10 of Chet Atkins’ Most Memorable Songsby Evan Ceretti, Mar 1, 2018. 5 min readChet Atkins was one of the most of the 21st century. His legendary career spanned six decades, from the early 40’s to the late 90’s, until his in 2001. He released a jaw-dropping 88 studio albums, 53 compilation albums, and 113 singles, from country to jazz to folk to numerous other genres in-between. He wooed listeners from generation to generation with his electric speed, melodic playing, and unique finger-picking guitar style. They didn’t call him “Mr. Guitar” for no reason.Atkins’ signature picking style was inspired by guitar great Merle Travis.
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Atkins took that style and, over 50 years, made it his own. Some of his other major guitar influences include Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, and Jerry Reed. Rolling Stone ranked Atkins number 21 on their list of He was inducted into the, the, and the and has received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the.Though I don’t like to think of his music as country (though a lot of it was), Chet Atkins is hailed as being the most recorded solo instrumentalist in country music history. Atkins produced records for Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings and numerous others. He has collaborated with dozens of artists, probably hundreds, and has released albums with guitar legends, including Hank Snow, Jerry Reed, Les Paul, Merle Travis, Doc Watson, Lenny Breau, Tommy Emmanuel, Mark Knopfler, and Liona Boyd.Atkins had hundreds of brilliant songs in his repertoire.
Many of the songs he recorded are covers, but he picked them in a way no one else could. Here are 10 of the best in no particular order.
Windy and Warm.
'Chet Atkins Picks on The Beatles' is a really really fun record. It features Chet's inimitable style with a super swinging sixties back up band. He tackles a good chunk of classic Beatles tunes - this one included.For a walkthrough of this transcription, check out my other video:If you like my videos, and would like to schedule a Skype lesson, stop by my website:for tabs of this lesson:email me with other questions at: [email protected] if you're feeling generous and would like to donate:Main Guitar Part is:1966 Fender Mustang - Brantley Rewinds Pickups - Boss Dm 2 Analog Delay - TC Electronic Hall of Fame - Mojotone 5f4 Tweed Pro CloneVideo Recorded with:Canon T5i - 50mm lensThanks for watching!
Chops: Intermediate/AdvancedTheory: IntermediateLesson Overview:. Increase the independence between your picking-hand thumb and fingers. Learn different strategies for harmonizing melodies. Create alternating-bass patterns that work over simple harmonies.As inspiring as it is to hear Chet Atkins play some mind-bending fingerstyle licks, it can be quite daunting to decode what he’s doing. Where do all those sounds come from? How do we create our own tunes or arrangements in that style?It’s useful to break a big job down into smaller parts, and “Chet-style guitar” certainly benefits from that approach. We’ll break this technique down to the smallest components; once we understand the elements, we’ll then be able to build up arrangements using this knowledge.
Chet Atkins Tab Music
Practicing this way helps beginners form good habits, and it also gives experienced players a chance to identify and fix bad habits that are often the result of ineffective practice. Gaining independence between the picking-hand thumb and fingers is the foundation of all Chet-style playing, and we’ll be focusing on this foundational aspect most of all in this lesson. Because this style often involves moving shapes and bass lines, a few fretting-hand fingering suggestions are provided next to the noteheads in the standard notation clef. If you’re a tab reader, feel free to just glance at the standard staff for fingering suggestions if a passage is feeling clumsy or you feel the need for some guidance.Here’s a tip: For authentic tone, place the back of your picking-hand palm just behind the bridge to mute the bass strings. This will serve you well as you begin to develop a strong groove with your thumb.Although the alternating bass that’s characteristic of Chet’s playing owes much more to Merle Travis than Blind Blake, country-blues players would often drone one bass string below a melody played on the treble strings, as in Ex. This “steady thumb” blues approach is a great way to learn how to keep rock-solid time with that digit. In his formative years, Chet heard a lot of different kinds of music, including pre-war blues.
With the quarter-note bass, be sure to practice with a metronome to internalize a good sense of time, and ultimately, groove.After establishing the bass, add in melody notes. If a measure is challenging, even a single example can be broken down into smaller parts. Think of each measure in Ex.
