Forum Activity for @paul-certo

Type this into your browser: Amazing Grace - chords

You should get several web sites with lyrics & chords. Some of the sites will let you change the key to whatever key you want, others won't. You may not find every song you want, but there are thousands of songs available in this way. Try doing what others suggested above, and if something sounds wrong, let your browser find it for you. Over time, your ears will get good at telling you when it's right. This will help you until then.

This page came up in my browser: http://www.bing.com/search?q=Amazing++Grace+-+chords&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR

Yes, I think the lights are coming on for me. Thanks Guy!!!

Patty, if the song is in a major key, you can usually find the basic chords fitting into the I, the IV and the V chords of the key. For instance, if you are in the key of D major, your song can usually fit into D (I), G (IV) and A (V) chords. For the most part your I chord will be your "home" chord, as it is called the Tonic. Your IV chord tends to want to move to the V chord, and your V chord tends to want to move you home to I again. This is just a general rule of thumb and there will always be exceptions to this rule. In your melody, find out the strong beats of each measure, perhaps beat one. See if you can find a chord that shares a tone of the melody on the first beat of each measure. For instance, if your melody has the note "A" on beat one of a particular measure, you will notice that this note is in both the I chord (D) and the V chord, (A). Try each of those chords and see which one seems to sound most appropriate to your ear. Then do the same with beat one of the next measure and so on. Keep changing the chords around until you like what it sounds like.

Once you have arranged your song using those 3 chords, you may actually be happy with it, but you can also try substituting some other chords here and there. For instance, for some of your I chords (D) you may want to try some vi chords (b minor), for some of your IV chords you may want to try substituting a ii chord (e minor) and for some of your V chords you may try substituting a iii chord (f# minor). You will have to keep trying and changing things until it sounds good to your ear... that's the way arranging is! Once you have your chords done to your liking you can also try to arrange for a second dulcimer, playing a harmony part.

Thanks Robin, Rob, Mary and Dusty!!! I understand about sounding right to the ear. Many times when I've hit the wrong note on the melody I know that it's wrong right away. Good to know my ear still works okay. Mary I"m glad you are back. I missed you! Dusty, thank you so much!!! Learning those three chords and especially the chord shapes will help tremendously!!! I've learned a lot more about music since joining this site than I ever have. You all are great

Patty, each in our own way, everyone here is saying the same thing, though it might be hard to see that at first.

Let's start with just the main three chords, I-IV-V, or in the key of D, the chords of D, G, and A. Each chord is made up of three notes: the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale.

D chord: D-F#-A

G chord: G-B-D

A chord: A-C#-E

Within those three chords are all the notes of the D major scale: D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D.

So the basic idea is that when you play a melody note, you want to play a chord that has that note in it. You may note that (unless you play the autoharp) you do not want to change chords for every single note, so in general, you look at the notes in each measure and see which chord is going to cover the majority of them. Sometimes you will have a choice, and then you will want to rely on your ear. And there are some other basic prinicples. In general, songs end on the tonic, or key tone, meaning in this case D. And very often they will go to the V chord (in this case A) before resolving to that D.

Before you try to figure out the chords for more complicated songs that include minor chords and diminished chords and all that fancy stuff, start out with 3-chord songs. In fact I would bet 70 percent of folk tunes only have three chords. As I've said elsewhere, I encourage people to sing or whistle or hum the melody of songs they know well while they just strum chords until their fingers are used to strumming chords and, in your case, you are getting the hang out of guessing what chord to play.

And you can also do this without looking at music and without thinking about all those notes I mention above. As you play a melody on your dulcimer, stop on an important melody note. Whatever chord you play is going to have that note in it. One reason for learning those chord shapes is because you will know right away what your options are. But you can also do this by trial and error. While you play a melody note, try to find another note on another string that sounds good with it. Do that on the third string, and you're all set! You don't even have to worry about what chord that is! I did that for a long while, not really worrying about what chords I was playing but just trying different chord shapes on different parts of the fretboard until I found one that worked. Eventually I learned the fretboard better and can name those chords, but who cares? The important thing is find chords that sound good.

Patty, If you're looking at a traditional hymnal, the low bass note may well be the root of the chord. Sometimes I just experiment with chords and see how it sounds. If it sounds good, I keep them; if it doesn't, I find something else.

Hi Patty,

I start with playing the tune againstthe open strings- and when it sounds a little 'harsh' I know a different harmony note or notes on the open stringscould be needed (chords). In the key of D those chords are going to be D, G, A or possibly Bm. So it is not difficult to try them all against that phrase of the melody and see what works!

Robin

I saw an interesting discussion on chords in the Beginner's group. A big thank you to Dusty for giving us instruction! I have a question that maybe many have been asking. Sometimes I run across some music that I would like to play but I'm not sure how to figure out the chords. I can figure out the melody. I can read notes on the staff. It sometimes takes me a bit but I get there eventually . My question is how do you figure out the chords for each measure? Also, if you only have the melody how does one figure out the chords? Sorry if these are dumb questions.

