Doc Watson Flatpicking Shred!-Learn The Master's Classic Version Of "Billy In The Lowground"

Hey there, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today, and I've got a really cool lesson that I'm very excited to share with you. We're gonna be diving into a very Doc Watson-inspired version of an old classic fiddle tune called "Billy" in the low ground. So I originally heard this version way back in the day when we still listened to music on these things called CDs. And I had come across a CD called Foundations: The Doc Watson Instrumental Guitar Collection. And I'm so glad I came across that because that, that, um, that album, that little greatest hits thing, just had so many great versions of Doc just shredding some of these fiddle tunes and playing fingerstyle. And I will link down to the album and to this recording down in the video description here. But, um, at the beginning of the video, I played this pretty fast because I'm trying to keep up with Doc. He plays this really fast because Doc could absolutely burn. Even toward the end of his life, in his later years, he could absolutely burn it up. So anyway, I want to show you this here today because this, you know, learning this will do a couple of things. It's a, it's a great tune to add to your repertoire. It's a great thing to practice for your technique and for your timing. And you'll also have a couple of licks and passages that are great for moving around and adding to your vocabulary of bluegrass licks and phrases. So as always, hit the link down in the video description and in the top pinned comment to get the tabs for this, and let's jump into the lesson. All right, so, so at the beginning, I think on this recording Doc actually comes in and does like a— which you can experiment around with if you want to. I'm, I'm going to come in and just do— okay, so yeah, starting here with the A part, let me just kind of go through and play it really slow here for you, and then I'll break it down and analyze it a little bit more. So we're gonna do Okay, so at the beginning there, one of the things I always like to establish here is making sure that we're coming in on the right beat. And so what we'll do here, you know, remember, we'll play, you know, most of these bluegrass lead guitar ideas are played as 16th notes. You know, 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a. So at the beginning, we want to come in 1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a, 1. So let's come in on the and of beat 4. 1-e-and-a, 2 and 3 and 4. And then we'll go in using straight alternate picking, which by the way, if you'd like a lesson where I talk a little bit more about how to use alternate picking, you know, with 16th notes and, you know, doing downstrokes on downbeats and upstrokes on upbeats, it basically kind of simplifies the whole thing. Check out this video right here. But anyway, so we're gonna jump in, we're gonna come in on the and of beat 4 for the A part of Billy in the low ground. 1-E and a 2-E and a 3-E and a 4-E and a 1. Okay, so we're mostly using straight alternate picking through that. Um, we'll do, um, so that's just 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 Okay, all right. And then from here, we're going to go into this next little phrase, which is— okay, and we'll start that phrase with a downstroke. Okay, so we're mostly using straight alternate picking. Through that we'll do.

So that's just one E and two E and three E and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three E and a four.

Okay. All right.

And then from here, we're going to go into this next little phrase, which is. Okay. And we'll start that phrase with a downstroke.

use 2 downstrokes in a row. The rest of the time it's straight alternate beat. Okay, and then we'll go into Okay, so we repeat the first phrase again, and then we'll do— so that's down, so down and the hammer-on.

Down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down.

All right, and that's what we're gonna do for the A part here. Doc, just repeats that. Um, one other thing that I forgot to say at the beginning of the video, I think Doc actually plays this with a capo on the second fret and then kind of plays it— he still plays it out of a C shape, but it's technically in D. I'm not really sure why he was doing that. Most of the time when you play this tune, when you play Billy in the low ground, especially if you play it with a, like, a fiddle or a mandolin player, it's almost always played out of C. So, so I'd recommend learning it in C, but if you want to, you can throw your capo really on any fret and play these ideas out of a C shape and it'll work just fine. Sorry, I meant to say that at the beginning of the video, slipped my mind. But that's it right there. Doc plays it, I think, with a capo on the 2nd fret, so it sounds like it's out of D. Um, but, um, yeah, most of the time when you play this tune, it'll be, um, it'll be in C. Okay, so that's the A part here. Um, there's— we're not really going to do a whole lot of variation right here. We're just kind of sticking to the straight melody. So one more time, um, little 1 And 2, and 3, and 4, and And then we'll just play that again. Okay, so again, It's a really cool tune to learn. I like fiddle tunes that have 6 minors in them. I just do. So this one's really cool. Other tunes like Temperance Reel or Cherokee Shuffle or The Lost Indian, I like those too. But this is just a really cool tune here. But you can see how this is also fantastic for practicing your alternate picking technique and your timing as well. So there we have it with A part here of this, you know, kind of Doc Watson version of Billy in the Low Ground. Let's go to the B part, and Doc really puts his kind of unique little Doc spin on the B part of this. I love this. It's gonna go like this. We're gonna do Okay, so the, the first phrase of this B part here Okay, um, watch the pick strokes on that. That can get a little tricky. Um, so here's, here's what I like to do. So we'll do down, slide, down.

So we'll do—

so down, slide, down. And then after that, let's come back here and we'll do up, down, up.

