Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay- Otis Redding

“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was recorded by Redding twice in 1967, including once just days before his death in a plane crash.

Sitting-On-The-Dock-Of-The-Bay

Verses

Barre chords are used in the original recording.

With Barre Chords…

Using Open Chords

You could play a more basic version that only uses open chords. You can still provide some of the “walk”.

Take the chord/lyric sheet and instead of using barre chords, just use the open chord form of the chords listed:

G                      B7
Sittin' in the mornin' sun
        C                        A
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes
G                       B7
Watching the ships roll in
           C                    A
And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah

Here we go, just using open chords:

But, what about that cool walk from the C chord down to the A chord as found in the original transcription?

We can even add an additional walk from the G chord up to the B chord:

You’ll Be Mine- Stevie Ray Vaughan

This is a Vaughan rendition of a Willie Dixon song. The verses and bridge are 16 bars (or measures) long instead of the standard 12. It’s blazing fast too, at 184 beats
per minute. There is a heavy use of muted strings to create a percussive sound.

Intro



Stairway To Heaven Part 4

This interlude is easier to play than the main riff that we’ve already learned. There are two variations. In the first, the basic chord progression is C, D, Fmaj7, Am, C, G, D:

In the variation, in the last 2 measures, the chord progression is slightly altered with the G being replaced by D and it ends on Fmaj7:

Funny Fingers…

Here’s a look at how you might want to fingerpick it: