You Don't Get Around Much Anymore?

Don't Get Around Much Anymore is a classic. It was written in 1940 by Duke Ellington. It's a song been recorded by a ton of people,including B.B. King, Paul McCartney and Rod Stewart. It's a fun song to play fingerstyle.

What's going on in this free online guitar lesson?

The songs beginning takes a fairly standard approach. It uses the last measures of the song as the intro. The verse itself begins in measure 5. I've kept the song in the original key. This makes the melody in the verse start on the 12th fret. <<>>

It would be hard to play a chord there on some guitars. So instead of a chord, we'll use 10ths.

The next area to look at is measure 10.

The last note in the 10th measure is played on the 3rd string open. This gives you time to grab the chord that measure 11 starts with.

At the end of measure 11, use the middle finger of your fretting hand when playing the CMajor chord. Use the middle finger again to play the fretted notes in measure 12.

This puts your hand in position to play the walkup (ascending bassline) beginning in measure 13 with the same middle finger.

Why does this matter?

It matters because the middle finger will act as an anchor for the F Major6 chord in in measure 14. Barre across the first 4 strings of the 7th fret. When you go to the A Dimished chord, the 1st fingers fingertip will serve as an anchor point.

Play the D at the 10th fret of the 1st string with the pinky of your fretting hand. You can then use it for an anchor in the next chord. The rest of Don't Get Around Much Anymore is pretty easy to follow.

While the song is fairly simple, it can be challenging to play. The biggest challenge is playing it smoothly. If it isn't smooth sounding, it won't swing.

Here's the fingerstyle guitar tab http://www.mediafire.com/?jtg1rwnycgg

The guitar lesson video is below.

You can contact me with any questions.

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