Chords for Maggie May (Mandolin Tutorial) - Tonedr

Let's take a quick look at the song Maggie Mae by Rod Stewart.
Big hit.
Certainly got the mandolin out there to the masses and pop culture with a great pop song.
So
maybe it's one that you'll enjoy playing and we're gonna learn here in a fairly quick way.
If you're coming
to the mandolin as a learner, a new, maybe a new player,
I think this is one you get under your fingers and surprise yourself at how quickly you got it down.
If you're a guitar player,
that's kind of what I am mainly and I wanted to add the mandolin to something that I can work on and enjoy.
So I'll try to draw some comparisons between the two and if you're, you know,
maybe a part-time mandolin player like me, at best for me,
_ this video will help you out.
So _
the strings on the mandolin if you're kind of new to it are just reverse of the guitar.
So you [E] have to think of your guitar upside down.
So our high string is [A] E
A [D] D [G] G
[E] E A D G from high to low.
All right.
So the chords that we're going to need for this, the chord bank that we're going to need to play the song,
there's about six of them, I guess.
We need [D] a D,
_ _ second fret G, second fret high E,
_ all strings, first and second finger.
_ _ [D#] G is a third [Em] fret high E,
second fret A, [G] all strings. _
_ _ _ [D] D,
_ [G] G.
_ _ We need an [A] A chord, so I'm going to give you two.
_ The [B] first one is a bar across the second fret with your first finger, fifth fret high E,
_ [C#m] fourth fret
_ _ of the A string.
[A] I'm using my pinky, my ring finger, my first finger.
_ Nice full A chord.
[D] D,
_ [G] _ G, [A] A. _
And the second A chord is like this.
_ Taking one fingertip and
pressing down the [Em] G string and the D [A] string.
_ _ _ And then getting all the string.
[N]
Some people will use two fingers to get that chord, finger [A] per string.
_ _ _ _ _ But you'll probably get it with just one finger.
D, [G] G, [A] A, A.
[Em] E minor we need.
So that's a second fret of
_ G, _ A, and E.
[C] And then the third finger, [A] the third fret, sorry, of the high E [Em] string with my middle finger.
_ All strings.
_ _ _ _ If we take that [F#m] up two frets,
[Fm] got an F sharp minor, okay?
E minor, [F#m] F minor, F sharp minor.
[F#] So that's the fourth fret of the E, A, [F#m] and G string.
Fifth fret of the high E, [A] and no bottom string.
It doesn't [F#m] fit with this voicing.
_ [D]
D,
_ [G] G, _ _ [A] A,
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ E minor, [F#m] F sharp minor.
_ _ [Em] _ _ [D] And that's the chords for Maggie Mae.
Okay, the intro is a D chord to an [Em] E minor,
_ to a [G] G,
_ _ [D] back to D.
Tom's Dude.
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ [A] _
New way [D] to do the verse.
_ [G] _ [A] _ _
Okay, some [Bm] people hear that as a D, G, [A] A.
Wake [A#] up Maggie, verse is starting.
[G] Some people play that as two G's.
[A] _ [E] And then to the A.
So however your ear hears it, I kind of hear the two G's, personally.
But let's look at the lead line to that underneath it.
[D] So we're gonna play the inside two strings, the A and
the D.
The A is just gonna kind of be a drone.
[G] We're not gonna fret it.
All the [D] fretting is gonna be on the D string.
_ _ _ _ _ We're gonna play them both together.
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [F#m] _ [A] _
_ _ [Em] _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ [Em] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [D] So it starts open, _ _ [A] four, two,
_ _ [F#m] [C] four, five, five, seven, nine, seven. _ _
[D] Again, all on that D string. _ _ _
[Am] Four, two,
_ _ [F#m] [A] four, five, [B] five, seven, nine, [A] oops, sorry, nine, seven.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ [Em] _ _ [B] _ _ [A] _
_ One [D] more time, really slow, open. _ _
[A] Four, two,
_ _ [Em] four, five, [F#m] five, seven, nine, seven.
_ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [G] _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _
_ And then you're into the verse.
_ [G] A, G, back to [D] D. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ So _ [A] _
[D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ I [N] think as you use the chords that have shown you and you listen to the tune, you'll be able to put them in place.
If you need some help, maybe you can find something online that breaks it down by chord.
It'd certainly be a good ear training thing to do it on your own.
And those chords will fit right into place.
_ That's the only chords in the tune.
So you can kind of use your ear to figure those out or hopefully you can, you know, maybe
_ find something that will help you with that.
So let's look at the ending signature lick, probably the most
popular part of the song or the most
_ memorable part if you're a mandolin player.
So the [D] outro kind of is [E] this. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
[A#] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] So it starts on the fifth fret of the A string.
_ [E] Then open [G#] E, two, [C#] three, and five [D] on the E string.
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ Three, two, open, [G#] three, [G] two, open, and [D] back to five of A.
_ I'll kind of bounce
_ between the open A and the fifth fret.
_ [E] _ _ _
_ On _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D]
the intro, it actually [E] goes
[Am] one of [E] them goes _ _ _ _ [G]
up here to the seventh [A] fret.
Just that one time.
And then there's one variation [Dm] on the end.
[E] _ _ _ _
_ _ It's _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
just three, two, open. _ _ _ _ _
_ And that pretty much gets you through the whole tune.
So thanks for checking this out, and I know you're going to enjoy playing it.
I sure appreciate it.