{"id":118712,"date":"2022-06-13T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=118712"},"modified":"2023-06-03T16:01:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T23:01:29","slug":"video-lesson-the-secrets-behind-bob-dylans-inventive-acoustic-guitar-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/video-lesson-the-secrets-behind-bob-dylans-inventive-acoustic-guitar-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Lesson: Discover the Secrets Behind Bob Dylan\u2019s Inventive Acoustic Guitar Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First and foremost, Bob Dylan<\/a> is a wordsmith. His lyrics are the reason people still buy his records\u2014old and new\u2014and continue to flock to his concerts. His way with language is why every generation of songwriters since the early 1960s has studied his work. Dylan\u2019s words are what kept his 2004 memoir Chronicles<\/a><\/em> on the New York Times<\/em> bestseller list for 19 weeks. Yet, for all the accolades Dylan has earned as a writer, there is an aspect of his artistry that often gets overlooked: his great acoustic guitar playing. It\u2019s been there all along, for anyone who cared to notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 50th anniversary of John Wesley Harding<\/a><\/em>, an album that signaled the beginning of a seven-year period in which Dylan would record The Basement Tapes<\/em> and release a half-dozen largely acoustic albums, AG <\/em>decided to showcase his acoustic side. Of course, Dylan has expressed his acoustic side throughout his nearly seven-decade-long career. In this lesson feature, I\u2019ll take a close look at some of Dylan\u2019s deceptive chord moves, his fluency with standard and non-standard tunings, and his knack for constant reinvention. The music examples are mostly drawn from his early work. He\u2019s made a lot of great music in the ensuing years, of course, but his relatively spare early recordings are where the fundamentals of Dylan\u2019s style are most easily heard and appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bob<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do Look Back<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1960s, at the beginning of his career, Dylan was an unabashed folkie. He wrote and sang of landmark news events such as the assassination of civil-rights activist Medgar Evers (\u201cOnly a Pawn in Their Game\u201d<\/a>), warmongering (\u201cMasters of War\u201d<\/a>), and social justice (\u201cA Hard Rain\u2019s A-Gonna Fall\u201d<\/a>). While honing his own material, the young artist also took it upon himself to become a walking compendium of traditional American styles, absorbing song after song. On his eponymous 1962 Columbia Records debut<\/a>, featuring just his voice, harmonica, and solo acoustic guitar, Dylan showcases his ease with such forms\u2014on the gospel song \u201cIn My Time of Dyin’,\u201d<\/a> for example, and Blind Lemon Jefferson\u2019s blues \u201cSee That My Grave Is Kept Clean.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbia released Dylan\u2019s second record, The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan<\/em>,<\/a> just a year later. It was a huge leap forward, artistically, featuring a dozen original songs\u2014including the instant classics \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d <\/a>and \u201cDon\u2019t Think Twice, It\u2019s All Right\u201d<\/a>\u2014as well as the traditional \u201cCorrina, Corrina\u201d<\/a> (featuring the ornamental second guitar of studio ace Bruce Langhorne). Freewheelin\u2019<\/em> closely followed the sonic template of its predecessor\u2014vocal, harmonica, and mostly solo acoustic guitar (often strummed close to the bridge to give a percussive effect)\u2014yet Dylan\u2019s guitar work is more confident and more varied than before. His continued development is evident on The Times They Are A-Changin\u2019<\/em>, <\/a>in 1964, with Dylan employing a wider variety of strumming patterns and some lovely fingerpicking on \u201cOne Too Many Mornings\u201d<\/a> (more on this song later). Another Side of Bob Dylan, <\/a><\/em>also released in \u201964, finds Dylan once again in solo troubadour mode. Featuring \u201cMy Back Pages\u201d<\/a> and \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Me Babe,\u201d <\/a>the entire album, incredibly, was recorded in just one long, late-night session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1965, Dylan did something that many fans and critics never saw coming\u2014he went electric, donning a Stratocaster at the Newport Folk Festival. Backed by electric guitarist Michael Bloomfield and other members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Dylan\u2019s amped-up set caused an uproar. That same year, he released not one but two<\/em> albums pulsing with rock \u2019n\u2019 roll energy\u2014Bringing It All Back Home<\/a>,<\/em> in March, then Highway 61 Revisited<\/em> <\/a>five months later. The double-LP Blonde on Blonde<\/a> <\/em>was released in May of \u201966 and features several of the songs that would later become Dylan\u2019s calling cards, including \u201cVisions of Johanna\u201d<\/a> and \u201cJust Like a Woman.