have
this southern feel, but Blackwater is referring to the Mississippi River, which was called
that even, well, going way back.
But I know Pat really felt that this song brought up, brings up images of Huckleberry
Finn, Tom Sawyer, and just life on the Mississippi through the eyes of Mark Twain.
So it's fascinating.
_ _ _ _ [G] Blackwater's done in a double-dropped D tuning.
So you need to take your sixth [D] string down a whole step to D, [Gm] and your first string down
a whole step as well to D.
Now [Eb] briefly, to get there, the easiest, to get the high D down, if your ear [D] can hear
an octave, very, you know, pretty clearly, you can just bring them both down so that
they match [G] an octave away from your fourth string D.
So it's going to be your reference point.
But [Db] you can get the high D very easily by [D] using the third fret of the second string
to give you D, rather than the [F] fifth fret of the second string, which would give you E.
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [E]
Well, as I mentioned in a couple of segments already, the left hand for Blackwater is pretty basic.
We really just need some chords.
They have slightly unusual names, [Eb] but this would be the normal fingering for A minor
seven, which in this [Gb] song is really A minor 11.
We've got my first finger on C, second string, first fret, and my second finger [Am] on E.
Now we're going to lead into this chord most of the time with a [Bb] hammer-on [B] from A sharp
to B.
Just your first finger there to your second finger on the [A] fifth string. _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ The right hand for Blackwater is really interesting.
Now most of it is normal alternating finger, alternating bass finger picking, where I'm
on A minor seven, which is really A minor 11 [A] here.
But the bass on our A chords would be alternating back and forth between the fifth and fourth strings.
And when we go to our D [D] chord, it'd be alternating back and forth between the sixth and fourth strings.
When we go to our G, it's [G] going to be alternating between sixth and fourth.
When we go to [Bb] B flat, same [D] thing.
So the first main sections of the song, before we get into what almost sounds a little bit
more strummed, are [A] just keeping a steady alternating bass part _ [Db] and having [D] a hammer-on
on the fourth beat most of the time. _ _ _
[F] Let's take a look.
Let's kind of break this thing down and put it all together.
There are a couple of attachments.
One is just the chart that has the chords and the lyrics on it, and the other is a couple
pages worth of tablature.
But very few different things going on in this song.
So you really just got to practice it kind of slow and get through it.
We talked about the names of the chords, [Am] the A minor 11 and the D.
[G] The A minor 11 is fingered
with just two [D] fingers and so is the D.
And normally when I'm going to the D in the first
section or what I consider the verse, which is 16 measures long, we're going to [Eb] be playing
the [G] D with your first [E] and third fingers.
_ _ _ _ Blackwater moves along pretty quickly, over 160 beats a minute, quarter note beats or [F] bass notes.
We're going to do for this slowed down version about half that, 84 is what I've got the metronome set at.
And I will run through it.
I'll try to make sure I get all the numbers of repeats correct.
I'm going to try to be singing it in my head, but not a song I can sing very well.
So here we go.
From the top.
We're coming in on beat four with the hammer on.
Two, three.
_ _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ [Am] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _