|
John shows you a more complex approach to backing up “Mooney’s Reel” in this video.
| Key of A Chords |
| Key of A Chords, Part 1: Basic Chords |
John continues his tour of dropped-D tuning and reel accompaniment with a deep dive into the key of A. He notes that playing in this key is a little more challenging than what he’s shown you in lessons, and the chord forms might be a little more involved than what you are used to playing. But the key of A offers some great opportunities for playing up the neck, using different inversions with subtle nuances, and incorporating drone strings into your backup parts. Once you’ve learned the basic chord forms, John will show you how to use them to build a couple of backup patterns for “The Black-Haired Lass,” a great seisiún tune recorded by Altan, Eileen Ivers, Frankie Gavin, and dozens of others.
In this video, John introduces the basic chords you’ll need for playing in dropped-D tuning and shows you how to play all the interim chords suggested by the A-major scale. He starts with the basic I, IV, and IV chords (A, D, and E) in first position and then works his way up the fingerboard with alternative voicings and fingerings that allow faster changes and the use of drone strings. He also explains some ways to keep track of where you are on the fingerboard and then shows you how to add the interim chords in the scale: Bm, C#m, F#m, and G#m.
| Key of A Chords Notation/Tab (Available to subscribers) |
