Chords Req: Follow the Drinking Gourd

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 01:00 PM

Oh I know, I went there, I just am shy about the felting!

~S~

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wilco
Date: 26 Sep 02 - 12:33 PM

Thanks for the invite!!!! You might try the cyberpluckers site. They would be more helpful. Go to the Autoharp Quarterly Home Page, and it has links to cyberpluckers. Wilco in tennessee

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 06:45 PM

Gee, maybe you can help me figure out the stringing for the B/E job. Wish you'd come on over!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wilco
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 01:24 PM

Thanks for reply. Been playing autoharp for about two years. We have a big autoharp community here in SE Tennessee. I learn reallllll slow. I know the chord sequences for Dm, and thats why I use it: Amazing Grace (to House of Rising Sun melody), Greensleeves, Wayfairing Stranger, Scarbourgh Fair. Also, do lots of stuff in D since I play with lap dulcimers: Elizabeth's Waltz, Cabri Waltz, Pachelbels Canon, etc. I've rebuilt some old OS and Chromaharps to diatonics, but I can't carry fifteen autoharps with me like harmonicas, so I try to stay with my chromatic.

Wilco In Tennessee

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 11:45 AM

Oh boy, wilco, better not give anyone your location! I'm drooling already! I have two 21-chord Oscar Schmidts, one a nice one and one a laminate for knocking around. They both have pickups added. I currently have that laminated one tuned down a half step so I can easily play in B and E without cutting felts. I also have an old Chromaharp we're refitting that has four quick-change, 8-chord sets. If the tuned-down experiment works on all the arrrangements I've been killing my voice on (singing too low so others can sing along at our singalongs), we'll set that up in B, E, diatonically. I don't know yet what kind of tone it will have. If I really like playing diatonically, I'll probably convert the better Schmidt to B & E diatonic. I play all these tabletop and reversed around ("upside down") to save my chronic-tendonitis shulders arm out of trouble. I strum mine and hammer, and when I get to B & E on the Chromaharp I'll venture into melody-picking.

There are a scad of good old Autoharp threads around here I bet you would enjoy-- have a look around. Use the filter box with that word in it, and set the age back to forever, and they'll come up.

Why did you particularly want your song in Dm?

~Susan

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: Amos
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 11:19 AM

I think Em, A7, B will work perfectly well as well. The sequence you gave would transpose from:

Fm Eb7 Ab Fm Cdim Bbm7 C7 Fm. Fm Ab Bbdim Fdim Cdim Bbm7 C7 Fm Bb

to:

Em, D7, G, Em, (B), (Am), B7, Em. Em, G, (B), (Em) (B) (Am) (B) Em B

Substitutions are in parentheses.

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wilco
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 11:06 AM

Thanks!!! It works (I think). You must play the autoharp. I play one built by George Orthey. 21 bar chromatic. Mulberry, Cherry, Oak, chestnut, with birch top. Woods from various cabins and sheds and trees from Carter Fold and Stoneman homeplace.

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 10:47 AM

Dimished chords and autoharp are a tricky thing. Sometimes the major or 7th will work. Also it looks to me like a way-cluttered arrangement, especially for that simplest of tunes, the spiritual. Plus an autoharp stroke is much longer than a guitar strum, in terms of actual time. So when a guitar might be changing, you might be in mid-strum. So I would simplify it to the chords that carry the accented beats.

The melodies of spirituals vary with the singer, so since I am not hearing the melody you are hearing, I can only work from what you gave us. But you will want to fool around with it some I suspect.

Dm, C7, F, Dm, A or A7, Gm, A7, Dm, Dm, F, G, D or D7, A or A7, A7, Dm, F.

Arranging on autoharp is not hard, and neither is transposing if the chord bars are set up with logical sequences-- you just move your fingers over one position one way or the other. The final judge of the arrangment is your ear, so play around with it till it runs off your fingers clean and easy.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 10:34 AM

I'll give it a shot. BRB.

~S~

Subject: RE: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: MMario
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 10:32 AM

I don't know if she can help you (she is one busy lady) but try a pm to WYSIWYG

Subject: Chord Help: Follow the Drinking Gourd
From: wilco
Date: 25 Sep 02 - 10:24 AM

Catters have been a big help, and thanks!!!! I'm a very amateur musician, and having difficulty transposing "Follow the Drinking Gourd" to something I can play. The chord sequence Fm Eb7 Ab Fm Cdim Bbm7 C7 Fm. Fm Ab Bbdim Fdim Cdim Bbm7 C7 Fm Bb.

My autoharp is set-up with these chords:

Eb C7 G7 D7 A7 E7 B Bb F C G D A E Gm Dm Am Em Bm F#m F#

Any suggestions???? I would like to do it in Dm.

Thanks!!!!!

Wilco In Tennessee