Traditional guitar

Juicebox

Hey...i play guitar and want to start doing backing for a traditional band. now heres the problem i am musically retarded when it comes to workin out chords by ear so anybody have any ideas? For example i want to learn "the ships are sailing" which is a reel and is in d major,two sharps f# and c#...how do i work out the chords.?are there a certain pattern of chords for tunes in d major and so on?

humph

In D major you will have D , G , A and also Bmin , Emin , F#min.
You can swap the majors for minors for variation e.g. swap a D for a Bmin etc.
Your main challenge is where to use these chords.
Some will go with some notes , some with others.
The rule is what sounds best is best.
Actually the most important thing will be your rythm.

Gibs

The main thing you must do when using a guitar to back up trad tunes is to know the tune really well. Lots of self-styled 'trad guitar players' arrive into a session and ruin it because they insist on bluffing their way through atune they don't know on the basis of knowing what key the tune is in and what chords might go with that tune. The other players in a session will not thank you for having this approach. A good rule of thumb is: if you don't know the tune, don't accompany it.

While it is true that the guitar as used in Irish trad music provides mostly a rhythmic and/or percussive addition to the mix, its really important that you choose an appropriate chord form and don't "colour" the music with the wrong kind of chord. What I mean by that is that you should try play your chords without the thirds in them. Stick to 5ths and inversions rather than a full chord (e.g. when you are playing a chord of, say, D, which in classical music has the notes: D, F#, A, try to avoid playing any F#s. The reason for this is that trad music is modal and therefore has a built in ambiguity and is not really in a major or minor key. By avoiding playing the 3rds in a chord, you can maintain the ambiguity in the tune and not limit it to being in either a major or minor. People will tell you that a tune is in the key of whatever, but this is not really true. Its only generally in a particular mode and this mode does not correspond with classical or pop music major or minor scales.

The ideal way to avoid incorreectly pushing the tune towards a minor or major direction is to use a different tuning on your guitar. I use a DADGAD tuning, but there are loads of altenatives. This allows you to have lots of ringing root and fifth notes, which maintain the modal feel of the tune and then you can play counterpoint melodies or bass runs to add to the overall texture of the tune.

There is a very good book out there called the Irish DADGAD guitar book by Sarah McQuaid. It explains all this stuff much better than I can. I would definitely recommend it if you want to really get into trad guitar accompaniment.

A lot of people are attracted to playing trad guitar because maybe they learned how to play guitar and think that it should be easy just to strum along with a few lads in a session, but I think its actually much harder to play good trad guitar than to play the actual tunes because there is so much room for messing up a great set of tunes if you don't know what you are doing.

The bottom line is listen, listen and then listen some more. Get the tunes so well into your head that you can anticipate and hear what is coming next and can be certain of how to structure your playing around it.

You should also consider getting lessons just to get yourself oriented to the whole scene and the (generally unwritten but merciless) rules of how to behave musically in a session.

Best of luck, and sorry if this sounded like a lecture - it just really annoys me the way some eejit with a guitar who thinks he's a great entertainer at a party can destroy a good session with ignorance because he thinks there's nothing to playing trad guitar except staying in time. The bad trad guitar player is one one step up from the non-musician bodhran player who thinks the bodhran is just for keeping time. But that's another day's rant....;)

petestan

Well said, Gibs. There are a lot of guitar players out there who need to read that post!

Juicebox, bear in mind that the strumming and rhythm are essential elements of guitar playing, as it's as much a percussion instrument as anything else. You'll go far with the basic I, IV and V chords (D, G and A when you're in the key of D), and the minors that Humph suggested.

Best of luck!

studiorat

Excellent Post Gibs...

rafared

+1 for everything Gibbs said, excellent all round advice. I have played guitar for years and lately have been playing with a few realy good trad players in a local session. From time to time another guitarist drops in and while he is a good musician in his own right he ruins the night.
His usual tack is to ask the key and bash away at whatever Maj chords he thinks are right and throw in the odd Min from time to time. The box and banjo players hate to see him coming because he cant keep time and tries to overpower the melody...........Hammer fist they call him.:rolleyes:

I would recommend getting Sarah McQuaids book and learning some tunes in DADGAD.......it adds to the music no end and is easy enough to pick up.

The best thing a box player did for me was to record about 12 tunes on a tape for me to learn good chord progressions at home without worrying about ruining the tune. Best advice.....If you dont know a tune dont join in...yes I know it feels funny sitting there not playing but train your ear first.
Its funny but I learn the tunes in my head and can hum them or Lilt them and it makes playing along much easier.

MickyBaker

Hi All

I just recently movd to Dublin and started teaching Irish Bouzouki and Guiatr Accompaniement.

I have huge experience in this area and I currently work with John Carty (Traditional Musician of the Year, 2004) and John Mc Sherry in his band At First Light.

Ive been doing alot of teaching over the years too so know how to tailor lessons to speciifc needs.

Let me know if anyone is interested( contact me at my member account!)

Thanks all.

Mick