Pam, both are good. I'm learning chord style right now, but plan to learn noter style in a few years when I'm more proficient. I love to watch the noter videos with the feather strummers flying across the keys! In fact, you may want to watch some videos to see what overall sound appeals to you.

I think every player owes it to him/her self to spend six months of solid practice/playing in each of the 3 basic styles: Melody-Drone with fingers, Noter & Drone, and Chord-Melody; to see which style and sound appeals the most.

I like to teach people first to play Melody-Drone as it is IMHO the simplest, most intuitive way to pick out a tune and learn it.

You can experiment with a couple of different ways of playing Pam, just remember you don't have to stick with any one particular way to play. So feel free to try various things! Also keep in mind that anything new will feel a bit awkward at first- that's natural. Time spent practicing and experimenting makes everything smoother little by little.

Of course, use a noter. If you want to. If you don't want to use a noter, you can use the ones at the end of your arms. It's all a matter of personal choice. No hard and fast rules except for the one rule that says "have fun". Welcome to FOTMD and the wonderful world of the mountain dulcimer.

I'm looking forward to it Dana!

Patty My daughter videoed the whole concert but has to break it down into smaller parts so I can post it. I'll get her on the ball so I can post some. Also will post pics of the classes a friend of mine took pictures all day so there will be some.

John, it was a pleasure to meet you and get to visit a bit!

John WHY didn't you come up and tell me who you were I was so busy. Glad you had a good time.

I am jealous too. I hope someone will post some pictures and videos

Eric;

You can buy individual strings, just ask around, music stores, pawn shops [sometimes], and internet. All you need is the size [and end style if you need the little brass insert which can be removed if needed for loop ends].

John, it would be helpful to know specific songs you would like to play. Rocky Top and Foggy Mountain Breakdown are songs that you will not find in most dulcimer tab books. I play Rocky Top but in DAd tuning. There are several places on the Internet where one can find free dulcimer tab. Here is one place: http://everythingdulcimer.com/tab/index.php#R

Ken

The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Sandra, I hate to say this, but I am lost trying to figure out what it is you are wanting to know. If no one responds, call up McSpadden or email them your question and they will be able to answer it.

I just got notice my tab submission at Everything Dulcimer has been accepted. You'll find it under "M" as "My Clinch Mountain Home."

Hope this version works for you, Mary.

I'm assuming you want it for noter/drone playing, anyway I tabbed just the melody line. It's in an administrator's hands now at Everything Dulcimer. Don't know when or if it will be posted.

Ivan

I have the church-style. When I was trying to decide, Mike Clemmer strongly suggested the church-style. He said it would give more volume and sustain than the regular model. He said he mostly makes the church-style. GIven their size, you lose volume, so I'd suggest getting the most you can with the church-style. The added depth for travel is not an issue. I wouldn't even consider the regular model. I went with sassafras/walnut. It has a great tone and sustain. Fun to play.

I have a Sweetie with the church body. Frankly it's a2 inch deep body - which doesn't make it that biggeroverall size wise.I believe the church body is the standard make - so why go for the shallower modelif the builder ispreferring to make the church body? Go for it, a little extra resonance never hurt.

A simple way to add a little harmony here and there when playing the melody is to find on the middle string a harmonising note - it's usually the adjacent fret plus one over and play it at the same time as the melody.

So.. if your 4th finger was on the melody string, then your index finger would hop over to the middle string and be diagonal to the melody string fret with a gap of 1 fret inbetween.It's a clumsy explanation but if you try it you'll know immediately if it's wrong or right. I think this note on the middle string is the 3rd above whatever you're playing on the melody. Or the 5th? I've never gotten technical about it.

What the other posts were getting at was substituting chords which can sound very interesting (as long as you know what you're doing! lol) One easy way to approach it might be to substitute a minor chord for a major chord occasionally - at the end of a section for eg.

Which reminds me, the friends I play with are now doing You Are My Sunshine. It was decided to play the verses in minor keys and keep the chorus in the major keys. Definitely a different slant on the song! But you know the lyrics are a little on the dark side...

Yeah for some reason I can do it much easier on my banjo. That's my primary instrument and I can pretty much find anything I need on it without a problem. Just wanting to do the same on dulcimer and I'm probably just getting in my own way about it. Thanks for all the responses.

Just a thought...

Once there was melody and harmony. Chords (grips) and chord names came later.

In my first band back in the 1960tiesthe leadsinger played the guitar. He used very unusual chords. They sounded wonderfull. He didn't know what name they had. I had to tell him whenwritting the song down. He heard what the harmony had to be and usrd trial-and-errorto found out the grip. Yep, he was very, very musical.

