Chords for St James Infirmary Blues - Acoustic Blues Guitar Lesson - Doc Watson

In this lesson we're going to take a look at St.
James Infirmary.
I actually didn't know this song, Tony turned me on to it.
It's a really cool tune.
Everybody from Louis Armstrong to Billie Holiday to Doc Watson
have done very, very different versions of it.
_ There's a lot of things you can do with this.
I'm drawn pretty heavily from the
Doc Watson version.
_ There's a lot of cool strumming patterns
and some cool chord voicings.
So, here we go.
_ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ [E] I wish I never _ missed [B] it.
_ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ [B] _ _ _
_ [F#] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ [Em] _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This all kind of comes out from one
pattern that goes on with your right hand that just keeps going almost all
the way through.
I'm going to show you that before we actually start.
So what it is, is you have
_ you're playing the
the bass with your thumb, _ then you have an upstroke with your first finger,
and then you kind of have a flick on the second and third [C#] strings
with your first finger.
So it goes upstroke with your first finger,
[Em] downstroke with your first finger, [F#] and then you have an upstroke
with your ring finger.
[E] So it all looks like this. _ _
[B] Up, down, up.
[E] Thumb, up, down,
_ _ thumb, up, down,
[F#m] up.
And you can kind of get that rolling.
[Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ So then, as you get that [E] down, you can start
alternating bass.
What that means is you're alternating between the root
and the [B] fifth of the chord.
The fifth is on,
for this chord, it's on the second fret of the fifth string.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ So [G#] the right hand keeps doing the same thing, you're just [F#] playing the
different root every time.
So you've got the root, and then the fifth, and then the root,
and then the fifth.
And then you keep the upstroke with [C#m] your first finger,
downstroke with your first finger, and then [F#] upstroke with your ring finger.
[E] So all together, one more time, it looks like this.
_ [C#] I [Em] missed that time.
It _ _ [B] _ _ [C#] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _
takes a little bit of coordination to get it down, but once you get it,
your hand kind of learns what it feels like, and then it'll kind of start taking control.
Then, really, all you're doing is you're passing chords with your
[Em] left hand.
So you've got the, _ [Em] _
_ you [C] know, then the C,
[B] _ _ [C#] _
_ _ _ [Em] B7.
But this really just stays the same.
You're moving your thumb around to get
the various roots, but that's it.
Here's the first solo of St.
James Infirmary.
You're going to start with your first finger on the third fret of the first string,
[G] to the fifth fret of [Am] the first string with your third finger,
[B] and then you're going to go up to the seventh fret of the first string with your third finger.
Play that twice more.
_ Now you're going to pre-bend the fifth fret of the first string,
and then release the bend.
See how I bend it up, [A#] _ strike the string,
let it come down, [G] and then play the third fret.
Now land on the [E] fifth fret of the second string.
_ The second riff is really similar.
You're going to start the same way.
So three, [Am] five of the first string.
Now you're going to land on the seventh fret of the first string.
_ You can give a little bit of vibrato.
And [G#] now you're going to pre-bend again, _ _ release to [G] the third fret.
Now you're going to hammer back on from the third to the fifth fret of the [A] first string.
_ Now the third riff is real similar.
You're going to do the same intro.
[Am] Three, five.
[Em] Now you're going to play the seventh fret _ five times. _ _
Now you're going to do that same bend.
You're going to pre-bend from [G] the fifth fret.
[A] _ Land on the third fret.
Now play the fifth fret [E] of the second string three times.
_ Now you're going to reach out and get the second fret of [F#m] the first string.
_ Now to the [G] third fret.
You can do a little [Bm] trill here.
That's all it is.
[G] It's just you're on the third fret.
Now you just [Bm] go down to the second fret of the first string.
Hammer on your third finger to the third fret and pull it off.
That's all.
And land on the second fret. _ _
_ _ [B] Now you're going to land on the fifth fret of the [E] second string.
[D] Third fret of the second string.
Now you're going to slide from the second fret to the fourth fret.
[Bm] _
Down to the [A] second fret.
Now pinky goes to the third finger, whichever you [G] prefer,
on the fifth fret of the fourth string.
[E] And then land with your second finger, or I'm sorry, your first finger,
on the second fret of the fourth string.
[C#] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ [C#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _