Chords for Man of Constant Sorrow- Mandolin Lesson

_ [Bm] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Howdy!
Welcome to BanjoBendClark [N]
.com.
This is your favorite online home to learn how to play the mandolin, the guitar, and the banjo.
I'm your humble host, Banjo Bend, and I'm here to teach you today probably one of the
most requested tunes I've ever gotten here on the site, Man of Constant Sorrow.
We're going to learn a very cool break out of the key of G.
If you're watching on YouTube or Facebook right now, here in a little while I'll ask
you to jump over to my website, BanjoBendClark.com, where you can join as a Go Pick member and
see hundreds of videos, download hundreds of tabs just like this one.
I've got the PDF and the TEF file format for the tab just exactly like I played it.
I've got around a 20 minute video lesson where I'm going to teach you about all the pick
strokes, technique, style, tips to get through the tune.
I've got four different rhythm speed videos for you to practice along with as well as
a downloadable mp3 rhythm track as well.
So everything you need to learn to play this song and sound like a genuine soggy bottom boy.
Let's dive into the first measure.
_ As I mentioned, everybody and their grandma knows this song, so it's time for you to know it too.
I'm excited to teach it to you.
We're learning it in the key of G, and we're doing a lot of Bill Monroe style licks.
The first thing I want to tell you as we pull up the tab here is most of our pick strokes
in this song are down strokes as you can see labeled beneath each one of those notes.
Now there are certain times in the song, especially when I go into single string stuff, [Bm] _ _
[Bb] that I
will do alternate pick strokes.
At that point you can choose to do it like me or you can do it like Mr.
Monroe would
do and do it all down strokes.
It's up to you.
The other thing is that I have, like for [G] example measure two, _ _ I've got that tabbed out just
as playing those top two strings.
_ [Eb] But in actuality [G] with Monroe style, you're going so fast that I'll often _ catch those
other strings in there too.
_ _ So you're allowed to get away with kind of some more trashy playing, but it's fine because
we're in the key of G and these bottom two strings are G and D, which are in the G chord.
So you're good to go.
As we start out there in measure one, we've got this little kickoff.
Like if you're going to start singing it or if you're going to come in for a mandolin
break, we're going to start off on the fifth fret of the D string and we're going to play
that, that's a G note, as well as an open G string down there.
And we're going to play a quarter note on the second beat and play it again and then
we're going to play the middle two strings and we're going to do a really fast slide
with our index finger from first to second fret as we play [Ebm] those two [G] strings together.
It sounds like this. _
_ _ _ _ _ Notice all these are down strokes.
And after we play that little slide, then we're going to play the fifth fret [C] and the
third fret together.
_ Okay, so measure one sounds like this.
[G] One, _ two, three. _
[C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Cm] _ [Gm] As we get into measure two, this is really the meat of the break.
This is one that really lets everybody know what song we're playing.
We're going to start out with our middle two fingers on [Bb] the second fret [Eb] and the fourth fret.
But then as soon as we pick it, we're going to slide really fast, sixteenth note [G] slide,
up one fret so that we land on three and five.
_ _ And all these are down strokes.
And it's really important that you play all these down strokes.
If you play them down and up, _ this doesn't have the same sound as all [Gm] downs. _ _ _
So we're going to slide real quick and then for the rest of that measure, we're going
to play just those same strings, same frets.
So eight times in a row.
_ _ _ [G] _ When we get to measure three, we're going to play that one more time and then we're
going to reach up.
I'm not going to release any strings here.
[D] I'm just going to reach up with my pinky and grab the sixth fret on the high E string there.
_ And we're going to play [Gm] seven of those in a row.
So measure three. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Now remember, I have a separate video on the site where I play the whole thing start to
finish very slowly.
So I'm not going to repeat a lot of measures _ together here.
I just want to concentrate mainly on technique and giving you tips on how to play it.
When we get to measure four, we're going to have our fingers there already.
We're going to play one more note like that and then go back into that slide thing again
for the second note.
Really fast, okay?
So _ that's what that sounds like, measure four.
_ And then we're going to play three more notes like that _ and then switch down to the first
fret with our index finger.
And we're going to play those two strings together.
_ So measure four slowly sounds like this. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] Remember in all actuality, you're probably catching the open D string there [Gm] with it. _
_ _ _ _ We'll get to measure five.
We're going to play three more of those notes and then just the fifth fret.
And I do that just [N] to get to free my index finger up because we're going to have a really
fast slide here.
And the song's going to be characterized by a lot of these fast [G] slides, _ sixteenth note
slides from the first fret to second fret.
And then I'm going to go to alternate picking here.
So I've got a downstroke for that slide and I've got an upstroke for that fifth fret on
the D string. _ _
_ Then open D and then the [Eb] first fret. _
[Gm] So measure five slowly sounds like this.
[Cm] _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ And then as soon as I pick that, it's not a sixteenth note slide so it doesn't happen
quite as fast.
But I'm going to [E] slide up to the second fret.
A lot of you know your open C chord, the second fret on the D string, [C] third fret on the A string.
[Eb] That's the position that we're going into.
So we slide into [E] that [C] and we play it third fret, come back down for two more [E] notes on
the second fret, then [C] back again.
But then the last note in measure six, we're going to reach up with our pinky, grab [B] the
sixth fret, and we're going to choke it just a little bit.
[Eb] _ _ So sliding into measure six, this is what it sounds like.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [E] _ _ And then [C] we're going to keep everything there because measure seven_
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [N] _