1 as a separate exercise. It takes a lot of practice to reach your goals with the guitar, but effective practicing is the fastest and most direct route. Practice each example, or even each measure, until it comes naturally. Be sure to make a distinction between a slow performance tempo and a slow practice tempo.
There is no such thing as practicing too slowly.Of course, it doesn’t really sound like Chet until an alternating bass is introduced, so let’s move onto a more typical Chet-style phrase in Ex. 2.Start out by simply getting used to the bass pattern in measures one and two, and then add some melody notes to the open chord shapes. By keeping the fretting hand simple, we place all our attention on forming a good groove with the picking hand.Now that we have a foundation, it’s time to start syncopating the melody, as shown in Ex. The combination of alternating bass and syncopation in the melody gives the example more of a Chet-approved feel.
It’s here we begin to dig into the finer details of his playing.One such detail is learning to alternate between not just two, but three notes in the bass. Some of Chet’s arrangements contain sections that move between a two-note bass pattern and a three-note bass pattern (check out “Ain’t Misbehavin’” from his 1957 release, Hi-Fi in Focus.) The three-note pattern sounds fuller and relies on having an open string available that matches the chord tone, or an extra finger free in fretted shapes.
4 we’ll keep it simple with open shapes in the key of A and familiarize ourselves with the pattern in measures one and two.Practice alternating the 5–4–6–4 string pattern. That will form the foundation of the house. After adding in some melody notes in measures three and four, we’ll switch to the IV chord, but this time inverting it so that the F# is in the bass.
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This allows us to use a new string pattern: 6–4–5–4. Those two patterns will cover 99 percent of Chet’s thumbpicking tunes. Once the new alternating patterns are in place, add some syncopation ( Ex. In measure five, you’ll have to either stretch your fourth finger to reach the G# on the 1st string, or shift positions. Fingerstyle guitar is great for exercising the often-neglected fourth finger, but be careful not to overstretch or strain your fingers. If something is uncomfortable, stop and find a new position to play it in. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.Now that we’ve established a solid foundation for the thumb patterns and a good groove, it’s time to combine moving chord shapes up and down the neck with everything we’ve practiced so far.
These new shapes facilitate another characteristic aspect of the Atkins style: open strings ringing against a fretted note on the adjacent string, as in Ex. 6.The example ends with a textbook Chet voicing of the A6 chord, which continues the theme of playing fretted notes against the open 1st string.When it comes to melodies, so much of the movement in fingerstyle guitar involves finding the best placement of the melody to fit comfortably within a given chord shape. Chet’s hands never moved more than necessary, and as gifted as he was, part of his genius was a masterful economy of motion. One effective way to move around the neck and accommodate a shifting melody is to slide your hand down to the target pitch. In measure one of Ex.
7, for instance, notice how I slide from C# down to A to shift positions. In the next measure, I use a bass line to move up into 10th position for the IV chord. Although the melodies and tunes vary, the approaches and techniques recur time and time again.In a 4/4 fingerpicking groove, very often either the 2nd or 4th beat (or sometimes both) will involve a bit of a strum.
Chet’s thumbpick would drag onto the 3rd string so that the muted bass was heard in conjunction with the clarity of an open string or fretted note. Often this blended into the total picture he was painting, and on his classic recordings with drums and bass, this can almost be lost to the ears, but it is an important part of the finer details. Simply listening to a lot of old Chet Atkins recordings is the best way to internalize this sound and feel, but like anything, eventually it needs to become personalized via practice.In Ex. 8 we move the sound from our ears into our hands. Try to place the strum exactly where indicated in the notation to get used to adding this detail into the mix. In the long run, you’ll find it becoming entirely natural and a bit arbitrary exactly where—or even if—you want to strum. The technique becomes more of a mindset than a literal move to perform the same way every time.
