Doc Watson is the King of Flatpicking. For all intents and purposes, he invented the style and when he picked we heard a beautiful and joyous sound. In addition to his innovations with a flatpick, Doc was a GREAT fingerpicker as well.
Chris
Topics and/or subjects covered in this lesson:
Bluegrass
Chris Eldridge
Tony Rice
Norman Blake
Doc Watson
Nine Pound Hammer
Print Chords & Tab
Loop 0:00 Run-Through of Doc Watson Style Solo
Loop 0:27 Breakdown of Doc Watson Style Solo
Loop 16:00 Slow Practice Loop of Doc Watson Style Solo
Loop 16:40 Practice Loop of Doc Watson Style Solo
Loop 17:02 Closing Thoughts and Outro
Comments
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I think someday speed will come for me or at least increase ... I guess it is expected on a lot of these songs but for the time being I'm pleased with the progress.
Kip, well done! And it sounds like you got the "Doc-like" essence of those phrases in the way you're playing it. One thing: you're adding an extra beat on the C chord at around 0:15. Iron that out and you'll be good to go.
Hi Chris,
Once again, thanks for a great lesson. Always interesting to get inside the mind of Doc a little bit. Here is my attempt at it... I had some trouble with the backwards rolls, as I just haven't done a lot of that. I worked on the rolls a bunch on their own with a metronome, starting way down at 60bpm and really trying to stay loose (easier said than done). Any other tips, especially as far as right hand technique, would be great. I think initially I was using just wrist motion to get the pick to each string, instead of using a bit of elbow to get the pick in a proper position to hit the string... Kind of hard to explain but hopefully that makes sense. I guess that's a bad habit I didn't realize I had picked up.
Trying to keep the "swing" feeling at this speed was a little tough but I tried my best.
Also please don't mind my lazy dog in the background. He does not care about Doc Watson.
Thanks!
John
John, I think you've hit the nail on the head - the elbow can't be locked out of the equation. Especially in Doc Watson's technique the elbow was a huge part of the mechanism to get that particular sound.
The practice paid off and you sound really good! Something to work on might be getting a little more dynamic contour in your lines. Particulay the last long descending line sounds a little straight. It's subtle, but see if you can make it all, but that last line in particular, dance a little more.
Chris