{"id":145212,"date":"2024-09-22T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=145212"},"modified":"2024-09-20T10:30:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:30:48","slug":"learn-to-play-the-doobie-brothers-roots-rock-anthem-black-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-to-play-the-doobie-brothers-roots-rock-anthem-black-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn to Play the Doobie Brothers\u2019 Roots Rock Anthem \u201cBlack Water\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Doobie Brothers - Black Water (Official Music Video)\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m4oZCtfmh44?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Great songs sometimes come about through accidental discoveries in the recording studio, and that\u2019s exactly what happened when Patrick Simmons, a founding member of the Doobie Brothers, was fooling around with his guitar between takes on a session about 50 years ago. When the band was making its 1973 album, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3zFdThC\">The Captain and Me<\/a><\/em>, Simmons happened upon what would become the main riff for \u201cBlack Water\u201d\u2014which became a single from their next album, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3S46X40\">What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits<\/a><\/em> (1974).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a mellow, riparian vibe evoked by a distinctive combination of acoustic guitars, fiddle, and a cappella vocals\u2014not to mention the Autoharp and wind chimes played by Arlo Guthrie\u2014\u201cBlack Water\u201d became an unlikely hit, reaching No. 1 on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Hot 100 in March 1975. It remains one of the band\u2019s most popular songs to this date.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The notation here shows everything you need to play the song. Begin by getting into double-dropped-D tuning\u2014lower both the first and sixth strings by a whole step, to D from E, using an electronic tuner if needed for accuracy. (For an intro to double dropped D, see the Weekly Workout in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/copy-of-no-342-september-october-2023\">September\/October 2023 issue<\/a>, or Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers\u2019 book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/dynamic-guitar-more-tools-to-go-beyond-strumming\">Dynamic Guitar<\/a><\/em>.) With a moody Am11\u2013D5 progression, the main riff in \u201cBlack Water\u201d is based on simple chord shapes decorated with slides and hammer-ons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the studio recording, this riff, heard in the intro, verses, solo, and other sections, is played on two acoustic guitars in unison. In the chorus, the instruments diverge to play interlocking parts in different positions for an appealing change of contrast and some subtly complex details beneath the surface. Note that the chord symbols here reflect the overall harmony\u2014in bars 13, 15, and 17, the notes A and G (the chord\u2019s seventh and 13th, respectively) suggest the Bbmaj13 symbol.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the electric guitar is synonymous with the solo in rock (and in many other Doobie Brothers songs), \u201cBlack Water\u201d features an acoustic solo that requires a bit of dexterity and finesse to play convincingly. The solo begins with a series of bends that can be tricky to execute on an acoustic guitar with a heavy wound-G string. You may substitute slides for bends to achieve a similar effect\u2014for instance, in bar 30, instead of bending the ninth-fret E up a whole step, just pick the E and then immediately slide up to the 11th-fret F# on the same string.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After you\u2019ve learned the main parts of \u201cBlack Water,\u201d while you\u2019re still in double dropped D, take the opportunity to explore the tuning\u2014you never know, it just might inspire your next song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to post notation or tablature for this musical work. If you have a digital or physical copy of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/back-issues\/products\/no-348-sep-oct-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">September\/October 2024<\/a>\u00a0issue of\u00a0<\/em>Acoustic Guitar<em>\u00a0magazine, you will find the music on page 5<\/em>3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-348-sep-oct-2024\" name=\"magazine\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 150px; height: 198px; margin: 0px 20px 10px 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/001_348_Cover-150px.jpg?w=1290&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Acoustic Guitar magazine cover for issue 348\"><\/a>\n<p style=\"font-family: sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px 0px;\">This article originally appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/no-348-sep-oct-2024\">September\/October 2024<\/a> issue of <em>Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This mellow 1974 tune features an acoustic solo that requires a bit of dexterity and finesse to play convincingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":145214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"This mellow 1974 tune features an acoustic solo that requires a bit of dexterity and finesse to play convincingly.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1653],"tags":[1951],"ppma_author":[1541],"class_list":["post-145212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sing-and-play","tag-september-october-2024"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Doobie-Bros-1976-photo-David-Gest-and-Associates.jpg?fit=1200%2C772&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1541,"user_id":24,"is_guest":0,"slug":"adam-perlmutterstringletter-com","display_name":"Adam Perlmutter","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Perlmutter","first_name":"Adam","job_title":"","description":"Adam Perlmutter holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. He is the editor of <i>Acoustic Guitar<\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145212"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145971,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145212\/revisions\/145971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145212"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=145212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}