Have fun with it and remember that Chet never played anything exactly the same way twice. This example concludes with a classic Chet-style single-note lick that features fretted pitches alternating with a recurring 3rd-string drone.As a great admirer of Johnny Smith and many other jazz guitarists, Chet was always expanding his vocabulary of chords and harmony. Learning chord inversions is essential to incorporating both harmony and melody in your arrangements. Early on, Chet’s inversions owed much more to Merle Travis than Lenny Breau, but he never stopped expanding.In Ex. 9 we look at a classic Chet inversion of a D7 chord, placing the F# (3) on the 6th string, with the b7 on the 5th string at the 3rd fret.
To make this shape, the left-hand thumb wraps around the neck to grab the low F#, leaving the remaining fingers free to fret the other pitches. An open 1st string sounds great against this shape and is a frequent melody note when Chet uses this inversion. Continuing onward with the left-hand thumb, the G/B on beat 3 of measure three creates a nice ascending bass line on the way to the IV chord (C). We then descend through the G/B again on the way to a D9 shape that places the A note in the bass on beat 1. This gives us a bass line that both ascends and descends. This isn’t merely effective hand positioning, but also musical voice leading and bass motion.With all the pieces of the puzzle now coming together, let’s combine every concept we’ve worked on in Ex.
Although it seems like a lot to keep track of, anyone can play anything if it is slow and isolated enough. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, remember that the big picture is composed of effective, tiny steps. Take as much time as you need to master each component—no one has ever been able to learn it all within a life and Chet never stopped learning either.
Approaching the guitar one note at a time is the surest way forward.
InformationsAll the Michel Lelong’s english guitar lessons on Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed styles was published by Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Worshop in the 80’/90′.Notice: The tablature/music are in PDF and the audio files in mp3. You will receive the material by e-mail. ContentsThe guitar playing of Chet Atkins has influenced generations of guitarists. His guitar solos have become classics in the fingerstyle repertoire. He has bridged folk, jazz, pop, blues and rockabilly styles and techniques to produce a highly individual style and sound.
His playing was greatly shaped by the guitar techniques and ideas of Merle Travis. Michel Lelong has put together a series of six lessons that highlights and focuses on many aspects of Chet Atkins’s playing skills. For the intermediate to advanced player. 72 page tab/music book.
Lesson OneOur first lesson introduces the Atkins approach with Copper Kettle and Paul Simon’s The Boxer. Lesson TwoPlaying in the key of A. Steve Goodman’s City Of New Orleans and the bossa-nova solo Meditation.
Lesson ThreeOne of Chet’s most imitated solos, Windy And Warm. Drive In a Chet Atkins/Jerry Reed blues played in the key of A. Lesson FourJazz standards have always played an important part in Chet’s repertoire. We study his arrangements for The Girlfriend Of The Whirling Dervish and George Gershwin’s Liza. Lesson FivePaul Desmond’s Take Five based on an arrangement by Jorge Morel. The open G6 tuning ( D G D G B E ) and the folk song The Wreck Of The John B.
Lesson SixOpen G tuning ( D G D G B D ) and Hawaiian Slack Key, Wheels and Black Mountain Rag. OrderPlease before any order send an e-mail to DescriptionsPricesPaypal ButtonsComplete series tablatures and PDF music score book and mp3 files35 €Tablatures-music score booklet without audio lessons (see the contents below)20 €Tablature per unit with mp3 audio lessonPricesPaypal buttonCopper Kettle6 €The Boxer6 €City of New-Orleans6 €Meditation6 €Windy and Warm6 €Drive in6 €The Girlfriend Of The Whirling Dervish6 €Liza6 €Take Five6 €The Wreck Of The John B.6 €Hawaiian Slack Key6 €Wheels6 €Black Mountain Rag6 €View Cart.
This composition for Guitar Tab Play-Along includes 6 page(s). It is performed by Chet Atkins. The style of the score is 'Country'. Catalog SKU number of the notation is 152292. This score was originally published in the key of D. Authors/composers of this song: By Chet Atkins. This score was first released on Thursday 1st January, 1970 and was last updated on Thursday 1st January, 1970.
The arrangement code for the composition is. Minimum required purchase quantity for these notes is 1. Please check if transposition is possible before your complete your purchase.Transpose / Free sheet music.