\u201d<\/a> He returned to Nashville and released John Wesley Harding<\/a><\/em> at the end of 1967. Though the album features a small backing band\u2014bass, drums, and occasional pedal-steel guitar\u2014the tone is spartan compared with the three energized releases that preceded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bob<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Higher & Higher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dylan\u2019s acoustic guitar chimes clearly throughout each song on John Wesley Harding<\/em>. He sometimes achieves this by using a capo to move his voicings farther up the fretboard than you might expect\u2014presumably so his chords won\u2019t get lost in the mix. The higher-register guitar also frees up more latitude for his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine\u201d<\/a> is a good example of his use of a capo on John Wesley Harding<\/em>. The song is in the key of F major. Dylan could\u2019ve played it in E with his capo at the first fret, or in D with the capo at the third fret\u2014but he plays the song in C with the capo at the fifth fret. (The recording also features a second acoustic-guitar track, much quieter in the mix, played in a lower position.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1<\/strong> is in the style of \u201cI Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the album\u2019s title track is in the key of F and played in C with a capo at the fifth fret. The track \u201cAs I Went Out One Morning\u201d <\/a>is in the key of F# minor, played in D minor, with a capo at the fourth fret. An interesting aspect of the specific voicings in Ex. 1 is that two of them\u2014F\/C and D7\/A\u2014have the fifth in the bass instead of the root. (The note C is the fifth degree of the chord F; A is the fifth of D7.) Dylan has used this inverted harmony repeatedly throughout his repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bob<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Never the Same Way<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unlike many singer-songwriters, Dylan has never been precious about performing his songs live the same way he recorded them. \u201cDesolation Row\u201d<\/a> is a classic example. On the original studio recording\u2014from Highway 61 Revisited<\/em>\u2014he plays this epic three-chord song in drop-C tuning (C A D G B E), with a capo at the fourth fret, sounding in E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 2a<\/strong> is similar to the first four bars of each verse section of \u201cDesolation Row.\u201d This particular tuning and capo setup gives Dylan a sonorous low-C bass note, even though he\u2019s four frets above open position. It also makes it easy to grab the harmonically ambiguous Cadd4 by adding his fourth finger, which he does consistently on this version of \u201cDesolation Row.\u201d(It\u2019s worth noting that the Highway 61 Revisited<\/em> recording of the song features Nashville session guitarist Charlie McCoy, who provides tasty acoustic-guitar fills from start to finish.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dylan played at Manchester Free Trade Hall in the UK during his 1966 world tour. A bootleg recording of the show has circulated ever since, with the venue misidentified as the \u201cRoyal Albert Hall.\u201d Dylan\u2019s acoustic and electric sets from that night were officially released in 1998 as The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The \u201cRoyal Albert Hall\u201d Concert<\/em>.<\/a> His version of \u201cDesolation Row\u201d<\/a> from that performance is markedly different from the one on Highway 61 Revisited<\/em>. He plays the song at a slightly brighter tempo, in the key of D, in drop-D tuning. (Interestingly, he uses that drop-C tuning\u2014with capo at the fifth fret\u2014for a down-tempo rendition of \u201cJust Like a Woman,\u201d but not for \u201cDesolation Row.\u201d Example 2b<\/strong> is inspired by Dylan\u2019s \u201cDesolation Row\u201d verses as played at that show in \u201966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dylan performed \u201cDesolation Row\u201d <\/a>during his 1994 appearance on MTV Unplugged<\/em> (later released as a live album<\/a>), he took a different approach to the song altogether. Here, he\u2019s in the key of D, in standard<\/em> tuning. Backed by a five-piece band\u2014including the tasteful Bucky Baxter on Dobro\u2014Dylan pares down his part to nothing more than palm-muted power chords, not unlike Example 2c<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pet Sounds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not unusual to find Dylan using and reusing a limited array of his favorite harmonic elements within each album. These may include particular tunings, chord progressions, chord voicings, and such. That\u2019s part of his genius as a player and songwriter\u2014that he can take simple musical ideas and rework them in seemingly endless combinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are ten guitar songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan <\/em>(an 11th track, \u201cBlack Crow Blues,\u201d<\/a> is played on piano.) Half of these ten are in the key of G, played in open position, using rudimentary chords. The album\u2019s rollicking opening song\u2014\u201cAll I Really Want to Do\u201d<\/a>\u2014is in G with a capo at the second fret, again using common chords. Three of the remaining songs\u2014\u201cMy Back Pages,\u201d <\/a>\u201cI Don\u2019t Believe You,\u201d<\/a> and the ironically titled \u201cBallad in Plain D\u201d<\/a>\u2014are played in C, using the capo for transposition to nearby keys. \u201cTo Ramona\u201d is also played in C, without capo. That\u2019s a lot of juice squeezed from just two humble pieces of fruit: the key of G and the key of C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main thing that sets each of these songs apart from all other three-chord songs is their knockout lyrical punch. However, Dylan\u2019s guitar work is rarely as straightforward as it seems upon first listen. If you take the time to really check out what he\u2019s playing behind his broadsides and ballads, you may be shocked by the nuances his hands are capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take, for example, the aforementioned songs in the key of C from Another Side<\/em>. On all of these, the home-base C chord is nearly always played as C\/G (Example 3<\/strong>). Placing the chord\u2019s fifth (G) in the bass, instead of the expected root (C), gives the chord an expansive quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dylan uses a similar sonority on \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind,\u201d<\/a> from The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan<\/em>. Played in G, with the capo at seventh fret, the song sounds in the key of D (Example 4<\/strong>, in the style of \u201cBlowin\u2019\u201d). The chord in bars 11\u201312 includes the open first string (E), giving the B minor triad a little extra bite. Subtle? Yes. But without this stepwise bass motion, the song would sound like a million other I\u2013IV\u2013V\u2013I songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To hear that fifth-in-the-bass voicing in another context, check out Example 5<\/strong>, loosely based on Dylan\u2019s \u201cI Am a Lonesome Hobo,\u201d<\/a> from John Wesley Harding<\/em>. In this protracted blues (a 19-bar cycle in lieu of the standard 12), Dylan propels the music forward by never letting the I chord (G) settle, toggling between G and C\/G instead. The effect is kind of Stones-y\u2014as if Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had decided to be folkies for a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Me Babe\u201d<\/a>\u2014from Another Side<\/em>\u2014Dylan uses that bottom-heavy chord form again. Check out Example 6<\/strong>, inspired by \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Me Babe.\u201d Bars 7\u201310 could be played as a static G chord; in this example, however, as in Dylan\u2019s original, there\u2019s a syncopated move to C\/G (bar 7, beat 4). That C\/G blurs the line between the I (G) and IV (C) chords. C\/G reappears four bars before the end of this example. There are a few other unorthodox chord voicings worth looking at here. Right off the bat, in bars 1 and 2, the D chord is rendered by fretting a common C chord two frets higher than usual, which lets the open third string (G) rub against the fretted F# on the fourth string. The Bm chord in bar 11 includes the open first string (E), giving the chord a little extra bite. As in the previous example, C\/G reappears here four bars before the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1993, nearly 30 years after the release of Another Side<\/em>, Dylan released an equally powerful solo-acoustic record, World Gone Wrong<\/em>. <\/a>On the title track, the songwriter works his understated magic again. As he did in \u201cI Am a Lonesome Hobo,\u201d Dylan builds \u201cWorld Gone Wrong\u201d<\/a> on an expanded blues form. In this sort of atmosphere, only three simple chords are needed to get the job done, but that wouldn\u2019t be very Dylan. Look at Example 7<\/strong>, inspired by \u201cWorld Gone Wrong.\u201d Notice the curious Cadd4 chord on the fourth beat of bars 2, 4, and 6? It\u2019s similar to the chord you saw in Ex. 2a (bar 1, beat 3). This particular voicing also could be called C\/F, as all three notes of the C triad (C, E, and G) are present above the bottommost F note. Regardless of the nomenclature, this chord upends the harmony every time it comes around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

E7\/D, the second \u201cmystery chord\u201d in \u201cWorld Gone Wrong,\u201d comes into play in bar 4. With its ear-tugging tritone interval (G#\u2013D), the chord sounds unresolved and misplaced. As in Dylan\u2019s original, the E7\/D here seems to be justified when you get to the F chord in bar 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more harmonic oddity appears in bars 15 and 16. It\u2019s unusual to find any<\/em> major seven chord in a blues song; in this case, it\u2019s an unexpected chord in an unexpected voicing, with the open second string (B) rubbing against the fretted C a half step away on the third string.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Joan
Joan Baez and Bob Dylan at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Are We Tuning, Bob?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As interested as Dylan is in the novel effects of unusual chord voicings, it\u2019s no surprise he uses alternate tunings from time to time. His early work features several songs in drop D (D A D G B E), including \u201cA Hard Rain\u2019s A-Gonna Fall\u201d<\/a> and \u201cMr. Tambourine Man.