| <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> John Denver: Tactics and Techniques for Guitar by: Ed Stowers <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> 1. Drop-D Tuning This was a favorite technique of John's. It is used in many of his songs, including Follow Me, Darcy Farrow, Prisoners, Lady's Chains,Poems Prayers and Promises, and many more. To set up Drop-D tuning, simply tune the big 6th string (E string) down to D. Note: When play in Drop-D tuning, G chords are played differently. One way John did this was to place the little finger on the 6th string at the 5th fret, the ring finger on the 5th string at the 5th fret, and the index finger on the1st string at the 3rd fret. There are many songs that evoke the images of nature and beauty that so marked the music of John Denver, but there is one song more than any other that I believe marked who John Denver was. In fact, it is actually his autobiography, if you listen to the words. It expresses perfectly my idea of who John was as a person, his outlook on life and his perceptions of the world like no other. That song, of course, is Rocky Mountain High. We all know that it was written at Lake Williams during the Perseid meteor shower in 1972. What you might not know is that it was written for Drop-D tuning. The next thing to learn about this song is the "RMH lick" that Mike Taylor showed John and which became the dominant guitar lick in this wonderful song. I struggled to learn this lick for many years without success until 1996, when I was finally able to watch John's hands on a copy of the Wildlife Concert. To do the RMH Lick you need to be able to do hammers and pull-offs Hammers – to do a hammer you pluck an open string and then immediately place a finger on a higher fret without hitting the string a second time, making a "slide-up" (glissando) sound from one note to another. Pull-Off – this is the opposite of a hammer. You pluck a string that is depressed at a higher fret and then let off the string without hitting it again, making a "slide-down" down from one note to another. There are currently two major versions of RMH out there. The first is the original 1972 version done by John with Mike Taylor. This is the "classic" Rocky Mountain High. There is a slightly different version done by John with Pete Huttlinger on the 1994 video The Wildlife Concert (if you haven't obtained a copy of Pete's videos on how to play John Denver, I highly recommend them). This version is much faster and upbeat, and the classic "RMH Lick" is changed slightly. The classic "RMH lick" begins in the RMH intro and repeats regularly throughout the entire song. It starts with a bass and a hammer chord and ends with a pull-off chord. To get a feeling for the classic RMH lick, remember this ditty: Boom – Doodle-Dee-Doo, Doodle-Dee, Doo-Doodle That's kind of the rhythm of the lick. John played RMH with a capo on the 2nd fret in Drop-D tuning. This is a strummed song so a flat pick is the best choice. The "Boom" in this ditty is the first note, which is played on the bass 6th string, which is tuned down in Drop-D. This makes for a deep, melodious D chord. The lick is played with the left hand holding the strings in a standard D Chord position and the first stroke is on the lower Drop-D 6th string. The rest of the ditty is played on the tenor strings. The first two "doodles" are hammers and the last "doodle" is a pull-off. The RMH lick is played in this manner: Boom - Using the flat pick, strike the bass E (6th string) on the down-stroke. Doodle - This is a two-note hammer. Holding the D chord, strike the 3rd string with the pick and then hammer the same string at the 4th fret with the little finger. Dee - Strike the 2nd string (the D chord position has your ring finger depressing it at the 3rd fret. If you hold the D chord throughout this will be "open" Doo - Strike the 3rd string "open." The D chord has your Index finger holding it down at the second fret. Doodle - Strike the 4th string open and immediately hammer it with the little finger at the 4th fret. Dee - Strike the 3rd string "open"—D chord has the index Finger holding it down at the second fret. Doo - Strike the 4th string with the little finger on the 4th Fret Doodle - Strike the 4th string with the index finger on the 2nd fret and immediately release it in a pull-off to an open string. There are a couple of final parts to the RMH lick that are outside of the ditty above. I call them bass licks. Basically, they are fairly simple, and add a beautiful dimension that makes the lick sound right. Here's what else you do: There is a series of walkups on the bass strings that consist of three sets of three beats, like 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 that ends the lick (before it starts all over again). These sets each have a kind of "doodle-dee" sound to them. This is an Em7 chord played by hammering the 5th and 6th strings at the 2nd fret. The first set is the most complicated. The strumming pattern for each set is to do them down-stroke on 1, upstroke on 2 and down-stroke on 3 for each of the sets (except the first—the second note is the hammer on that one). Strike the 5th and 6th strings open with a down-stroke using the flat pick on "1" and immediately hammer those strings with your middle and ring fingers at the second fret on "2." The strike them depressed like that again with a second down-stroke of the pick on "3". It should sound "doodle-dee," with the doodle being the hammer from open to closed. Repeat this position for the "1" and "2" of the second set and then, holding the same strings the same way, slide your fingers up to the 5th fret for "3." For the final set, play the strings in the same position with a down-stroke on "1" and an upstroke on "2" of the next set. Then, still holding same strings the same way, down-stroke and up-stroke, then sliding up to the to the 7th fret for a down-stroke on "3". Hold this position for one another down-stroke and upstroke. That ends the class RMH lick. The other version, the WLC version, is almost exactly the same except for the very first part of the ditty. Instead of a "doodle-dee-do" sound (3 distinct notes), the WLC version sounds like "doodle-doo" (2 distinct notes) in the first part. So, to do the WLC version of the song, simply replace the initial "doodle-dee-do" part with the following: Doodle Holding the D chord, strike the 3rd string (index finger is holding it depressed at the second fret) on the "doo" part, then hammer with the little finger on the 3rd string, 4th fret on the "dle" part. Do Still