Played in the style of Chet Atkins

Markblues

Here is my tribute to the great Chet Atkins with my arrangement of Mr Sandman. One of the greatest pickers of all time 

Jimbro66

Previous forum posts have shown that there are a number of Chet & Merle fans on here so I'm surprised that this one slipped through without comment. Kudos to @markblues for posting this alternative version instead of slavishly copying Chet's original.

My comments, for what they are worth: The key changes of the original add a bit of interest that I missed here and I personally prefer the crisp sound of a thumbpick for this style but Mark plays it very cleanly and does a nice job. Also a bit different to hear it played on a 335 instead of the ubiquitous Gretsch. Cool ending too. Nice work.

LeeCassidy

That was great. Fantastic playing and some very cool arranging.

Markblues

Jimbro66 said:

Previous forum posts have shown that there are a number of Chet & Merle fans on here so I'm surprised that this one slipped through without comment. Kudos to @markblues for posting this alternative version instead of slavishly copying Chet's original.

My comments, for what they are worth: The key changes of the original add a bit of interest that I missed here and I personally prefer the crisp sound of a thumbpick for this style but Mark plays it very cleanly and does a nice job. Also a bit different to hear it played on a 335 instead of the ubiquitous Gretsch. Cool ending too. Nice work.

Hey Jim, thanks for the comment. I have to agree with you about the interest. I think its pretty hard to make an alternative version when Chet's so damn good. As he always was. Still, it was enjoyable to play. I tend not to use a thumb pick because i can vary to tone on each strike with the thumb and thumb nail but it is certainly true again that Chet and thumb pickers have a more percussive feel in this style.

bingefeller

How did you go about arranging this?  Some of the chord changes are pretty difficult to get nailed smoothly I find.  Nice arrangement. 

Markblues

bingefeller said:

How did you go about arranging this?  Some of the chord changes are pretty difficult to get nailed smoothly I find.  Nice arrangement. 

Good question. To be honest when I go about arranging something in general I tend to just play the tune until i feel comfortable with the changes and chords. Then, I record a rough version on my phone, listen back and see what else i need to add or take out more often than not. Small changes, try recording again to click and if it sounds good, i write it down. Then I go for the recording. I don't think there is any right or wrong way. I just find that words for me. 

Jimbro66

bingefeller said:

How did you go about arranging this?  Some of the chord changes are pretty difficult to get nailed smoothly I find.  Nice arrangement. 

Mark's approach is spot-on. This style of playing is almost totally chord-based. There was a thread about a year ago, co-incidentally also about Mr Sandman, where I posted:

"For anyone wanting to get into the Chet/Merle playing style there are just a couple of fundamentals: 1) You have to practice and perfect the muted alternating bass. 2) Most the playing is chord-based. i.e. the melody is found within the chords so work out the chord sequence and chord inversions first. You'll soon find that dominant ninth chords are used a lot in this style - particularly in Merle Travis's stuff."

In addition to that it's worth mentioning that many part-chords are used in conjunction with open notes. So, to play any tune in this style first work out the chords, or find them online, then work out what inversions of the chords you need to use along the neck to follow the melody.

Even other styles of playing follow this concept. You'll see that if you look at Mark's very nice version of Eleanor Rigby in his separate thread. It's not Chet-style playing but it is still substantially chord-based.

Even flashy pieces like Merle Travis's Walking The Strings are almost entirely chord-based  -  it's just the picking style that makes it seem otherwise.