Brother Drop Dead (and other polite western swing songs)

I'm so excited about the great turnouts we've been having at FolkHarmonic, the possibilities are growing as we add in harmonies and layers and instruments. Thank you for being a part of our community!

So, I recorded all of Brother Drop dead then realized that I'd played a different intro than the one on the hand out. So I re-recorded it. Then I realized the intro that I'd just re-recorded didn't work with the outro, so there will be some variation to what your chart says. We'll go over it in class next week.  Moral of the story is I should follow my own advice more.

brother_drop_dead_boxchart.pdf
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brother_drop_dead_fiddlechords.pdf
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nfh_brotherdropdead_wsolo1.m4a
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UKULELES
Below are 3 different ways to play a Major 6 chord. The sound that is most "Western Swing" A6 is the first shape, placing the YELLOW dot (root note) on the 2nd Fret. If you are using the 2nd shape put the Yellow dot at the 5th fret, or if using the 3rd put the yellow dot at the 9th.

I'd like everyone to try to use the first chord shape for Brother Drop dead if possible. IF you're finding it too much of a struggle, keep practicing the new shape, but feel free to use the others until you get more comfortable. More advanced players should be using the first. (you know who you are :)

GUITARS

once you've got that solo line in your head try experimenting where you place it on the finger board and what octave its in. On the recording for FolkHarmonic theres one guitar doing what is tabbed out for you, another is playing the whole riff up the octave. 
Hint: Start solo one on the 5th fret of the hi E string to get the upper octave. 
OR
Hint: Start solo one with your 2nd finger on the 7th fret of the D string.

Improvising kickstarters - Scales and Riffs

We'll be using an A Major Pentatonic scale as a FRAMEWORK for improvising in this tune... if that name seems like a bunch of gobbledygook/mildly terrifying to lets break it down into a more manageable concept.

A            - is the starting note & key 
Major   - its a happy sounding!!! Yay! 
Penta   - Five
Tonic    - Note
Scale    - Group of notes

so basically what we've got is a group of five notes that sound happy... (this is a very simplistic definition... my theory teachers from uni might be a bit scandalized at this explanation)

a_major_pentatonicscale.pdf
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Using a  transcribed solo to figure out the rules (and where you need to break them)

Now that we've got a frame work we need to be aware that while these notes sound right MOST of the time, there are certain places where we need to break the rules. For example when we are playing the D7 chord in Brother Drop Dead there is one note that clashes a bit. Check out the Guitar solo transcribed below, as well as the original recording (NOTE: if you want to play along with the original recording you'll need to move everything up a semi tone ... or one fret, or use the 2nd file posted here.

NIFH KEY:                                                                                           ORIGINAL KEY:

brother_drop_dead_solo_1.pdf
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brother_drop_dead_bb.pdf
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