Lesson Plan

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Lesson notes

James Taylor wrote Millworker for the Broadway musical Working. It was unusual from a couple angles, it was written from a 19th century woman’s perspective, and it came to him very quickly once the story unfolded.

He recorded it on his 1979 album Flag and it uses some of his normal fingerpicking techniques but something he rarely uses as well, chord changes over a constant bass note.

It is done in Dropped D tuning and includes some light strumming along with alternate bass picking and playing the same bass note on the last beats of a measure without hitting it again on the first beat, which is where the chord is played.

The chord shapes are relatively easy but the right hand may be a bit challenging to get it to sound smooth.