How to Play Jolene on Guitar (Dolly Parton)

Here's how to play Jolene by Dolly Parton on guitar.

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[bwanagary]

Thanks Chris. I fingerpick quite a bit and recently decided I wanted to learn this song. I did what I always do, listened to a bunch of versions and began my quest. I realised that from the original up until today, Dolly has performed slightly different versions of the tune, often depending on the musicians she's performing with. I had two principal observations: a) Dolly dropped the original C#m key a semitone to Cm (probably age :-) ) and there are typically at least three guitar parts in her performances - bass guitar, guitar #1 and guitar #2. All three guitars play different parts, making the intro and picking bits challenging to reproduce on a single guitar. Even with respectable picking skills I typically wind up "synthesizing" a picking arrangement combining the salient features of each of the guitar parts. I'm usually satisfied with the outcome but the one I made for "Jolene" just didn't "work" for me. It sounded almost the same but it just didn't feel right. So, googling around I found your video clip and loved it. So, I'm dumping mine and I'm going to (ahem) borrow yours :-). I don't know from which recording of performance you distilled this arrangement, but, no apologies, your version is noticibly more fluent than mine. From one picker to another - thanks a ton! (Oh yeah, I don't read Tab or Notation (anymore) - I always do it by ear) - so this version *with* and instructional video was a super bonus. Again - thank you!

[petestorms]

Great lesson again Chris. After three days my picking hand did what I wanted, now to get it up to speed...

[andyman]

Can't thank you enough. Some people just have the gift of teaching and you've got it. Been playing this in a strumming pattern until I couldn't take it anymore... you're video has helped me to bring it up a notch!

[leeharveygriswold]

This guy is so GOOD at teaching. Well done mate, very well done.

[Isaactopia]

This song is definitely on my list of songs I'll eventually learn. Awesome tutorial as always!

[Someone-lcdc]

Nice to see this one here! I’ve only discovered Jolene very recently and I absolutely love it. Any chance you could teach us an arrangement with vocal lines transcribed onto guitar? Do you have a course on how to do arrangements like that?

[comino]

At 3:50 you mention putting a light hand on the bass notes to mute it, can you explain how is this done please? A total novice here. Also, this is a great lesson, I learned Hallelujah from your other lesson too, thank you for that 👍🏻

[camilacobo]

yo awesome tutorial literally one of the best YT teachers

[RachelFromEurope]

I finally know how to play it after two weeks. Thanks so much!

[mogouk]

How long does this take to get upto speed ? 😏