A few weeks ago my wife and I were visited by a couple who had been good friends of ours since student days. We hadn’t seen them for some years, and it came up in conversation that the husband had presented his wife with a ukulele last Christmas. After a bit of practice she was amazed to discover how many songs she could accompany using just three chords. I hadn’t expected the conversation to turn to music but it was a good opportunity for us to go to the computer and take a look at what is available for learner musicians on the internet. In the process we just happened to find some bluegrass videos (with three chords – not difficult) and our friends were fascinated. It seemed they had never come across this ‘folk music with overdrive’ before, and I am awaiting developments with interest!
The popularity of the ukulele has surged during the last few decades, and there are someexcellent sounding instruments now being made at reasonable prices. The tenor uke is a comfortable instrument for adults to play, and can well function as a second instrument for guitarists, like my son-in-law, who keeps one around the house to pick up and play (very well!) whenever he has a spare moment. There is always room for a uke in the rhythm sectionof an old-time session, and Fred Sokolow has written a Bluegrass Ukulele instruction bookwhich includes banjo-style fingerpicking solos. There are some useful ‘how to’ videos for bluegrass ukulele on YouTube. If you are a beginner the following all-purpose lick should get you started: https://youtu.be/VjBZyLf3RSU I guess that once you can play that, you are well on the road to being a bluegrass ukulele picker.
By coincidence I opened the August issue of ‘Bluegrass Unlimited’ and found Jack Tottle’s article called (guess what?) ‘G C and D’, complete with the words of a song he had written with the same title. To quote from the second verse of the song, “You can play a few songs with one chord or two, but three open up a thousand songs to you.” This includes instrumentals, even fancy ones like ‘Dixie Breakdown’ and fast ones like ‘Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms’.
If you have just started out playing bluegrass chords please stop here! But if you feel ready for the next level, please read on….
The first banjo instrumental I learned (from a book) was ‘Cripple Creek’. This is the classic major key tune using the standard three chords. However, the same instruction book later presented me with a solo for ‘Little Maggie’. Aha, there was something different going on here! You are still in the key of G but pretty soon you move to an F chord, and there is no C chord anywhere in the song. It turns out that this kind of chord change is not uncommon in bluegrass. I don’t want to get all theoretical here, but you can tell the difference by listening to a recording or live performance of the two tunes. [OK, well to be technical just for a moment, in ‘Little Maggie’ the F note in the tune is a whole tone (two frets) below the G. Intunes like ‘Cripple Creek’ you would play the F note sharp, i.e. just one fret below the G.]The ‘Little Maggie’ type of tune has a more sombre sound because of this F natural, as it is called – you will often hear people describe the sound as ‘modal’.
Another chord variation you will soon need to know about is used in the classic Flatt and Scruggs song ‘Salty Dog’. The chords you need (if you are singing in the key of G) are: G, E, A, D and back to G. The unexpected bit in this case is going from G to E, and then the next chord A, before you get back to familiar territory with D and G. This kind of chord sequence is used a lot in jazz and has found its way into old time and bluegrass music over the years.[Technical bit – it includes what is called the Circle of Fifths.] To get familiar with the sound, listen to Flatt and Scruggs playing ‘Salty Dog’ on the ‘Live at Carnegie Hall’ recording. A similar sequence is found in ‘Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down’. Earl Scruggs’ instrumental ‘Dear Old Dixie’ uses all these chords (in the key of G) plus C and even B at one point.
Minor chords crop up from time to time. The most famous is the E minor chord in ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’. Your ear will probably tell you when the backup instruments are playing a minor chord. Just don’t be surprised by them, they are out there!
Another main category of commonly used chords is the 7th chord (G7, C7, D7 etc) In the key of G you are probably already familiar with the D7 (often used in place of the straight D chord). The sound is created by adding another note to the mix – in D7 this is a C note. The bottom line with 7th chords is that you can always just play the ordinary major chord, e.g. D instead of D7.
Enjoy your summertime picking and singing!
John Baldry
August 2021