\u201d<\/a> He also favored double-drop D (D A D G B D), as you can hear in \u201cBallad of Hollis Brown,\u201d<\/a> and drop C (C A D G B E), in \u201cIt\u2019s All Over Now, Baby Blue,\u201d <\/a>\u201cSad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,\u201d <\/a>\u201cDesolation Row,\u201d <\/a>and other songs. In addition to those, Dylan has used a handful of open-chord tunings, among them open G (D G D G B D), used on \u201cI Was Young When I Left Home,\u201d <\/a>and open D (D A D F# A D) or open E (E B E G# B E), which he used extensively on Blood on the Tracks<\/a><\/em>. The final few examples in this lesson illustrate some of these tunings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 8<\/strong> is styled after Dylan\u2019s take on the folk-blues tune \u201cCorrina, Corrina,\u201d<\/a> from The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan<\/em>. It is played in open D (D A D F# A D) with a capo at the third fret, sounding in the key of F. The chord voicings in bar 2 reprise two Dylan-centric moves that you\u2019ve seen throughout this lesson\u2014G\/D is a triad with its fifth in the bass; Aadd4 is akin to the unsettled (add4) chords used earlier, in Ex. 2a and Ex. 7. Note that the guitar part is more active in bars 3 and 4\u2014in between the vocal phrase\u2014and less active while Dylan is singing. This helps the music feel conversational, with the voice and guitar exchanging phrases back and forth as the song rolls along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Blood on the Tracks<\/em>, Dylan pushed this same tuning style (though in open E) far beyond the folk-blues idiom, playing each of the album\u2019s ten songs in the same tuning (sometimes transposed, via capo). \u201cSimple Twist of Fate\u201d<\/a> is an example of how he developed a chordal vocabulary rich enough to match his narrative prowess. In Example 9<\/strong>, you can trace some of his \u201cSimple Twist of Fate\u201d maneuvers. (This example is written in open D with a capo at the second fret, so that you don\u2019t have to tighten your strings up to open E.) What\u2019s so different from the previous example is that this time the I chord is not made by simply sounding the open strings; instead, it is played a few frets above open position, in two variations. \u201cIn bar 1, the D chord\u2019s fifth (A) is doubled on the fretted third string and on the open second string. Note the slightly different harmony in bar 11, where the D chord\u2019s third (F#) is doubled instead of the fifth. This two-finger version of D makes it a little easier to get to the next two-finger chord shape, the colorful Dmaj9. Check out the two deceptively simple moves in bars 12 and 14. Lifting your finger off the second string in bar 12 changes G\/B to Gadd9\/B, while the same lift converts A9sus4 to A7sus4 two bars later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Example 10<\/strong> is reminiscent of \u201cOne Too Many Mornings,\u201d<\/a> from The Times They Are A-Changin\u2019<\/em>. The open-A tuning (E A C# E A C#) is novel, one that Dylan rarely uses. You may be unfamiliar with it\u2014most players are\u2014but it\u2019s pretty intuitive once you get a few simple shapes under your fingers. Once again, the use of A\/E (triad with fifth in the bass) has Dylan\u2019s fingerprints on it. The harmony in the last few bars (Bm11\u2013A\/C#\u2013Bm11) is also elusive. There\u2019s a slight similarity between the melody and structure of this song and that of the title track. Thanks to the alternate tuning in \u201cOne Too Many Mornings\u201d (\u201cThe Times They Are A-Changin\u2019\u201d is in standard) and a burbling fingerpicking pattern (\u201cThe Times\u201d is strummed), the two songs have an entirely different feel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Guitar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Dylan has shown time and again, it\u2019s not the broad strokes that make a song special. It\u2019s the details. Some details aren\u2019t meant to be noticed, but they can shine like diamonds once you know where to look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n

\nThis article originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine and was reprinted in the September\/October 2020<\/a> issue.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Dylan’s great acoustic guitar playing is often overlooked. Here we showcase his deceptive chord moves, his fluency with standard and non-standard tunings, and his knack for constant reinvention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":118720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Bob Dylan's great acoustic guitar playing is often overlooked. Here we showcase his deceptive chord moves, his fluency with standard and non-standard tunings, and his knack for constant reinvention.","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":[1658,1152],"tags":[1126],"ppma_author":[1578],"class_list":["post-118712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-play-like","tag-september-october-2020","post_format-post-format-video"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/SN63044.jpg?fit=750%2C942&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1578,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"adam-levy","display_name":"Adam Levy","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Adam-Levy_-Clandestino.00_11_15_36.Still002.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Adam-Levy_-Clandestino.00_11_15_36.Still002.jpg"},"user_url":"https:\/\/www.adamlevy.com\/","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Adam Levy is a first rate sideman, singer-songwriter, educator, and journalist. Check out his excellent lessons in Play Guitar Like the Great Singer-Songwriters<\/a><\/em> and String Theories<\/a><\/em>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118712","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138299,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118712\/revisions\/138299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118712"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=118712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}