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This lesson looks at a "Polk Salad Annie" kind of feel, that swampy bayou sound that was made famous by the likes of Tony Joe White and Creedance Clearwater.
The basis of this little piece is a 12 bar chord progression in E, but one that keeps switching between two main themes. Before we look into the detail, here is the basic chord chart:
| E7 / / / | E7 / / / | E7 / / / | E7 / / / |
| A / / / | A / / / | E7 / / / | E7 / / / |
| B7 / / / | A / / / | E7 / / / | E7 / / / |
As you can see, it's a standard 12 bar blues format, which if written using the roman numeral system (which is mentioned over and over again in these lessons), looks like:
| I / / / | I / / / | I / / / | I / / / |
| IV / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / |
| V / / / | IV / / / | I / / / | I / / / |
OK, from the top:
I start the whole thing out with one bar of the muted bass line. It's as simple as they get: root note, one per beat, for just about the whole piece. That thumb, thumping out a muted note every beat keeps the whole thing chugging along. Different things happen above it, but it is relentless in its pulse. You may want to just practice it. You hear that those bass notes are muted and I do that with the fleshy heel of my hand. You can't really see it in the movie, but it's resting gently on the bass strings. This is another one of those techniques that you simply do automatically after a while. The pressure is not so firm as to choke the note off completely, just enough to keep the note from ringing out. If you watch the thumb in the movie, you'll see that it is steady in its attack. Only after the B7 appears does it alter the pattern.
Above that steady bass line I alternate between two different patterns.
The first is a compact double stop that middle and ring finger pluck. As soon as you hear the interval, you know you're in swamp territory. It's the 5 and 7 of an E7 chord. So with the root note bass line, you're hearing an E7 chord without a 3. That sound is the essence of this style. When I get to the A chord, that double stop moves up two frets to become the 3 and 5 of the A chord.
The second pattern, which happens every second measure, is on the low strings (pitch-wise) and is more of a decoration to bass line. It is also a familiar sounding line, which fits around the bass notes of an E chord. The line that incorporates itself into the chord shape moves up from the 5 of the chord, through the 6 to the 7 and back down again, revisiting the 5 between each. The tab will show you how exactly. Meanwhile, the thumb keeps that root note firing, one per beat. You will see how the upper notes and bass line fit together. The pattern over the A chord is the same, moved up one string-set.
The pattern applies until the B7 arrives (the V chord) and a new pattern replaces it. The new pattern applies to the B7 and the next two bars of A.
The piece ends on a fairly standard ending, played more as a single note line. You will notice, though, that my fretting hand holds down the E chord, or at least the bass chunk of an E chord.
Here are the tab and midi files. Remember, the midi is generated by the same program that makes the tab, so what you see is what you hear.
Full speed midi | Half speed midi | Guitar-Pro file
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