A Lauren Bateman YouTube guitar lesson teaching how to strum Otis Redding's 'Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay'. The video lists the major chords used (A, B, C, D, E, F, G), suggests easier alternatives for bar chords (power chords on top three strings for G, B, F; Fmaj7 for the bridge), and presents two two-measure strumming patterns: a simpler all-eighth-note pattern with chord changes occurring on the up-strum, and an intermediate pattern that adds two 16th-note 'hop' ornaments (one after beat 1 and one at the end of beat 2). The lesson also maps section progressions: verse (G/B split then B, C/A split then A), chorus (G/E split twice, G/A split, G/E split), and bridge (introduces D, C, F; plays on downbeat with suggested down-down-up-up-down-up rhythm). Lesson notes and patterns are available on the instructor's website.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiasts, we're going to learn how to strum Otis Reddings sitting on the dock of the bay. And I'm going to show you some easier options if you're someone who hates bar chords.
So we have a lot of chords in this song, A lot of major chords, too, which means we're going to be using a few bar chords. But I'm going to show you some easy fixes to get around that. If you're not very good at bar chords. But let's just talk about the chords we're going to be using. We are going to be using an A major chord. Okay. We're going to be using a B major chord. That's one of our bar chords. We are going to have a C major chord, a D major chord, an E major chord, an F major chord, and a G major chord. So basically, all of the major chords for every single letter of the musical Alphabet. Isn't that pretty cool? That's awesome. And I really like this song because if you're someone who really wants to get into practicing bar chords, you could play this entire song and as bar chords, but we're not going to do that today. And speaking of those bar chords, I mentioned that I would have some easy fixes for those. So if you're someone who's not great with bar chords, what I would recommend doing, and I'll show you an example in a little bit, is I would recommend for your G chord, your F chord, and your B chord to use power chords on the top three strings. So for G.
To B, then to F. Also for F, you could use the F major 7 chord. That's also an option. Now, I just checked my notes, and it looks like the F chord only comes in once in this entire song over the bridge. It comes after a C major chord. So an easy way to get into an F would be to play one of the F major 7 options for that bridge section. I think that's going to be the easiest way to get in and out of it, if you're not the greatest, with this F bar chord. So let's talk about the rhythms here. I'm going to give you two rhythm options, and then I'm going to show you how this is going to sound over the song. So the first rhythm option is going to be all eighth notes. Okay. And there is a bit of a timing thing we have to be concerned with with this song. If you listen, the song feels like it has, like a hop to it. And that usually indicates to us that chords are Changing over the up strum. So these strumming patterns are going to be two measure strumming patterns. Alright, we're going to have one measure and then the second measure is going to be doing something slightly different to accommodate for that change. So let's pick an easy chord change here. So we're going to be doing C major to A major. Okay, so let's take that first. Let's go over the strumming pattern and then I'm going to show you how to apply it to the chord. So the first strumming pattern, very simple, all eighth notes. All right. It's going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4. And that's the fourth first measure. Okay. 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and alright. And then the second measure is not going to have a down on the one. It's actually going to start on the up the and after one it's going to be and two and then three and four. And okay, so the second measure again is going to be 1 and 2, 3 and 4. And so if I put those together, this is what it's going to sound like. Ready? 1, 2, 2, 3, 4.
One more time.
Okay, great. So hopefully you understand how the strumming pattern is working. What we're going to do now is we're going to introduce that A chord and the A chord is going to change on the up after four. So the and after four. So it's going to sound like this. It's going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4. And okay, again, 1, 2 and 3 and 4. And one more time.
Okay, so you hear that it's changing on that up. And then the A chord is going to take the rest of the next measure. So it's going to be.
All right. So that was the easier strumming pattern. This is definitely not a song for an absolute beginner, but that's probably more of like a late beginner strumming pattern. Now I'm going to show you a little bit more of an intermediate strumming pattern. So depending for those of you guys who want more of a challenge, this is, this is going to be a great strumming pattern. If you're not looking for that challenge, that's fine. Just skip right over this part and go to the next section of the lesson. So what we're going to be doing in this drumming pattern is going to be adding two 16th notes. Okay. We're going to be adding one in the first measure and then one in the second measure. Let me show you. So we're using the foundation of the rhythm that I already showed you, which is that 1, 2 and 3 and 4.
