"Nitpickin'" by Mike Dowling, great for doing Chet style

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"Nitpickin'" by Mike Dowling, great for doing Chet style

Postby Jim Jarrell » Thu Jul 02, 2020 3:38 pm

Like other forum members perhaps, I'm always on the look out for new tunes to play Chet style on my Gretsch 6122 CG. Especially tunes I might have played in the past but never considered doing so on the Gretsch with muted bass, reverb, delay, et al. One I've recently been doing that works *great* in pure Chet style, and one I'm betting he would have loved and covered back his day is "Nitpickin'" by Mike Dowling.

Here's the tune by Mike on his CD, "Bottomlands."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcwebvHKZ2U

I have the tab for it that came in a 2004 Warner Bros tab/cd book "Mike Dowling, Uptown Blues (American Roots Guitar)." Alas, the book is no longer in print but the tab can be found here online.

https://www.sheetmusicnow.com/collectio ... p3-p451654

What's also interesting is the chord progression and right hand pattern used in the first 4 measures (Gmaj7 to C9/G) after the intro. You can see the first two measures at the tab link above. In that, the tune pretty much demands you use an I, M, A right hand pattern. Ergo, if you don't use your right hand ring finger to pick with, it's darn near impossible to play the tune, at least play it smoothly.

While I had never met or corresponded with Mike, I found his email address at his website, http://www.mikedowling.com, and asked him about the tune. More on that later and Mike's input regarding meeting Chet when he lived in Nashville. But it was interesting that when asked about the I, M, A right hand pattern that he said, (quote) "That 3 finger pattern is something I taught myself to do when trying to learn Chet’s “In The Mood.” Bingo! and one I suspect more than a few of us can relate to.

Jim Jarrell
DeLand, FL
http://www.tabpigs.org
Jim Jarrell
 
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:09 am

Re: "Nitpickin'" by Mike Dowling, great for doing Chet style

Postby Doug Working » Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:35 am

Thanks for the wonderful links!

What a toe tapper!

I’m definitely going to order the tab!

Thanks again!
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Joined: Mon May 19, 2014 9:38 pm

Re: "Nitpickin'" by Mike Dowling, great for doing Chet style

Postby Jim Jarrell » Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:29 pm

Doug, Yep, the tune is definitely a toe-tapper. And it has a definite "Chet-like" sound and syncopation to it. And probably because Mike Dowling was, like so many others, influenced by Chet's playing. Mike sent me this in an email:

"....I had the pleasure of meeting Chet when I lived in Nashville and spent an afternoon playing music with him in his office along with Johnny Gimble. Chet was one of my early influences and I remember us talking about the great George Barnes. I had the good fortune of studying with George in 1977 and George was one of Chet’s influences as you are probably aware. And so the music passes along. Back in high school I also had a Gretsch 6120 model guitar..."

So, as we all know, Chet's influence reached out to many!

Jim Jarrell
DeLand, FL
www.tabpigs.org
Jim Jarrell
 
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:09 am


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