Whereas Travis's right hand utilized his index finger for the melody and thumb for bass notes, Atkins expanded his right hand style to include picking with his first three fingers, with the thumb on bass. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939 when (while still living in Georgia) he heard Merle Travis picking over WLW radio. His half-brother Jim was a successful guitarist who worked with the Les Paul Trio in New York. Atkins was self-taught, and later in life gave himself (along with Tommy Emmanuel, Jerry Reed and John Knowles) the honorary degree "CGP", standing for "Certified Guitar Player". He became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. Forced to relocate to Georgia to live with his father due to a near-fatal asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession. He started out on the ukelele, later moving on to the fiddle, but traded his brother Lowell an old pistol and some chores for a guitar when he was nine. He created, along with Owen Bradley, the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music's appeal to include adult pop music fans as well.Ĭhet Atkins was born in Luttrell, Tennessee, and grew up with his mother and two brothers and a sister, he being the youngest. Atkins produced records for Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Connie Smith, and Waylon Jennings. His virtuoso picking style - inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes and Les Paul - brought him admirers both within and outside the country scene. You are a gifted teacher with superb tech skills.Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins (J– June 30, 2001) was an influential guitarist and record producer. Thanks again for ALL of the great lessons. Maybe it’s that I’m left-handed and I’m trying to do something designed for right-handed levels of natural dexterity. Very rewarding but don’t underestimate the struggle for beginning guitarists. It has taken me all week all day each day to develop the muscle memory in right hand fingers for this. (1,000 times)ĭrill #3: You get the drift - break the exercise into four sections - practice them independently then assemble them into larger modules. I spent the first eight hours or so discovering ways to dissect the motions into the following:ĭrill #1: Left hand pinkie on sixth string pluck string three then string four - do this 1,000 timesĭrill #2: pinkie on fifth string-pluck then pluck strings four(pointer) and two (ring finger) simultaneously. It would be a great benefit to the less adept like myself to present a four or five step set of drills that break this lesson into manageable chunks. I have been trying to master it six hours a day for the past five days and I am getting close. Hah! Bad by who’s standards? In every interview I’ve ever seen with Chet Atkins he seemed like such a humble, down-to-earth guy which is pretty amazing considering how powerful he became in the music industry. I remember hearing Chet say that he sounded like 2 bad guitar players playing at the same time. Because so much is going on with his right hand when he plays, it actually sounds like 2 or 3 guitar players. I must admit it’s nice to see that some areas of country music are heading back to their roots and bringing back the “twang” – sorry Chet.Chet is best known for his finger-style technique on his right hand, which always consisted of a walking bass line (his thumb), and a rhythm and melody (his second, third, and fourth fingers). To help increase country album sales, Chet helped create the “Nashville Sound” which was basically a movement to scrap all of the fiddles and pedal steel guitars and “twang” that had been associated with country music up to that point and introduce a more contemporary, “produced” sound with heavy back-up vocals from groups like the Jordanaires and even orchestral string arrangements. In the late 1950’s as rock n roll became more and more popular, traditional country albums sales were starting to decline. Chet worked as a session player and backed up several great acts in his early career before graduating on to a solo artist and then on to a prominent Nashville producer, producing acts such as Waylon Jennings and Elvis Presley. It wasn’t until I analyzed what was actually going that I began to realize what a genius he was.īorn Jin Luttrell, Tennessee, Chet Atkins was a pioneer that helped reinvent the guitar. I thought it sounded clean and simple and… well, nice. and to be honest, when I heard my first Chet Atkins album (my dad’s), I wasn’t immediately blown away. So you may be asking, what’s the big deal about Chet Atkins? When I first started becoming obsessed with learning the guitar I kept reading article after article about Chet Atkins and how he pioneered this or influenced that.
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