Chords for Here's How: "The Man With the Green Thumb" by Tommy Emmanuel

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [E] _
[F#] Hi folks, Tommy Emmanuel here, and this is He Is How.
And I've been asked a lot about the groove and the feel that I play with my song, The
Man With The Green Thumb.
First of all, let me tell you, the man with the green thumb [G] is Chet Atkins.
And I wrote this song as a dedication to him.
So if a person has a green thumb, it means that everything they plant grows.
That's just the way it works.
And Chet Atkins was like that as a person.
Anybody who came in contact with him, their lives changed.
He enhanced people's lives.
He enriched people's lives.
And [F] I can testify [G] to that.
He was a great, great friend and a person that you just wanted to be around because
you were constantly learning from him.
So let's dedicate this to Chet.
And I'm going to show you what I play.
My thumb is playing what we call a boom-chick [A] pattern, which is boom-chick, boom-chick.
_ [F] So the pattern is [E] A to [F#m] F sharp minor.
[E] I'm using that shape and I'm bringing my thumb over the [F#m] top.
_ _ _ _ Just that [B] alone is enough to make people run and hide because people don't want to use their thumb.
But, you know, if you want to play, especially fingerstyle, there's thumb in everything.
[A] This is how the pattern goes.
_ That's the thumb. _ _ _
_ Now the fingers are [F#] playing. _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Now I'm playing a little slow there so you can hear what's going on.
And I'm also, I'm muting a little bit with my left hand to give it that funky, the note stops right. _
_ _ See that?
If you speed it up, it sounds like this. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
That's how you get that sound.
_ _ _ So I'm doing, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
okay.
So there's a lot going on in that, just that one little part.
So let me play the song for you and you can watch what I'm doing here and I can wish you good luck.
So are you ready?
Here we go.
The man with the green thumb. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F#m] _ _ [C#m] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Now the bridge.
[C] _ _ [G] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
[F#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _
[B] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Am] _ _ [F#] _
_ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[Bm] So that's the man with the green thumb.
A couple of things I want to point out to you.
I'm doing little trills and things with my left hand like this.
_ _ [D] See that?
_ [E] _
[Bm] _ [E] _ [D] And I got those ideas from listening to singers.
They're vocal trills.
_ _ [A] _ _ [E] _
[A] See that?
[G#m] So whenever I write a song, I try to write it in a way as if you could sing it.
And I remember when I would write a new song, I would call Chet Atkins up and say, hey Chet,
I've got this new song.
And he would say, can you sing it?
Can you whistle it?
Can you hum it or whatever?
And it taught me right from the start about writing songs that [A#] had a memorable melody
and that were singable.
And so I always try to keep that in mind when I'm writing songs.
The ending [F#m] of the song, this part, [C#m] _ _ [E] _
_ it's interesting because [F#m] the melody goes down and the chords go up.
Check it out.
[C#m] La, [B] la, la.
[D] _
[A] _ _ _ _ Yeah, so that's some ideas for the green thumb.
This part here.
_ [C#m] _ _ [E] _
_ _ [B] _ See that?
I was, [G] because I'm playing the melody, I'm pulling off with my [C#m] second finger [F] there.
_ [G]
See that?
_ [E] Gives you a chance to set that up.
And you may wonder why you do that, because it's entertaining and people don't expect it.
So that's the man with the green thumb.
I hope you enjoyed that. _ _ _ _ _