holding the D chord, strike the 3rd string open again (the index finger hold it closed 2nd fret as before). RMH has some interesting beats in it. The first is the standard beat of double eighth notes and a quarter note for the main rhythm (di-di-duh). The second is the exact opposite of this (a quarter note followed by a double-eighth note) (duh-didi) for the bass player. As you listen to the song on disk, try to pick out these subtle rhythms. Let's play Rocky Mountain High! 2. Finger Style The thing I'd like to share is a method of Finger-picking. This involves plucking strings instead of strumming them, and is a basic way of playing folk music (especially for banjo players), and folk music is where John got his start with the Mitchell Trio. John used this style on lots of songs like Windsong, I'm Sorry, Fly Away and Leaving On a Jet Plane. You may use bare fingers to do this, though it is pretty quiet on an acoustic guitar. Unplugged finger-picking is best done with finger picks. I use a plastic thumb pick and metal finger picks on my index and middle fingers. John tended to just use a thumb pick and nothing on his fingers (at least in his later years), which is acceptable for performance on "plugged" acoustic-electric guitars. This is basically a variation of the standard "Travis" pick, but one that seems to work well with most John Denver songs. The thumb alternates on the bass strings, which are the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings. These strings keep the beat for the song. The pattern (bass strings to pluck) for the bass licks with the thumb are: When playing G and A chords, use the 5th string, then 6th string When playing E chords, use 6th string and then 5th string When playing C, D, B and F chords, use the 4th string then 5th string These represent the "Boom" or "1" (first note) in the pattern The tenor strings have a standard "cycle" that trickle between each bass string beat. The basic pattern has string plucks: Index finger plucks the 3rd string (G) – this is note 2 Middle finger plucks the 1st string (E) – this is note 3 Index finger plucks the 2nd string (B) – this is note 4 The "beat" pattern is 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 over and over, with the 1 being the alternating bass strings, the 2-3-4 being tenor, and the "4"ending a "set." The picking pattern is T-3-1-2 with chord changes on the thumb beat. Normally, you do a different set for each chord played. A good song for this pattern is John's first hit song, Leaving On A Jet Plane, which is picked this way using standard G, D and D chords. Annie's Song: This is probably John's second most popular song of all time. Written on a ski lift in 1974, this song conjures up images of deep forests in the night, of mountains covered in greenery and flowers, of rainstorms and the swells of the ocean, all visceral images of nature that are so unique to John's special music. Somehow, he took all of this and tied it in to a poignant love song for his wife. This song is a perfect example of the finger-picking John used, and one of the most beautiful songs of all time. This song is the same basic finger pattern, but with a slight modification: you repeat the last two tenor plucks at the end of the sequence. The pattern for Annie's Song is: (T-3-1-2-1-2). In D chord, pluck the upper bass string (4th string first set, 5th string second set, alternating) with the thumb Index finger plucks the 3rd string Middle finger plucks the 1st string Index finger plucks the 2nd string Middle finger plucks the 1st string again Index finger plucks the second string again Instead of the 1-2-3-4- pattern, Annie's Song uses this pattern: Beat: 1-2-3-4-3-4, 1-2-3-4-3-4 (T-3-1-2-1-2)over and over. The bass strings change each time, depending on the chord used. The intro to Annie's Song is a trick I got from Pete Huttlinger. While one player plays the D and Dsus4 in the intro normally in the pattern given, another guitarist "walks" the intro down by plucking the first string on the first note of the first beat in each of the intro's 8 bars. Since the first guitarist is using a ¾ time rhythm for the D picking (T-3-1-2-1-2) the second will hit a new not on the 1 in each of the intros licks for 8 bars (one or each of the original player's switches between D and Dsus4). 1st Bar Pluck the 1st string once at the 17th fret from the nut (capo) 2nd Bar Pluck the 1st string once at the 15th fret 3rd Bar Pluck the 1st string once at the 14th fret 4th Bar Pluck the first string once at the 12th fret 5th Bar Pluck the first string once at the 10th fret 6th Bar Pluck the first string once at the 9th fret 7th Bar Pluck the first string once at the 7th fret 8th Bar Pluck the 1st string once at the 5th fret Also, if you really want it to sound like John, the first guitarist should not play the D at the 2nd and 3rd frets. Rather, it should be played on the 5th and 7th frets (index finger on 1st string 5th fret, the ring finger on 2nd string 7th fret, and middle finger on 3rd string at 7th fret). Slide the ring finger to the 2nd string 8th fret for the Dsus4 notes. On some songs, most notably This Old Guitar, John used a different finger-style pattern. Instead of the T-3-1-2 pattern, he used a T-1-3-2 pattern that sounds quite distinct. Experiment with both and have fun with them. Oh, and for you purists out there, while all of the Cherry lane books show This Old Guitar is played in D, John actually played it in C with a capo across the second fret (transpose the D-A-Bm-F# in the first stanza of the book music with C-G-Am-Em and you see what I mean). With a capo across the second fret, the C version is the same key as the open D version, but allows you more neat licks at the top of the neck. Last of all, a strumming song. This one was one of his first hits, Country Roads. You can play it in the key he recorded it in (A) or a lower key (G). One thing to note is how the lower bass string is struck first on the E chords in the song. Hammering the E chords sounds particularly good on this song. The Bass strings should make a "run" between verses. This concludes the quick and dirty Denver seminar #1. John's music can be challenging and beautiful, but it is fairly simple once you get the hang of it. Keep practicing and don't get frustrated. Most of all, just have fun with it. That's why John wrote it for us, and he would expect no less. Peace my friends, and good playing. Ed <*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*> ~ E-mail Ed ~ ~ Back to Contributions ~ |
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