And.
And 2, 3 and 4. And what we're doing is we're adding a 16th note on that first measure after the first beat. So it's one, a two. It's like a fast hop. One, a, two, down, up, down.
One, A, two and three and four. And.
I think this sounds a lot more like the actual recording, so I would probably stick with this pattern if you can do it. And then on the second measure, what we're doing is we're adding a 16 on the end of the second beat. So it's going to be. And two, a two. Okay, sorry. And two, a, three. Sorry. So it's. And two, a three and two a three. Okay. And two, a, three and four M.
That's a second half. So I put them both together and we're still going to change that A. That second chord is going to change on that up strum after the four. So it's going to be 1, A, 2 and 3 and 4 and. And 2, A, 3 and 4. And.
So go back and rewind that as many times as you need to to really figure out the pattern. Again. All of these strumming patterns and lesson notes are on my website. So if it really helps you to see this and sit with it and play with it for a bit, do that. Because now we're going to move into the actual song. Now, the great thing about this song is that the chord progressions are pretty repetitive for the verses and the choruses. So let's start with our verse. The chord progression, it's going to be G and B splitting a measure and then a full measure of B. And then it's C and A splitting measure and then a full measure of A. And then you're just going to repeat that. You're going to. Using the strum, one of the strumming patterns that I showed you. Now, the chorus section is mostly going to be G and E splitting a measure. Okay. We're going to do that twice. Then it's going to go to G and A splitting a measure, and then it goes back to G and E splitting a measure. So you can see the only bar chord we got right now is the B chord. And I'm going to show you what it's going to sound like if you choose to use that power chord option. So if you decide to use the power chords G and B, this is what that intro is going to sound like. It's going to or the verse is actually going to sound like one, two, ready.
So you can see, even using those power chords, it sounds pretty good. But now I'm going to play through the verse thin chorus in its entirety. You can using the fuller chords because you're going to get a much fuller sound. One, two, ready? And.
Here we go.
Sitting in the morning sun.
I'll be.
Sitting when the evening comes.
Watching ships roll in.
I'll watch them on again.
I'm sitting on the dock of the bay Watching the town fall away.
Oh.
I'm sitting on the dock of the bay Wasting time.
So hoping that gives you a good feel for the top timing of the verses and the choruses. But now there's something different that's going to happen on the bridge. We're changing keys and we're going to kind of change up the timing in the strumming here. So I want to make you guys aware of this change. So first thing, our chords are changing. We still have a G chord, but now we got the introduction of a D chord, a C chord and that F chord into this bridge. Okay. So just be aware of that. Now the timing on this, we do not have chords bleeding over into the next measure. So what do I mean by that? We have our G and our D chord splitting a measure and. And we're not hopping the rhythm anymore. We're on the downbeat. So for the strumming for those, I would just do 1, 2 and 3, 4 and. And then we have our C chord for full measure and I would just simply do the down, down, up, up, down, up if you want to. Okay. So that would be.
Looks like nothing's gonna change.
Everything still remains the same.
I can't do what 10 people tell me to do.
So I guess I playing the same.
And then back into.
Now if your goal is to push your guitar playing to the next level and really be able to play this song entirely as bar chords, I think sounds great. I'd highly recommend that you guys go check out my mini course bundle package where I have my power and bar chords, my step by step system for learning bar chords. But you're also going to learn lead guitar skills. 101 pentatonic scales, how to play solos. You're gonna get Music Theory 101 expressive rhythm. Really learning how to make your strumming come alive. And you're also gonna get finger picking 101 where you can learn how to play along and finger pick to your favorite songs. I'll put a link in the description below. Go check that out. And I hope to see you guys in a lesson video real soon.
