Anyone had a go at learning Chet Atkins' "Bye, Bye Blackbird"?

ewalling · #1 09-10-2009, 07:41 AM

Just curious as to how it's been for you!. I worked my way through this last summer. I more or less got the whole thing in my brain memory but it took so much time to get finger fluency that I let the song slip by the wayside. I'm on my second attempt right now. It's not that the piece is so difficult, it's just long! But seeing Chet play it in that lovely swinging relaxed way, it was one of those songs that I thought "I want to be able to do that!" Has anyone else managed to nail it?

ewalling · #2 09-11-2009, 05:30 PM

Seemingly not ...

RickI · #3 09-11-2009, 08:23 PM

Love the song.... haven't heard Chet's version of it...
But Im sure I wouldnt be able to play it anyway

I play it by banging around a few chords and singin along... it's a great melody..

Good luck with it...

Rick

ewalling · #4 09-12-2009, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickI

Love the song.... haven't heard Chet's version of it...
But Im sure I wouldnt be able to play it anyway

I play it by banging around a few chords and singin along... it's a great melody..

Good luck with it...

Rick

Thanks Rick. I got it from The Guitar of Chet Atkins, an instructional DVD available at guitarvideos.com he made not so long before his death. The piece is actually not so difficult - there are no tortuous chord shapes or fast passages - it's just a heavyweight in terms of passing it all onto finger memory.