{"id":111083,"date":"2019-05-17T10:53:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T17:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=111083"},"modified":"2023-05-31T19:54:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T02:54:21","slug":"pickin-learn-doc-watsons-hot-take-on-black-mountain-rag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/pickin-learn-doc-watsons-hot-take-on-black-mountain-rag\/","title":{"rendered":"Pickin’: Learn Doc Watson’s Hot Take on ‘Black Mountain Rag’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>n the early 1960s, during the American folk revival, the blind North Carolinian guitarist Doc Watson stunned audiences with his virtuosic flatpicking, which was virtually without precedent. Watson did much to elevate the status of the steel-string acoustic guitar from a secondary instrument to a rapid-fire soloing voice. But before he rose to prominence, Watson in fact used a solidbody electric guitar. In the 1950s, he played rockabilly and Western swing tunes on his Gibson Les Paul, and out of necessity\u2014he often performed at country dances without the expected fiddler\u2014he taught himself fiddle tunes on that axe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Master flatpicker, songwriter, and producer Bob Minner suspects that the time Watson spent on the Les Paul is what allowed him to develop his prodigious command of the acoustic guitar. \u201cI have no way to prove this, but I believe that Doc developed certain attributes on the electric, like speed and dexterity, that he transferred easily to the acoustic guitar to become the Doc we all know and love,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s 1963 recording of \u201cBlack\u00a0Mountain\u00a0Rag\u201d (from The Vanguard Years<\/i>) is a prime example of the guitarist\u2019s exciting treatment of a traditional fiddle tune. For this particular version, a duet with guitarist John Herald, Watson plays the piece in the key of C major, with a capo at the second fret causing it to sound in D. While Herald, whose part is not shown here in notation (save for the lick in the first two bars), lays down a chugging rhythmic accompaniment, Watson plays singing leads. \u201cI\u2019m not sure exactly how he did it,\u201d Minner says. \u201cBut I think that because Doc was blind, he was able to concentrate on nuances that escape us mere mortals with sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minner thinks that, unlike the typical bluegrass choice of a thick, heavy plectrum, Watson used a medium flatpick. In learning \u201cBlack Mountain Rag,\u201d go with whatever pick suits you best, and remember to use alternate picking on the eighth notes\u2014down on the downbeats and up on the upbeats. In order to achieve Watson\u2019s effortless-sounding feel at the brisk tempo of 122 half notes per minute, paying close attention to your muscular tension. Minner says, \u201cFor playing this\u2014or any barnburner\u2014you\u2019re really going to have to learn to relax and avoid the natural tendency to tense up on your picking hand and wrist, as well as your forearm and shoulder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As with learning any fast fiddle tune, it would certainly pay to use a metronome. Start at the slowest tempo you can play a given phrase or section cleanly, and then work your way up to speed. It might be helpful to feel the pulse in quarter notes rather than halves, and if you go that route, remember that your target tempo is 244 bpm. And once you\u2019ve polished off \u201cBlack Mountain Rag,\u201d give yourself a hearty congratulations, as the piece makes an excellent foundation for flatpicking technique in general. \u201cThe genesis really starts with Doc Watson,\u201d Minner says.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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\nThis article originally appeared in the\u00a0July\/August 2019<\/a>\u00a0issue\u00a0of\u00a0Acoustic Guitar<\/em>\u00a0magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go with whatever pick suits you best, and remember to use alternate picking on the eighth notes\u2014down on the downbeats and up on the upbeats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":111084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Go with whatever pick suits you best, and remember to use alternate picking on the eighth notes\u2014down on the downbeats and up on the upbeats.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1655,1151],"tags":[911],"ppma_author":[1541],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/doc_watson.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1541,"user_id":24,"is_guest":0,"slug":"adam-perlmutterstringletter-com","display_name":"Adam Perlmutter","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Perlmutter","first_name":"Adam","description":"Adam Perlmutter holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. He is the editor of Acoustic Guitar<\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111083"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136383,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111083\/revisions\/136383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111083"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=111083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}