You can do the same playing simple songs on the dulcimer. Play the melody and search for the spots where a chord must be played. Play the melody note and try to find on the other two strings which two notes sound the best together with it.

In this way you will learn not knowing to understand music, but hearing to understand music.

Music theory is not music itself: it is just a way to talk (and think) about music inthat way others who speak the same musical language will understand it. Music theory is frozen music practice. When something sounds good it is good and the theory will follow much later

Ok yes I get it John, thanks so much.

What a minute! your playing a G and D chord when your instrument is tuned to D A D, that's in the key of D. D is you're lead key

So the chords are D Em F# G A Bm

We need to do that stuff in perspective to the D chord and not the G. See if you can do it by yourself from my comment earlier about the key of G

The notes in the key of D are

D E F# G A B C# D

G was this

G A B C D E F# G

Mandy said:

Hey John, yes that makes perfect sense. I mostly play in DAD so I'd be G on 3rd fret. Thanks. So for the G chord since G B and D make up the chord those make sense. But what I don't get is how the A and the E work. How do I find out these notes using other chords without knowing theory? Hope that made sense to you?

It would help if we had a video room where we could share, but here goes.

All the notes in a scale work well with chords that are made up from that scale. Some notes work better than others. for example with a G chord, the notes of that chord are a solid and strong fit. With the A and the D notes, if you can imagine the black keys on a piano and when you play them randomly it all sounds kind of nice. Those notes make up what's called a pentatonic scale (5 note scale) that used in blues, rock, folk, country and many times without the artist even realizing it, they just sound kind of nice.

the reason, technically that they work well is a little more complex but it comes from the way youu can make a major chord with them. A G, when you add an E to it is called a G6 chord, A G when you add a A to it (preferably note right next to the G but higher up) is called a G major 9 chord.

When Skip mentioned that the F# is nice, he was really right. When you add a F# to a G chord you get G major 7. So those notes give our G chord a different name by adding them to each of them. From a 3 note chord, we now have 4 note chords, a little thicker and a little more harmonically involved.

Let's see, the A is one up from the G so that's there and the E is 2 down or 6 up from the G.

The numbering system is pretty straight forward, you probably know most if it already.

1--2--3--4--5--6---7----8 The boldunderlined are the notes that make up triads and 7ths.

D--E-F#-G--A--B--C#---DTheboldare the notes in the chord.

I-- ii-iii-IV--V--vi-vii0-octave, the bold are the major chords, italics is a dim.

Hey John, yes that makes perfect sense. I mostly play in DAD so I'd be G on 3rd fret. Thanks. So for the G chord since G B and D make up the chord those make sense. But what I don't get is how the A and the E work. How do I find out these notes using other chords without knowing theory? Hope that made sense to you?

Hi Mandy,

If I understand your inquiry about the chords that naturally work well (meaning the harmony chords first) with G and D. I think you're looking for this. If we go up one at a time from G, the chords would be

G Am Bm C D Em and a funny chord that I would leave out for now

So if you have a G, the notes in that G chord are G, B and D

The notes in the D chord are D, F# and A

Now if your playing the G chord or the D chord you could use any note in that G scale (depending if your G is an open string or on the 3rd fret of your dulcimer). But some work better than others. With the G chord, for example G, A, B, D, E notes work really well and the others C and F (if your G is an open string) ,or F# (if your G is on the 3rd fret)work good but mostly in passing.If your G is open, you may want to be careful with that F, it may not work.

For the D chord, we're still in thekey of G so for D, the notes that work really well are D, E, F#, A and B.

You're right to ask about the harmony and harmonic relation so I'm sure that you'll find your way by........playing!!

Maybe this is a bit convoluted but I hope this helps you out.

Yeah totally lost on all that. Yeah I knew I was getting in over my head with that question. I just don't know theory so I just try things out.

Are you familiar with naming chords by Roman numbers, eg., I chord, ii chord, etc.? If you are, try using the ii and/or vi chords [MOOC info]. ii chord in D is based on the E [EGB, (Eminor)], vi chord is based on B [BDF# (Bminor)]. In G, ii is based on A [ACE, (minor)] and vi is based on E. I don't remember exactly how they're used, as replacements for the IV/V chords or in line with them. You could also try using the dom 7ths, the basic 3 note triad plus the flatted 7th, in place of the major chord, for 3 strings try dropping the 5th [last note] of the triad, eg., D=DF#A; D7 = DF#AC; 3 stringer = DF#C. You could also try dropping the 3rd instead of the 5th, eg., DAC. Major 7ths may work, basic triad plus 7th, eg., DFAC#.

This is all stuff I just learned so I don't really know how well it will work.

From what I learned in the recent MOOC, chords are, essentially, harmony, if that helps.