All right, down, down, up, down, up. Down, up, down, up, down, up. Okay, down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

I find that just kind of gives us, um, you know, economy of motion, if you will.

Down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

Okay, so that's kind of the first phrase of this B part here.

All right.

Now the next little phrase will do— okay, and this is another one where you really want to watch your pick strokes on that. So that's gonna go like this.

We're gonna do down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. All right, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. Down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

Okay, so before we go on here, um, let's, um, let's just— let's kind of add those two phrases together there. Okay, so we're gonna do We do that again and let me call out the pick strokes as I'm playing it. Alright, so we'll do, um, down.

So down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. Okay. Again, down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

And again, referring to the lesson that I referenced earlier, most of the time when we're doing that, there's certain places where we might do 2 downstrokes or 2 upstrokes in a row. For the most part, we're wanting to keep our downstrokes on, say, the, like, the 1 and the and, the 2 and the and, and our upstrokes on the E and the, uh. And I'm saying that because we subdivide these into 16th notes. Again, um, check out this video here for a more in-depth explanation on, you know, where to keep your upstrokes and downstrokes rhythmically speaking whenever you're doing alternate picking. But anyway, so let's, let's again go back to that part of the B part here. I want to just put those 2 phrases together.

I'm going to do Okay, so again, down, so down, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

Okay, and now we've got this next phrase which is really cool. It's just classic Doc Watson.

We're gonna do—

love that. Okay, and then with that, that's going to be just down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, down. Okay, and then we're going to end it with this.

We're going to do—

okay, and so all I'm doing right there, um, 4th fret on the 2nd string, picking down on that, and then picking up on the, um, 1st fret of the 1st string, and we're doing it.

So 1, 2, 3, 4.

4 times.

Down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. And then down, up, down, up, down, up.

Okay. And then, um, Doc just repeats that. He just plays that twice. Um, and then Now the second time through, because he'll sometimes do this, you know, if you're going through and you're playing this and you find you're maybe getting a little tired, instead of doing— instead of doing that, you can just do almost kind of bend this, okay? And then that'll still— that'll still work. So one more time, all the way through that B part of Billy and the Low Ground will do. Okay, so there we have it. And again, you can reference the tabs here, but I mean, this is— this tune is pretty straightforward, um, but there's just a lot of cool things in here that I wanted to show. Oh, also, let's Let me show you the ending here, uh, that he plays, uh, which is really cool.

We're gonna do—

all right, which is just about as classic Doc as you can get. So that's just Um, bend that note just a little bit, and then you can bend that one just a little bit. This Doc had a— he had a lot of blues influence. All right, so one more time on this little outro here. So there we have it. Okay, so one more time, let's hear that whole thing up to tempo and with a backing track. Okay, so again, I'm playing it pretty fast. I think that was, that was somewhere around like 135 beats a minute. Which is pretty quick for this tune. But, you know, if you want to play it at that tempo, great. But this, this song also sounds great at slower tempos.

I mean, you can—

so yeah, this tune sounds great at faster tempos, and it sounds great at slower tempos as well. So feel free to experiment with that. And you know, just a couple of things here on the B part. There's a couple of phrases that are worth kind of looking into to kind of move around and, you know, add to your lick/phrase vocabulary. So, you know, that's a great one. So whenever I'm playing this, I almost kind of think in like terms of like a little C kind of root root inversion triad on the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings. So, you know, practice and experiment with moving that around. You can move it up 2 frets to D, E, F, G, which you might be listening to that and being like, wait a minute, I feel like I've heard another other young player use ideas like— oh yeah, Billy Strings. He uses ideas like that all the time. He has a very big Doc Watson influence. Um, like a lot of Billy's licks are very Doc-inspired. Speaking of which, like this one, you'll hear Billy use stuff like that all the time. You know, in Dust in a Baggy, he does a version of in G. Very Doc Watson inspired. Um, so again, and then you can, um, you know, like he does, you know, those are some cool ideas to kind of add.

And you can move that around pretty—

all very Doc Watson inspired. But remember this little— I love that because it adds a little bit of tension, but then you can resolve it after that. So, you know, you can do that anytime you're playing over a C, you know. And that just gives you a really, really cool kind of Doc Watson-inspired idea. So, all right, pretty straightforward here, but again, this is an amazing tune to learn. You absolutely want to have this as part of your repertoire because it's a fairly well-known fiddle tune, and so there's that. It's also great for practicing your technique because we're getting good alternate picking technique, and this tune sounds good at faster tempos, so you can practice building your speed with this tune. And then also there's some licks and phrases in here that you can kind of mess around with, and you can practice moving those around and playing them over different chord changes, and you can start to add, you know, to your, to your vocabulary of licks and phrases that you can kind of delve into whenever you're coming up with your own solos and your own leads there. So anyway, I love this tune. I love this version by Doc Watson. Again, I've got those links down down below in the video description. As always, thank you for hanging out today. Um, hit the video description to get the tabs for this, and I will see you next time.