At the time of his death, Redding still didn’t feel like the song was finished. “So he started whistling,” said Cropper, and the end result was one of the many instantly-memorable moments that stand out in the track.ģ. Okay, so maybe that’s the most diplomatic way to put it, but the fact of the matter is that Redding – per Cropper – had worked up “this little fadeout rap he was gonna do, an adlib,” and when the time came for him to work his verbal magic, he blanked. The whistling at the end of the song was the spontaneous result of Redding having a bit of a brain fart. In short order, Redding had scribbled down the words which would prove to be the first verse of a new song, one which – at least at the time – was simply called “Dock of the Bay.” He would contribute to come up with additional lines here and there while on the road, eventually sharing the various lyrics with guitarist Steve Cropper, who would not only finish them but also come up with a tune to accompany them as well.Ģ. Redding was the middle of a tour with The Bar-Kays, a band best known by children of the ‘80s because of an exchange between Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in Spies Like Us.Īykroyd: It’s “Soul Finger,” by The Bar-Kays!Ĭhase: They must be having trouble getting gigs.ĭuring the course of this tour, Redding was enjoying a leisurely evening on a houseboat at Waldo Point, one owned by his friend Earl “Speedo” Simms, when he found himself struck by a flash of inspiration. Picture it: Sausalito, California, August 1967.
Redding started composing the lyrics while he was on tour with The Bar-Kays. To keep you entertained between these two key moments in the song’s history, we hereby offer you 5 things about the classic track that you may not have been aware of, and we’ve also sprinkled in some covers of the song that you may not have heard before.ġ. And then we practice putting it together.Last month we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the release of Otis Redding’s signature song, “(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay,” and next month we’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the single hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. I have an easy F chord that I show you, you’re welcome to use either that or the F bar chord.Įither way, we practice through every single section of this song intro, verse, chorus bridge outro. And we also have to deal with a barre chord, the F chord. We do this just by using the first half, down down-up, on each of the two shapes within the measure. First of all, we’re splitting measures, meaning we have to split our strumming pattern among two chord shapes. Not too much needs to be said about that, but the bridge does have a couple things we need to take a look at. The chorus is very, very straightforward.
#How to play sitting on the dock of the bay how to#
We talk about how to count it out, learn how to play it, and then we move on and learn the rest of the tune. It’s a 16th note pattern, it’s twice as dense as the other one. I don’t recommend using this one if it’s a solo performance but if you do play with a band, this pattern is the one that they use and it sounds great. Then we practice putting it together with the chord shapes.Īfter that, just for completion sake, I’ve included another strumming pattern that you hear the guitar playing on the recording. My biggest advice is to learn how to say it, that’s going to get you there the fastest if you are having trouble with stuff like this. It’s the most common strumming pattern ever. We talk a little bit about switching between them and how to practice that effectively and then we play them in order, using downstrokes only, just to get the counting right.Īfter that, we take a look at a strumming pattern. The lesson starts off with the chords needed to play the verse: G, B7, C, A7. But even then, I will show you a simpler way to do it so that will be possible. Even if you’re fairly new to guitar, you could play each section of this song, except probably the bridge. It’s a classic strummer made up of some pretty simple components and a great opportunity to work on some lesser practiced chord switches, like from G to B7 for instance.