Chords for Fiddle Chords for Backup

_ _ _ This video is about playing chords on the fiddle.
And probably the most common time that you would be playing chords would be backup.
And I'm actually referring to like a bluegrass or folk or country musician here rather than
someone who would be playing classical and reading music. _
_ What I'm going to do is just show you some [Ab] simple chords.
And I guess the technical definition of a chord is three notes.
We're going to be playing two at [N] the same time because on fiddle you can't play more
than two at the same time.
And so what we're going to do is we're going to start with just the open chords.
If you would like to play a G chord, you're going to be playing the G string and the D
string at the same time.
And you're just going to play them open.
_ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] Now if you're playing [D] backup and you're doing what's [N] called vamping or chopping, there's
several different things that people call this.
You're actually going to do it close.
I would say usually about near the winding on your bow.
And some people pull, some people push.
_ I pull when I do this.
And you're just going to barely touch [G] the strings. _ _ _
_ _ _ And you do [N] that on the up beat or the off beat.
So if you're tapping your foot, _ it's not going to happen when your foot hits the floor.
It's going to happen when your foot comes up.
So [G] it's_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] If you're watching the guitar player and he's doing a straight _ strum, what we call a boom
chuck, you would play on the chuck.
So the guitar player's going [D] boom, chuck, boom, [G] chuck, boom, chuck.
You're going to follow that chuck.
Boom, chuck, boom, chuck, boom, chuck, boom, chuck. _
_ [Fm] I'll give you an example with the [E] song after we learn a few more chords.
[G] The second chord that I want [Gm] to show you is the D chord.
The D chord's going to be the [G] open D and open A [D] strings.
_ _ _ _ [E] And then the [Ab] last open chord that I can show you is the [G] A chord, and it's going to be the
A and E [A] strings.
_ _ So if [Ab] you're having trouble remembering that, but you know the names of your strings, the
name of the chord is going to be the name of the lower string that we're playing.
So if you want a G chord, you play the G string and the next [G] one over.
_ _ If you want a D chord, play the D string and the next one [D] over to the right. _
[Eb] If you want an A chord, play the A string [Am] and the next one over to the right.
_ _ _ _ [N] _ One other chord I want to show you, this is a C chord.
And by the way, there are lots of different places to [Ab] get these chords.
I'm just going to show you one place for [G] today.
But for the C chord, probably the [N] easiest one to play is put your first finger on the
D string, and then you're going to play a low two on the A string.
So D string is [C] here. _ _
_ A string is here. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Ab] And that would be your C chord. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] Now let's say we were playing in a song and let's just pick, we'll pick a two chord song.
I'll pick Skip to My Lou.
And I'm going to do it in the key [G] of C.
So we're going to play C and G.
We're going to use our open [C] G.
_ [G] _ _ One, two, three, four.
[C] Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
[G] Skip, skip, skip to my Lou.
[C] _ _ _
Skip, _ _ _ [G] skip, skip to my Lou.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
Now let's say we wanted to do a song like Worried [N] Man Blues.
And I'll do this in G even though it's kind of high for me.
This has three chords.
You'll be playing your open G, then you'll be going to C, you'll be going back to G,
and [Ab] then you'll be going to D.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
It takes a worried man _ to sing a worried _ song.
C.
[C] It takes a _ _ _ _ worried man to sing a worried [G] G song.
_ It takes a worried man _ to sing _ _ _ _ a worried D. _
Not [D] _ _ _ _ worried [G] anymore. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ And I think a lot of that's easier to hear if you've got more going on.
This is just one type of backup.
There are a lot of different things that you can do with backup.
This is just a real simple way to back things up.
It works great for fast songs.
It also keeps the fiddle from doing too much so that it gets in the way.
This way it won't get in [E] the way with anything else that's happening.
_ _ [G] And should be a real easy way for you to kind of get into playing some backup. _
[N] Let me show you a few other chords so that you know what they are.
So if you want to play, you can find them.
_ _ We did G, _ D, A, and C.
So let's talk about [Bm] where you might find a B chord.
_ The B [N] chord is going to be on your A and E strings.
And you're just going to finger that at the first [Ab] position.
_ _ _ _ That's your B chord. _
_ [N] We did C, we did D, and E chord.
_ Just move your finger over to the two middle strings.
So you've got first position on D and A [E] now. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] And _ if [G] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [Eb] you want an F [Ab] chord, go to a low two _ on _ [Dm] D and A.
And you'll have your [Fm] F chord. _ _
_ _ [N] _ So if we start [Bb] at the beginning of the alphabet, [G] you've got A [A] here. _ _ _
[Bm] B is at the first position. _ _ _ _ _
C is going to be found at _ D1 and A low two.
[E] _ _ _ _ _
D is [D] open. _ _ _ _ _
[Bm] E is first position on D and A.
[E] _ _
_ F is low [Fm] two. _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ And [Em] G is low, going to be open D and [G] G. _ _ _ _
So there's one place [Gb] you can find all the notes.
I didn't show you any flats or sharps, but those are your major chords.
And hopefully that will help [D] you out.
You'll be able to play along with another jam session.
_ _ [N] _ _ _