Birthday present chord help

April 1, 2006 1:40 PM

I'd like to record a version of this song on Garageband for my girlfriend's birthday, but I cannot figure out the chords, and I can't find them anywhere online. Can anyone please help?

I've already figured out the trumpet part (and I figure I could do the violin bit on the mandolin, but the chords sound somewhat... jazzy to me, and I don't know what most of them are. If anyone could either post the chords for me, or find them somewhere online, it'd be a great help.

posted by interrobang to human relations (11 comments total)

There should be a closing parenthesis after "mandolin". Sorry.
posted by interrobang at 1:41 PM on April 1, 2006

Here's part of it.
posted by mwhybark at 1:56 PM on April 1, 2006

interrobang, I don't really mean to hijack your question here, but how did you find that Vernon Dalhart mp3? I backed up a directory and found several more, including a few I don't already have. In other words: jackpot! I'd love to do this to find more old music at the site, but I'm not familiar with it. If you tell me how you found the Dalhart, I can track down other fun stuff...
posted by jdroth at 2:34 PM on April 1, 2006

jdroth, I became acquainted with Vernon Dalhart with this CD, and then found more of him on this page, while perusing achive.org's 78 rpm collection.
posted by interrobang at 2:42 PM on April 1, 2006

quick, oversimplified approximations here... but this should get you close.

intro
F - D7 - G7 - C7 - F

verse
F - A7 - C7 - F - C7 - C7 - F - F
F - A7 - C7 - Dm - G7 - G7 - C - C7

chorus
F - F - Dm - Dm - C7 - C7 - C7 - C7
C7 - C7 - C7 - C7 - C7 - C7 - F - F
F7 - F7 - Bb - Bb- D7 - D7 - G7 - C7
F - F - D7 - D7 - G7 - C7 - F - F
posted by Buzz at 2:45 PM on April 1, 2006

Nice one, Buzz! I'd only change A7's in the verse. The mandolin is playing a g-half diminished there, with the minor third doubled up top: g,b-flat,d-flat,f.
posted by horsewithnoname at 3:12 PM on April 1, 2006

Thanks, guys. Any additional information would be greatly appreciated, of course.
posted by interrobang at 3:24 PM on April 1, 2006

I was in a hurry and going for easy guitar fingerings, but I did get carried away with the schmaltzy minor seventh chords, and I ended up mangling the verse. Sorry about that, interrobang. What instrument are you using for the chords? On the guitar, I guess I'd add the first fret on the A string to both of the A7 chords I wrote. Then immediately after the second one I'd play a straight A7 instead of a C7. I'd also use a lot of low G in the C7 chords, and I for damn sure wouldn't miss the G minor chord every time past it in the chorus, like it I did in what I posted above. It's ballpark, but I hope it helped you get a feel for it.

Maybe if you uncheck the best answers in this thread, someone who might otherwise skip it will drop in and post some better specifics.
posted by Buzz at 10:56 PM on April 1, 2006

I'm going to use an acoustic guitar for the chords; I think what you originally wrote, plus your addendum, should work. I'll check this post as "best answer too", so that anyone else reading this will read all the way down. Thanks!
posted by interrobang at 11:07 AM on April 2, 2006

Now that I've gone over it a bit on a guitar and I know that you'll be playing one too, I have to fix some more glaring errors in what I posted. At the beginning of the second line of the chorus, there should be two Gm chords instead of C7ths. Instead of the last C7 of that long stretch of them, try this chord (bottom up, tab): x-x-0-1-0-1. Also, in the last line of the chorus, swap in another Gm where I mistakenly put a G7. I think that ought to get it close enough for... jazzy.

What a great birthday present!
posted by Buzz at 12:59 PM on April 2, 2006

err.. in case it's not obvious, by "bottom up," I mean "top down as you're looking down at the fretboard." I'm done now.
posted by Buzz at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2006