Walk on Boy - Doc Watson Style #2

Learn to play "Walk on Boy" on guitar in the style of Doc Watson - up the neck! In this one he plays up the neck and down. A few things will help you tackle this tune with more ease and interpret with more musicality. Practice your A minor scales in 1st and 5th position. That helps familiarize you with a lot of the notes being used. Make sure you know the basic melody. It's easy to lose track of that in the barrage of notes he plays if you don't have the melody memorized and internalized. Also, make sure you can navigate the chord changes with simple strums and boom-chucks. If you don't know how to play basic bluegrass rhythm then check out our learning path for that.

Engage the swing feel in the playback tab. Doc always played with swing feel on this tune. Listen in Tunefox with the swing feel engaged, and without, to hear the difference in timing and feel.

Follow the suggested fingerings in the guitar tablature and remember to use the focus feature to work on this in pieces. Because this one is challenging some extra mental practice will help. Read and listen before playing regularly at slow speeds. This will help you understand how it's supposed to sound. Listen to the original recording as well. Use the focus feature to listen to and practice individual measures, groups of measures, or sections.

There's a lot of cool elements in Doc's solo here. The blues scale is used very frequently. He also seamlessly blends rhythm and lead playing, combining boom-chuck, alternating bass, cross picking, walking lines, triplets, melody, and of course some hot licks!

Explore more Walk on Boy Guitar Tabs:

Melody, Melody - Up the Neck, Playing the Syllables, Bluegrass, Up the Neck, Doc Watson Style, Rhythm & Fills: Doc Watson style, Rhythm & Fills: Doc Watson style #2