There's a Rugged Road Chords?
August 31, 2010 6:19 PM Subscribe
Can someone with a better ear than me pick out the chords in Judee Sill's "There's a Rugged Road"?
I don't have my guitar with me, but here's a start. It sounds like she's playing with a capo on the second fret with her fingers in the position of an open G chord. Then, she switches the bass notes, while anchoring her pinky and ring finger on the 'third' fret of the top two strings (actually fifth fret, but it acts like the third if you think of the capo as where the open strings are. the whole thing is in A, then).
So the main chords are this:
E (F#) 3 3
B (C#) 3 3
G (A) 0 2
D (E) 0 0
A (B) 2 0
E (F#) 3 x
Then at a certain point it goes into "Blackbird" territory, so hopefully someone with a guitar on hand can take over here.
posted by umbú at 7:02 PM on August 31, 2010
So the main chords are this:
E (F#) 3 3
B (C#) 3 3
G (A) 0 2
D (E) 0 0
A (B) 2 0
E (F#) 3 x
Then at a certain point it goes into "Blackbird" territory, so hopefully someone with a guitar on hand can take over here.
posted by umbú at 7:02 PM on August 31, 2010
I can't find my capo, but here's a (very) rough outline of the basic fingerings I'm hearing, to hopefully augment the advice already given:
Capo on the second fret.
5-4-2-2-5-5
x-5-4-2-1-5
x-2-4-2-3-5
5-6-7-5-7-5
x-4-6-4-6-4
x-5-7-7-7-5
2-4-4-2-2-5
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:07 PM on August 31, 2010
Capo on the second fret.
5-4-2-2-5-5
x-5-4-2-1-5
x-2-4-2-3-5
5-6-7-5-7-5
x-4-6-4-6-4
x-5-7-7-7-5
2-4-4-2-2-5
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:07 PM on August 31, 2010
Dammit, I always do that no matter how much I proofread. With a capo on the second fret it will be difficult to play a 1. Where there is a 1 in second chord, substitute a 5 (and an occasional 3).
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:12 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:12 PM on August 31, 2010
I would guess she has a capo on the 5th fret to be able to play that high A on the open high "E" string throughout the song, while also being able to play the open "B" string (actually the E note). (You could hit the same notes by capoing at 2 and playing a G major figure -- umbu's idea -- but those notes sound open rather than fretted ... and I have no idea how you'd get the C# and D notes right below the E.)
Assuming there is a capo at 5, the high notes in the verse sound like this to me (there are low notes at the same time, but we'll get to those in a second):
As you said, there's plenty of variation with this, but that should be an OK guide for the high notes throughout a lot of the song. You can use your judgment about when to play 2 vs. 1 on the "G" string.
(It'd actually be easier on your left hand if you tuned the "G" string up a fret, and adjusted the fretting accordingly. This way the top 3 strings could be played open to produce an A major.)
Now, the bass notes go roughly as follows. I've used = to mean "hammer on" (i.e. play the 2nd fret, then just place another finger on the 4th fret without picking the string again).
Some more to round it out:
I don't have a capo with me, so I can't try it out. While capoing at 2 would make it easier to play that slided bass note, I think the rest of the fingering then becomes too hard, so, again, capo at 5 makes more sense to me.
posted by John Cohen at 8:00 PM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
Assuming there is a capo at 5, the high notes in the verse sound like this to me (there are low notes at the same time, but we'll get to those in a second):
0-------------0------------0-------------0-------------- -------0-------------0------------0-------------0------- ---1------1------1-----1------2------2------2-------2--- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- 0-------------0------------0-------------0-------------- -------0-------------0------------0-------------0------- ---2------2------2-----2------1------1------1-------1--- -------------------------------------------------------- [repeat] -------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------Note that those numbers are the frets relative to the capo, so "2" is actually the 7th fret of the guitar. Of course, "0" is really the 5th fret if we're capoed at 5. I assume you can get the rhythm correctly -- I haven't indicated bars or tried to space out the notes in accordance with the rhythm.
As you said, there's plenty of variation with this, but that should be an OK guide for the high notes throughout a lot of the song. You can use your judgment about when to play 2 vs. 1 on the "G" string.
(It'd actually be easier on your left hand if you tuned the "G" string up a fret, and adjusted the fretting accordingly. This way the top 3 strings could be played open to produce an A major.)
Now, the bass notes go roughly as follows. I've used = to mean "hammer on" (i.e. play the 2nd fret, then just place another finger on the 4th fret without picking the string again).
--------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- -----2=4----------2=4---------2=4------------ 0------------0------------0------------------
-------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------0----------2--------2=4--------2=4--------------- 0---4-----4---2-------0------------0--------------------Now she starts singing:
----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------- -----2=4----------2=4----2-----2=4-----2-----2=4----- 0------------0--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- [repeat] ---------------------------------------------------- 2----2=4----2----2=4----------2=4----------2=4------ ------------------------0------------0--------------The "hold on, hold on..." part has you playing the open notes on the two highest strings together (not arpeggiated), and this in the bass (the first note is instead of the last "2=4" thing from the previous bar):
-------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------0-2---2--------------0--2--2--------------0---2--1---2-- 4--2---4-------------2---2--4-------------2--2---4------------------
-------------------------------------------------------- ---------4---------------------------------------------- ---------5---------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- 4-----------------0------------2---------2=4------------ -----4---4-----------4---2----------0-----------0-------Notice that I've added some different high notes over one chord there -- starting where she sings the word "run" ("miles yet to run ..."). You'd expect this to be C#7, but I'm only hearing C major, no 7th. This chord is very brief and then she goes back to playing the 2 highest strings open. She even throws in that open high "E" string (A) while playing the C major chord (this doesn't make much theoretical sense, but it keeps that high note resonating throughout the whole song).
Some more to round it out:
-------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- ---0----------2--------2=4--------2=4------------------- 4-----4--2-------0------------0-------------------------I believe that whole thing is pretty much directly repeated for the rest of the song, with maybe some variation near the end around 3:20.
I don't have a capo with me, so I can't try it out. While capoing at 2 would make it easier to play that slided bass note, I think the rest of the fingering then becomes too hard, so, again, capo at 5 makes more sense to me.
posted by John Cohen at 8:00 PM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
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The main verse alternates between an A major and a kind of suspended E chord. If you're just going for the basic chord structure, you could fake the second chord with: 020200 (the strings from low E to high E).
The "roll on, roll on" part is: Bm7, A/C# (an A chord with a C# in the bass: x42220), A (with an E in the bass: xx2220) -- and play an open D string leading into that last A chord
The "still surveying the miles" part: D#m7b5 (xx1222), A/E (xx2220), F#m (xx4222), A/C# (x42220), C#7 (x4646x), D7, A/C#, Bm7, E, A
Then back into the verse. I'm assuming you can pick out the rhythm yourself, but it gets a little complicated, especially in that last section. Good luck!
posted by svenx at 6:53 PM on August 31, 2010 [3 favorites]