Learn the KILLER INTRO to Jolene | Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

Jolene. Please don't take him. Cause you can.

Hey, guitar enthusiasts, we're going to be going over a more intricate version of Jolene here. I'm going to show you step by step how to do the finger picking for the intro as heard on the album, as well as a finger picking pattern you can use throughout the song. Let's get into the lesson right now.

So this lesson goes out to Jack Waters, who's been battling me in the private community doing back and forth Jolene competitions. So, Jack, this one goes out to you. You guys can see we have a capo here. It's going to be on the fourth fret. Okay. And let's talk about the chords we're going to be using first. It's very repetitive. A minor, C, G and E minor. Okay. Some really nice, simple chords. So you can see our chords for this song are pretty easy. But that is the only easy thing about this intro is that the chords are easy. Actually, the intro is A minor. It's the only chord we're going to be playing. And we're going to go through it step by step here. There are some intricacies, but we're going to work through it right now. So when we start this intro, we're actually not playing any chords. Our hand is off the fret forward. And the most important thing to remember is the droning bass line. It's going to be 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. And it's.

Going to be alternating fifth string, fourth string. Okay? That's what we're doing.

And then we're going to be throwing a lot of notes in between that. But that is the premise of this. So if we're playing that A minor, that's what you're going to hear. Okay, now, now like I said, we're starting without any fingers pressing any notes. We're going to start by picking. Okay. We're going to pluck the thumb and the second finger at the same time. This is going to be the fifth string and the third string, your G string.

And then we're going to hammer down the A minor chord. But we're not putting the whole chord down yet. We're just putting down fingers two and three. Okay? So we have 1, 1E, 1E.

Okay, now we're going to play our bass note on the fourth string. And then we have our second finger on the open B string. That's why we didn't put that first finger down yet. Okay? So so far the four notes Are pluck hammer, bass note, open string on the B. Okay.

Those are our first four notes. So the next notes, the next kind of section of notes is going to be the open bass string. Okay. That fifth string again and again we're going to lift up our hand off the strings. That's why this song is really tricky. And this time.

We are going to hammer down the entire A minor chord. So it's bass note, pluck the B string and the D string at the same time.

And then you get another hammer. So from the beginning it's.

And you hear the timing on that is a little different. So we're actually holding that bass note out a little bit longer for an entire eighth note. Okay. So again from the beginning.

Okay. And if you notice I'm not, I'm only putting down the two fingers that I need for me that's comfortable. You can do the entire A minor chord. But I just wanted to make a note of that in case you're seeing on the close up what I'm doing. So that is the first half of the lick.

Now the second half of the lick, there's one more hammer that comes in. We're starting again at that third fifth string bass note. And we're going fifth string, I'll open B string, fourth string, G string. And that's going to be thumb, second finger, thumb, first finger. Okay.

Thumb two, thumb one.

Alright. So that's the third beat. Now the fourth beat. This is the entire lick. And then we're going to go through this and play through a little bit. So this fourth beat we're just going to put down the first finger of the A minor and. And we're going to pluck that fifth string and that B string at the same time. This time it's a pull off. And then fourth string G string of the second finger. So if I play the whole thing together for you guys to hear. Nice and slowly.

Now this song is 112 beats per minute. So this intro is flying. I will admit that this is even I could practice this. I practice it a lot. It is a little bit above my pay grade. And you'll notice that Dolly, when she sings, she. She doesn't play this. She actually has a professional guitar player who does this because it is so intricate. So my recommendation on this would just be to take it slow, just like that. And then slowly work up the speed. Now whether you can get the song up to full speed at 112 beats per minute like Dolly Parton's guitar player can. Awesome. If not don't worry. Those hammer on and pull off skills are great things to practice. Even at a slow speed, it'll really improve your finger picking. So now I'm going to show you a finger picking pattern that you can use use for the rest of the song. That's something that's very continuous. The original does have a lot of improvisation and a lot of changes. But this is going to sound really great over the song and it's going to work really well. So let me just play through what we're going to do from here on out. Let me take the verse.

Your beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of all your skin and eyes of emerald green.

And I'll show you how we can add in that huge camera on to kind of mimic and mirror the intro. But first, let's just talk about the pattern. So we're doing a Travis picking type pattern here. And again we're keeping that alternating bass line in there. Okay. And for the A minor chord, it's.

Going to be thumb, thumb one on.

Strings five, four, three. Okay.

Thumb, thumb one.

Okay. And then it's going to be outside.

Strings, inside strings, thumb two, thumb one.

So we did that on the intro.

So it's thumb two, thumb one on.

Strings A, B, D, G. So for.

A minor it's thumb, thumb one, thumb two, thumb one.

Now the C chord, it's gonna be the same exact thing because it's also a five string chord.

Thumb, thumb one, thumb two, thumb one.

All right, so that's gonna be 4, 5, 4, 3, and then 5, 2, 4, 3.

So outside strings, inside strings.

And then when we go to our G chord, this is where things change a little bit because six string chord, it's, it's pretty much still the same. We're just playing that top bass note and we do that on the E minor too. So for a G string or for the G note. So for the G chord, couldn't get the right word out. For the G chord we're going to do 6, 4, 3, 6, 2, 4, 3.

So thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1.

And same for the E minor chord when we get to it.

So if I take the chorus and then I'll show you how to add in that little extra spice, the Lahoren spice I'm going to call it. So let's take this one, the top of the chorus. Remember that the G chord is only two beats. All right? All these chords are two beats except for the A minor's on the M. We hold those for a little bit longer so we've got ready and.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

I'm begging you please don't take my man Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

Please don't take him just because you can.

So let's talk about how we can add in that extra little hammer on if you want to. I like doing that because, like I said, I'm not very good at playing that intro at full speed. And be hard for me to throw it into the sun, but I can throw this little spice in here. So what we're doing is we're starting out basically the same. So the first half of the chord is the regular Travis picking.

Okay. But the next time through.

We'Re gonna do a pluck like we did on the intro before. We're going to be plucking, lifting up the first finger on the A minor chord, plucking the fifth string and the B string and hammering down. Okay, so it's.

And then thumb one.

So instead of it being thumb, thumb one, it's pluck, hammer, thumb one. So we're just adding in an extra 16th note via the hammer. And then it ends the same.

Thumb 2, thumb 1. So we have thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, plus thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb one.

So altogether on that A minor we would have.

All right, so let's do a quick verse and chorus together so that you can hear how it's going to sound going from one to the other.

And he talks about you in his.

Sleep there's nothing I can do to keep but crying when he calls your name Jolene.

Now I can easily understand how you could easily tape my man but don't you know what he means to me? Jolene.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

I'm taking you Please don't take my man.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.

Jolene Please don't take them because you can.

So if you guys really enjoyed the finger picking aspects of this song, that I would highly recommend that you go check out my dust in the wind lesson right over there where you'll be working on this Travis picking technique a little bit more.