Chords for How to Play Sixteen Tons on the Guitar

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[Gb] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [E] _
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_ _ _ Okay, well that was my rendition of 16 Towns by Merle Travis.
[Ab] And he wrote that song over probably about 80 years ago, and he actually grew up in a _
family that
His dad worked in the mines and so a lot of these
different
_ Lyrics that you find in there were stuff that his dad actually said so it's a really neat song.
It's been a part of
folk music for _
_ Since it was written, [B] and it's been parodied and lots of neat things have been done
And I in fact I remember when I first started playing guitar
Hearing his rendition of it and trying to figure out and I just couldn't seem to do it
So I don't know if you I'm playing I've been playing a lot longer now obviously
But um I don't know about a month or two ago
I kind of sat down and watched the recording and figured it out
And so if you're wanting to learn how to play Merle Travis's 16 times
This is this is the basic way first off.
He has this little opening lick
So he plays on the second string place it open _ and goes [Db] second fret second string still [Eb] fourth
[Em] _ five
Okay, so you're gonna play that twice [B] on the fifth fret _
Then open again
[G] _ Now it's open on the third string _
[E] _ second fret fourth [Em] string
_ _ [B] _
Second fret fifth [Db] string fourth fret
_ [Eb] _
first fret [E] fourth string and
_ Then second fret fourth string and then he does this little thing he's gonna hit the bass
Kind of the top three and then do [Em] an upstroke.
This is an e minor six
Okay, so you're normally minor put your pinky here on the second fret so _ _ _
And then what I do I don't know if he does this but what I do is go
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And [B] this a little intro and then I do this little and I don't know if he necessarily does this
But I do this
_ _ This kind of thing
_ Right before I go into it and this this could be either one of these chords that they could be called a lot of things
I mean this could be a b7
_ suspended fourth minus five or you know an a suspended second at 11 it can be lots of different things, but
Basically to be seven take your pinky off.
_ [Fm] So so
[Em] _ _ _
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_ _ [E] So
[B] _ _ And then this this is what Merle Travis basically does a walking bass line down
And he's really playing around in e minor though.
I tweak it a little bit
so he's gonna start with uh, he's gonna by the way do [E] a palm mute, so _
Get that kind of down
[Em] you can try to get a little more strings maybe too, but
_ _ [E] And so it'll hit the second fret fourth string
[Em] Then you know hit those bottom strings there with a [D] palm you then open the D
Do [Cm] you think we're playing around in e minor now?
I he continues to go down like [B] this doing the same thing
[G] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
What I do I change it up a [C] little bit at this point I do a C chord [B] and you had the same
You know weird b7 _ _
_ _ Continue [Em] on then again
_ [G] _
_ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _ And then he's gonna stay on this e minor _ about [Am] twice _ _
a minor twice
_ [Em] _ You're back to [Gb] your e minor now do it to [Ab] go back [Em] into it.
There's b7 again
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_ _ _ _ [C] _ [B] _ _ [Am] _
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[Cm] _ And then [Bb] he's gonna do a whole repeat now [Em] You
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_ _ And then you know it just continues and continues and continues neat song a lot of fun
Fun song to sing most people if they've been around any type of folk music will know the song
So anyway work hard on it and nice little rhythm song.
Hope you