Chords for Here's How: Merle Travis' "Cannonball Rag" with Tommy Emmanuel

_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[A] _ _ [G] Greetings thrill seekers, this [F#] is Tommy Emmanuel
and this is [G#] Here's How.
And what I wanna talk you through today
is a little bit of Merle Travis's Cannonball Rag.
Now, I take a lot of license with this
and I hope that Merle looking down upon me doesn't mind.
_ _ I actually use Cannonball Rag for many reasons.
First of all, I love the [F#] tune.
It's the thumb pickers, finger pickers anthem,
but it's full of stuff that is really good for your technique
it's good for warming up, it's good for building strength,
it's good for building your time
and it's just great exercise.
So let me play it through one time for you
and it just like a [G] medium pace
and then I'm gonna show you the parts that I'm talking about
that you can use for exercises.
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ [E] _ _ _
[G] _ _ [E] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ [C#] _ _ _
[F#] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [A] _ [F#m] _ _ [C] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [C#] _ _
_ [Am] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A#m] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ all righty, enough of this fun.
Hey, I'm gonna [F] show you some exercises now.
First of all, just playing the head of the tune
which that's musicians [D#] talk baby
[E] and that's, _ _
_ [Em] _ A, [Am] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ that's all it is, we're really just playing [E] chords.
E, A, [Em] _ _ [Am] D, _ _ [Em] _ G.
Now, if you wanna get really [E] technical, it's E seventh,
_ _ [A] it's A [B] seventh with a ninth in it,
now it's D [D] ninth and [G] then it's a G sixth.
_ _ That's the [E] basic shape, _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
right?
Then it [F] does this thing in D
and I [D] tend to play,
_ _ you get that honky tonk kind of [Am] sound. _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] Then it goes, this is how Travis originally played it
from the, _
[E] _ _ _ [G] _ okay, [D] _ _
_ [G] _ [Em] see that?
And then I do a variation on that the next time round
which I basically stole from [C] Chet Atkins.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [C] All right, so [G] if _ _ _ _ _
_ [C#m] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
you wanna [C] slow that down,
_ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [E] so _ this guitar was in tune when I bought it.
_ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ Play it around [E] and round and it works everything.
I can feel the blood pulsing through my arms
and through my hands when I play that
which means I'm working.
So what I tend to do is if I'm playing this as an exercise,
I play all the chords using this same technique.
So E, _ A, [Bm] _ [Cm]
D, [D] _ _ G,
_ [Em] back to E, A.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [Am] _ [G] _ _ [E] So I'm playing, I'm doing all this.
I'm also getting around the whole neck
all in one exercise, man oh man.
So if you take it up in tempo, _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ see I'm gonna break out in a sweat next.
So this is good for you.
This is good to practice things that are demanding
and it gets your mojo up, gets you [N] working
and you need that.
There's a chromatic run that I do.
Now _ _ _
_ [G] _ I'm playing that like a flat picker,
like a normal flat pick but I'm using my thumb pick.
I grab it like a straight [D] pick and I go.
_ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ Okay so these are some of the ideas that [G#m] I use
and I use Cannonball Rag as my warmup.
There's so many ideas there that you can take
from that one song.
It's a great warmup for you.
Well I hope you've enjoyed that.
This is Tommy Emmanuel saying thank you
and you can see more Here's How videos
on GuitarCenter.com.
See you soon. _ _ _ _ _ _ _