It seems a bit strange to be writing about the technique of chords when 1) most visitors to a site called woodychords are likely to know a thing or two about chords already and 2) WG rarely used any fancy or obscure chords. Nevertheless until I learned not what chord to form but how to form it, I never got the songs to sound quite right.
This is probably known to many people already, and probably seems obvious to many; but it wasn't obvious to me when I first started playing WG songs, so if there are others who are fingering the chords 'incorrectly' this may be of some use. I first learned this way of playing chords when I was trying to play "Song to Woody" by Bob Dylan (and of course the early Dylan style was heavily influenced by WG). I could play the tune alright, the chords were easy, but it seemed clumsy and not fluid like in the song. I couldn't make the necessary hammer-ons and musical embellishments while still holding the chord shape and sustaining other notes. Eventually I saw a video on youtube of a guy covering "Song to Woody" and looking at his fingers I realised I was doing it all wrong...
This is probably known to many people already, and probably seems obvious to many; but it wasn't obvious to me when I first started playing WG songs, so if there are others who are fingering the chords 'incorrectly' this may be of some use. I first learned this way of playing chords when I was trying to play "Song to Woody" by Bob Dylan (and of course the early Dylan style was heavily influenced by WG). I could play the tune alright, the chords were easy, but it seemed clumsy and not fluid like in the song. I couldn't make the necessary hammer-ons and musical embellishments while still holding the chord shape and sustaining other notes. Eventually I saw a video on youtube of a guy covering "Song to Woody" and looking at his fingers I realised I was doing it all wrong...
The song is based around a open G-shape chord; the standard way to make this is:
but the problem with this shape is that it kind of "wastes" one finger, your pinky. The little finger is stuck off the end and can't really do anything on the fingerboard. But in "Song to Woody" there is heaps going on while that G-chord is being held... mostly hammer-ons. The solution is to re-work the way that the chord is made to free up one more finger:
Now this has freed up the first finger, which sits in a position to be able to do useful things in the area I've drawn in a dotted line. The root of the chord never has to be released and you can still do lots of hammer-ons and embellishments with that first finger. Another major advantage is it means you hand is already in a natural position to fluidly drop straight down into a C chord.
Many, many of WG's songs are based around the C-shape, G-shape and F-shape open chords. Usually he uses lots of the hammer-ons that you can achieve with this shape. In fact he liked it so much that instead of change the chord shapes to sing in a different key, he used capos so he could still use this sytle. I think using this fingering is the biggest single thing you can do to play WG songs better.
Many, many of WG's songs are based around the C-shape, G-shape and F-shape open chords. Usually he uses lots of the hammer-ons that you can achieve with this shape. In fact he liked it so much that instead of change the chord shapes to sing in a different key, he used capos so he could still use this sytle. I think using this fingering is the biggest single thing you can do to play WG songs better.
Woody is bound for glory forever and I reckon he'd love every one of us for doing what we do.
thats for sure ;)