I sense many fiddlers on FHO are proficient with other instruments, especially guitar, banjo or mandolin and I often wonder it this gives them an advantage in figuring out chords for a new tune they may be learning. I personally love playing with guitar accompaniment and many of you know I use an app called Strum Machine. SM comes with a huge library of tunes but also also allows one to plug in chords for any tune. There's also a variety of tweaks you can add and now includes a variety of strum pattern. I usually can figure out key and pick up the melody of most new tunes I try to learn but have the devil of a time figuring chords. I know most OT tunes follow a 1-4-5 chord progression, but there are many tunes that seem to randomly throw in an odd minor/major or 7th chord and these usually leave me baffled. When this happens I wind up trying to find chords for the tune online or bother my friend Groundhogpeggy to help me out. (BTW - she always does) Can anyone provide clues on how one goes about figuring the chords for an unfamiliar tune? BTW, I should mention that back up chords and strumming pattern have a huge influence on my learning a tune, especially getting a groove going. Nothing like a creative backup guitarist with a solid walking baseline to bring out my best. I don’t think these folks get near enough credit for what they do for us fiddlers.
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