#1
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playing rhythm guitar with fiddle tunes
So I'm trying to learn to play rhythm guitar at jam sessions where they play a number of fiddle tunes I don't know so I'm basically lost most of the time. I have a book of fiddle tunes with mp3 recordings of the tunes - so I don't know if I'm better off playing along with the tunes while reading the chords from the book or trying to figure it out as I go without reading the chords from the book - it's much easier reading them but I don't know if I'm really learning how to play along by ear - my goal is to be able to play a tune I've never heard before at a session by figuring it out by ear in the moment - I see others who are real good at it and I would love to develop that skill but just trying it by ear alone is so far a disaster. - ideas ?
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#2
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If you don't know the tunes already, there's nothing you can do (in the live situation)! Not without having a really good ear, and even then you might have to wait until you've heard the sequence through, and can hear it repeating.
The people you're watching who can do it either know the tunes already, or they are doing the above: listening first. Or - if they are really familiar with the genre - they may be able to pick up cues about where the changes are likely to come and what they're likely to be. After all, there's rarely any more than four chords, and often only three. They might be trying some partial chords here and there, or single notes, to feel their way into fuller chords. It's easy enough to pick up the key with a few judicious trial notes. (Bearing in mind that the most likely keys are the easiest ones, like G, C, D and their relative minors.) For practising, your ear will improve all the time you play the tunes, whether you're reading from a book or not. Obviously it's better training if you can work purely from MP3s - it's harder of course, but much more like the real situation. But if you find you can't do it - or can't do it well enough - just keep playing from the book. It's all going into your ears anyway, so it will stick eventually. Naturally, make sure you're listening as well as reading!
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. |
#3
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Fiddle tunes often have a A part and a B part, with A, A B, B being a common arrangement. (though, of course this is not always the case)
If there are other guitars, ask what the changes are. I do this often on songs I don't know (of which there are many) and generally play quietly in the back until I get comfortable (which does not always happen - sometimes I mute the strings and chop similar to on a mandolin quietly) Sometimes I can also follow by watching the chord changes on another guitar, or mandolin, or banjo as well, though this can be tricky if you don't know the basic chords on the other instruments. Good luck and hang in there! I understand completely where you are at.
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scoTt Various stringed instruments |
#4
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To add to what's been said above, most fiddle tunes are in A or D. Many of them can be accompanied by I, IV and V chords (A, D and E in the key of A). (Some guitar players would accompany a tune in A by playing in G with a capo on the 2nd fret.)
Most tune sections are 8 bars, with a V - I cadence at the end of the section; in some tunes, the V chord is the only change. Having said all that - some of those fiddlers play pretty fast, huh? D.H. |
#5
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I spent fifteen or so years playing tunes in traditional sessions. First on mandolin and then on fiddle. I'd been playing guitar for decades so I could have played chords but I wanted to play the tunes and guitar can't cut through playing tunes in a session.
JonPR is right. learn the tunes, or some of them, first. You need to have the tunes in your head if you want to get the chords right. You should go to sessions and sit where you can watch the guitarist. See if you can figure out what he is doing. In UK traditional tunes sessions a guitar player is pretty low on the totem pole. Not as low as a drum or a five row accordion playing at full blast but pretty low. Even one guitarist in a session was sometimes too many if he or she did not get it right. Some time spent watching, listening and learning will be of use. At the end of the night, or during a break, you might try striking up a conversation with the guitar player and maybe ask for advice. |
#6
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Check out the book Celtic Backup for all Instrumentalists by Chris Smith. Not just for guitar, so you need to read music, but it's mostly about strategy. This one includes a "15-point plan" for developing an accompaniment approach for tunes. There's also Irish Traditional Guitar Accompaniment by Gavin Ralston. I'd say any of the concepts here could apply to non-Irish fiddle tunes as well.
reenforcing JonPR's points, some years ago I interviewed Jordan McConnell of the Duhks. I had watched him playing really nice rhythm in a long jam session earlier and I asked him if he knew all those tunes. He said no, but that he was just sort of laying low listening the first time thru, then dipping his toe in slowly. He of course listens to and has played enough of these that he has a sort of feel for where most tunes are going, even if he doesn't really know the tune. He also used DADGAD and was playing all kind of washy open string, nebulous-sounding chords, so he was able to create interesting rhythms with harmonic motion, but without the kind of commitment that would risk sounding like a wrong chord. This was for Acoustic Guitar, and he gave me a pretty interesting demo, but I don't think the article is online anymore.
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#7
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Gentlemen - your advice is very encouraging - thank you - just what I needed
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#8
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#9
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Try to get the sheet music and look at the time signature. If it's 4/4 or 3/4 then it is very straightforward. Jigs are in 6/8 and may require a bit more attention not to get lost, for those a straight DUD DUD strum should suffice
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#10
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A couple of useful sites that have various combinations of notation, tab and chord progressions for fiddle tunes:
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/ https://www.folktunefinder.com/ D.H. |
#11
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Right. You got to burn those melodies into your brain.
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#12
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Quote:
I definitely think your best bet is to play along with recordings or backing tracks. Once you’ve done that for a while you start to get a feel for how certain changes sound an you’ll start hearing them in other tunes. It’ll do no harm to occasionally pick something you don’t know and see if you can pick the chords out by ear too. The podcast of mine (Bluegrass Jamalong) has tracks of me playing just the tune, specifically so you can practice playing the chords behind it. All of this is a skill you learn over time so don’t expect to just be able to do it. Good luck and enjoy it! |
#13
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Quote:
In A - A, Bm, D, E, F#m For C - C, Dm, F, G, Am D - D, Em, G, A, Bm G - G, Am, C, D, Em Total of 11 different chords. Fiddle tunes almost always start and end on the I. Notice how the ii is always the relative minor of the IV ? You can frequently substitute one for the other. It's simple song structure (some would say music theory, but there's nothing theoretical about it). |
#14
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Quote:
thread... ... seems like a good resource for us bluegrass newbies who want to fit in down at the weekly bluegrass circles... I'm sure there's other backing tracks around, but there's a good selection of typical songs there. I have a handful I've been working on the melody to, and had fun playing along to Whiskey Before Breakfast and Black Mountain Rag. The few I went through yesterday were at sane BPMs (70-85 or so)... "those guys on the albums" go at 100 or 120 I think ... -Mike |
#15
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Thanks Mike. I figured people would want manageable tempos for these tunes because I did! Also, I’m on this journey along with everyone else and I can’t play them at 120 bpm anyway!
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