City of New Orleans - Jerry Reed / Chet Atkins style guitar lesson with TAB
Here's my original arrangement, a finger style version of the song City of New Orleans, written by Steve Goodman. I tried to follow the vocal melody so it could be played with or without vocals. I quickly walk through my thought process and give some ideas you could apply to your own version or implement with other songs. You can download the TABs and tracks above.
A Quick Tip
I tabbed this song out after I 'wrote' the arrangement and recorded it. One thing that made it easier for me to TAB (and should make it easier for you to read the TAB) was that I started by just tabbing out the thumb bass lines.
I've marked all the notes played with the thumb with a "T". This should make a clear distinction between the rhythm and melody. I suggest practicing the 'thumb part' first, then practicing just the melody. Like one of those 3D images you have back away from to see, the TAB will start to look different and will hopefully become more clear. You could use the interactive .TEF TAB and turn down the speed to as slow as you need. I've included three backing tracks at different speeds so you can build your way up to the video tempo of 97 BPM. Enjoy!