Hi welcome to LessonsWithTroy.com. Well today’s lesson we’re going to learn my arrangement of the traditional tune Shenandoah in G-B-D tuning and I do it in the key of D. So let’s go in and get started with that first phrase that will be the intro of this tune.
Let’s just jump right into this tune and I’ll show you this intro that I made up and it’s what’s called a 1-6-4-5 chord progression. It’s called that because you start off with the one chord of your key or D chord and then you go to your 6th chord which is a B minor and you go to your 4th chord your G chord and then you go to your 5th chord your A. Now these aren’t exact note per note triads. Basically I'm keeping this A note which is on my 3rd string, second fret and keeping that consistent throughout the chords. And also I'm keeping my 4th string and 1st string open consistent throughout the chords. So it gives it kind of a modern kind of a sound.
Now what I'm doing here is as I'm doing this roll, I'm doing that throughout all the chords and I'm just basically changing the root note as I go through the chords. So for that chord that’s my D chord. You start off with your open 4th string there. And I’ll show you the right hand in just a second. But let me show you exactly what my left hand is doing. Basically, staying right here except when I go to the A chord and I do that pool of leg. For the D chord we got an open 4th string to the second fret of my third string, back to open 4th, open 1st, second fret of my 3rd, open 4th, at the second fret of my third.
So you’re going to leave your bar here. So you’re just getting the tip of your bar there on your second fret 3rd string. Like I said you’re going to do this for all your chords and you're just going to adjust the base note except for the A chord where you that pool of leg. So let me just call out the string names and that would make this arpeggio make a lot more sense to you. So I’ll just call out the string names but you know, all that I’m doing is barring here just the tip of my bar in my 3rd string 2nd fret. Okay so we go 4th string, 3rd string, 4th, 1st, and then 3rd, 4th, 3rd. So 4, 3, 4, 1, 3, 4, 1.
I guess that would make a lot more sense when I show you the right hand in just a second. So you go from D. It would be the exact same arpeggio except this time, replace your D note with your open 5th string there. When you go to the G chord, replace what you were playing that open D. Now you’re going to do the open G for your root note of the G chord. So the arpeggio is exactly the same except for the very 1st note of each measure. So measure 1 over that D chord, measure 2 over the B minor chords which you root now to a B, your open 5th string, 3rd measure switch it to an open 6th string for your G chord. And that’s just a little bit different from measure 4 you’re going to straighten up your bar there on your 2nd fret. You go 6th string, 4th string, 3rd string and then you’re going to slide your bar up to do this pull up to the zero, two the zero and then two. So two the zero on my 1st string, two the zero on my 2nd string and then two on my 3rd.
So let’s run throughout all four those measures, measures 1, 2, 3, 4. And if you have your tab I suggest you have it printed out and you follow along and I have everything written out there including the right hand fingering. So measure one over the D chord, measure two over the B minor chord, measure three over the G chord, measure four over the A chord. So as you can tell my bar stays exactly the same. It’s all happening over there in my right hand. So let’s check out the right hand for those four measures.
So here’s the right hand for measures 1, 2, 3, 4. Basically half of the intro of the tune Shenandoah. Start off with that D chord, that’s over that D chord. So 4th string, 3rd string, as you can tell I get my thumb to index and my middle finger’s going to be playing my 1st string. So it’s kind of a good bases, the key for this intro where your thumb’s playing your 4th string, index is playing the 3rd, and middle is playing the 1st and the thumb will be the one little change to give the different sound of the chords based on what the root note is of the chord.
So in measure 1, here it’s over the D chord goes like. Then you switch to your 2nd measure for that B minor chord and all you do different is now your thumb is going to be playing this open 5th string which is the B note for the root note of our B minor chord. Measure 3 switch it to the G note, open 6th string, then measure 4 looks like this. There are several ways that you can play that as far as the right hand fingering goes. There’s what I have written down. Thumb, thumb, thumb, then middle, index, and then thumb. So once again measures 1, 2, 3, 4 slowly. One more time then we move on. Now there’s a 1-6-4-5 chord progression where you don’t really have to even move your bar around or lay it all.
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