Chords for Deep River Blues - Guitar Lesson Preview

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[E] _ _ _ Doc Watson [N] has put together some of the most fun songs to play _ of all time.
This one is of course Deep River Blues from his very first album, 1964, and it's a song
that really can go [D] lots and lots of different ways if you just follow the simple chord progression.
So what we're going to talk about in this lesson, or maybe not [E] simple, but basic, [F] you've
got to have some basic finger picking [E] techniques.
We'll talk a little bit about _ _ muting the bass notes, something Doc does a lot of.
When I do that I usually do it with a thumb pick to really [D] get extra punch on that.
[N] I'll probably talk about that. _ _
But we're going to look at it.
I've got it tabbed out. _ _
One of the ways I might play it.
This is a song that really requires and encourages _ _ improvisation and just having a feel for what's
going on with the chords.
So the first thing you've got to do is have the chord progression down.
It's pretty simple.
E7, E diminished, back to E, and an A7 and a B7 in there.
Follows a little 16 measure blues, _ country blues format. _ _ _
And then you can just sing it.
I've got a chart that has the chord progression and the words on it, but you can also make
it into a great instrumental. _ _
I first stumbled upon it in a very old book, Guitar Finger Picking Styles, that _ had just
some great tunes.
It was put together by Happy Prom.
And back in these days these kinds of books were pretty cheap.
[D] Three bucks.
$3.95.
_ 1969.
_ Included stuff like [C] Fish and Blues, _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ [C] _ _
_ Dill Pickle Rag.
Uh oh. _ _ _
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_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [E] Anyway.
So [A] there's some_
Oh, Angie's in there?
[G] _ _ [F] _ _ [E] _ _
[Am] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
Anyway, [N] very influential book in my _ _ musical development.
So if you can still find it, _ _ get it.
_ In any case, we're going to be looking at Deep River Blues pretty much based on some
of the things that were in that book, some of the things that Doc really did, some of
the things that I think you should do in it, and mostly things that I think you should
think about when you're trying to play a song like this.
So without much further ado, this is already way too much ado, I think, let's take a look
at what happens in Doc Watson's Deep River Blues.
_ _ _ _ Well, that was the first segment I put together on a lesson on, obviously, Deep River Blues.
And in it we talk about a lot of different things.
The first one is the importance of understanding the chord [E] progression.
Being able to just strum through it, _ playing the chords and hearing the melody.
[A] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ Then we get into the specifics of the picking, [N] Doc's style of picking where he only uses
really one finger, a thumb and one finger.
I recommend against that in most cases, but _ it's worth trying for certain things.
So we talk about it more with the three finger approach.
And the biggest thing is we get into improvising with it, talking about once you understand
those chords and where else you could play them, you could come up with something like [E] this.
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_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Dbm] _
[B] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ebm] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And messing around with it and [D] learning how to make things your own.
So that's kind of the last focus on [N] that lesson.
If you'd like to check it out, it's at Totally Guitars Now along with hundreds and hundreds
of other lessons, some cool finger picking ones, some, you probably know, lots of standard
rock and roll songs, acoustic guitar songs and things like that.
These are all part of the Target program, our monthly subscription program.
Also though available as individual purchases.
You can have a cool Target Lite program, pick up two songs a month for pennies, I think.
But _ we have a lot of free songs as well to get you started.
So we encourage you if you're a beginner, if this is not particularly beginning material
yet, _ I mean Deep River Blues is not.
But a lot of different stuff over there, so come visit us at Totally Guitars when you
can, particularly if you'd like to work on some finger picking things, which is the stuff
I really love doing. _
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