Chords for How to Play "Drifting" - Intro Breakdown - Andy McKee Guitar Lesson

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Okay, folks, so let's take a look at what's going on with drifting.
So it's in dadgad
That's where we should probably start what that means is the tuning from low to high is D a D G a D
So your sixth string goes down to D
Your fifth string is [Gb] an a [Ab] like usual your [B] fourth strings of D like usual your third strings of [Ab] G like usual
But then your second string [Gb] goes down a whole step to a [G] and your first string goes down a whole step to D
Dadgad it's a D suspended fourth chord.
It's kind of a common altered tuning _ _
_ Guy that [Dm] I really love Pierre Ben Susan uses this tuning exclusively.
He's got a course here on true fire as well
which is worth checking out and
anyway, so it sounds like this from low to high you've got _ _ _ _ and
_ There's a harmonic on the 12th fret for you to hear that as well.
[A] So make sure you're in the old dadgad tuning to get started _ and
So as I mentioned earlier to most of drifting your left hand is over the top of the guitar neck and
This is a technique that I first saw
With Preston Reed a great player who's living [N] in Scotland now one of my big influences and in any case what this does for you
Is it allows you to hammer on?
Chords down here like like power chords
_ If you think of drop D on a standard guitar and you know
You do these power chords like that or you can do them now just by [F] hammering on
To the to the fretboard like [N] that and so you want to have your thumb on the back of the neck
_ And I usually stack maybe my middle finger on top of my index
To get a bit more strength and you just hammer these chords [Em] on [D] [Am] as we go throughout the tune _
And then [N] the reason why though, I mean it looks kind of cool and all that
But the main reason why you do that is so you can come over here and hit the guitar body as well
You get some clap sound effects this way and you can hit the face of the guitar up here with your fingers as well
So that's the whole point of having your left hand over the top of the guitar neck
_ And then your [Abm] right hand is going to be doing some [A] percussion as well.
And then also some tapping
And so you may have noticed on my right hand.
I don't really have [Ab] long nails except on my thumb
I've got a fake nail here, which helps with some strumming, but I keep these nails quite short for the tapping
_ [A] As I mentioned before too, I kind of [Gb] started out on the electric [G] guitar
So when I [Ab] decided to learn some Eddie Van Halen, you know riffs [N] and licks and things
I was trying to tap with this 90 degree angle and so I got really comfortable with that and then when I tried to get
In the acoustic guitar, I found that growing nails out was a real problem for me
So I keep them short to help with the the tapping on the fretboard
Okay, so if you're in Dan again, let's let's get started with this a bit
we're gonna start with a hammer on on the second fret of
Pretty much the the sixth fifth and fourth strings.
And [Gm] so we're gonna take those _
Hammer like [Em] that and we get this e
power chord [E] or e5
_ [G] Okay, so that's the first thing that happens and then we're gonna do a triplet with your ring middle and index fingers on the lower
Bount of the guitar on the side
_ [Gbm] like that
_ _ [Abm] Hear that?
[D] _ [Em] [D] You _ [A] want to come over with your left hand and hit the [Dm] face of the guitar?
[Em] _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ [D] _ _ [Em] _ _ [D] _ _
[Em] _ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ [D] _ Okay, _ hope you're comfortable with that.
Now.
The next thing you do is you [Em] syncopate that
_ [D] _ [E] _ [D] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ Okay, so now [Ab] we're getting [B] the the groove guy happening here
[Gbm] _ [Em] _
_ [D] _ _ That's the next move we're gonna clap [Ab] sound [F] effect here palm your hand hitting the side of the guitar
[Em] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
Okay, [Em] that's right on the fourth
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] Then we're gonna take your fingers again on the on the right hand and hit [Ab] the side of the guitar all at once all [D] three fingers
[E] _
_ [D] _ [Em] _ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
[D] _ [E] _ [D] _ _ _ [Em] _ [D] _ _
[Em] _ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ [Bm] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ Okay, so that's your first [Bb] measure
_ After that [E] we go again
[Bm] That [D] _ same [E] move power chord of [D] the e triplet face of the [E] guitar
[A] That and now I'm gonna use your thumb on your right hand to hit the [G] face of the guitar down [Em] the lower bound
_ [D] That that that that thumb [F] side
[E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [D] _ _ [A] That the second measure, okay
[Em] _ _ [F] _ [D] _ _ [Em] Okay [D] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [G] now right on the fourth beat of the second measure is an interesting technique [Abm] and one that I love to use
It's just got such a great sound you kind of get two effects at [Gm] once with this thing
It's called a slap harmonic.
And so we're gonna create a harmonic with your right [E] hand and we're also gonna get this sort of metallic [Ab] percussive sound
_ By hitting the strings against the fret, okay, so it's gonna happen right on the 12th fret harmonic node
I use the middle finger some people use the index see what works for you
But it's all in the wrist here and we're just gonna come down
slap the strings right on the 12th fret harmonic node and you're gonna
Primarily be getting like the second third and fourth strings to ring out
[G] _ _ _ _ Like that slap harmonic
So so [Em] you can hear the harmonic but you also get this [F] nice [G] metallic sound coming out [Gm] another percussive sort of effect
Right on the fourth beat
_ _ Okay
Right _ _
[Em] on the _ fourth beat.
Here you go
[Gbm] _ _
[D] One _ [Gm] more [Em] _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] time
[G] _ _ _ _
Okay, _ _ _ so that's pretty much the whole [Dm] intro to [Em] drifting the first measure
[D] _ _ [Em] _
[D] _ _ _ Like that [Em] second measure _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ Okay.
So now what happens after that is you alternate the slap harmonic between the 12th fret _ and
Either the 7th or 19th fret.
[Em] It's the same
_ Harmonic node actually I used to do it on the 7th by doing the 19th now just because you have to reach so far away
so it becomes [D] _ _ _ [Dm] And
_ Up there.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Okay.
So let's just do the first four measures [Eb] slowly and you can hear that the whole [E] intro part to drifting _ _ [D] _ [Em] _ [D] _ _
_ [E] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
like that Okay
_ _ So that just repeats once again, and then it goes into what I call [G] the verse part
I usually refer to my songs in song format, even though they don't have lyrics and I'm not technically
Songs I guess in that sense, but I think a verse and chorus and bridge [Gb] and all that
So so that's the intro [Fm] to drifting [E] and incidentally the ending of the tune is exactly the same
So you've already got that under your fingers.
Let's check out the verse part next _