Simple Chord Structure for Group Play John Renwick

Since I am fiddle tune player on the mountian dulcimer, the Fiddlers Fake Book is my musical bible. The following is the method of using chords which enables me to play along with a group on about 90% of the tunes in the fake book. Remember, this method works great for me, but you should decide for yourself what best suits your playing style.

Folk music chord structure is basically very simple. That is: once the key for a song is established the chord progression is standard. The basic 1 - 4 - 5 progression of the musical scale is easily accomplished on a dulcimer in the keys of A, D, and G.

For the key of D, the chord progression is D - G - A.
In the key of A the the progression is A - D - E.
The key of G progresses as G - C - D.

Let's start with the key of D. The three chords involved here are D (the key of the tune you are playing), G, and A. Counting away from you on your fretboard (that is, starting with the melody strings, the highest sounding strings) strum the following chords.

------------ 0
------------ 0 -- This is a simple D chord.
------------ 2

------------ 1
------------ 0 -- This is a simple A chord.
------------ 1

------------ 0
------------ 1 -- This is a simple G chord.
------------ 3

With these three chords you can play rhythm dulcimer on most folk and country tunes in the key of D.

For the keys of G and A, don't retune. Rather, use a capo. The folks you are playing with may be polite, but they really don't want to wait for you to retune when the keys change. The fingering pattern for the keys of G and A are the same as in the key of D.
In the tuning of DAD, place your capo at the third fret. Now you are in the key of G. These are the chords:

----------- 0
----------- 0 -- This is a simple G chord.
----------- 5

----------- 4
----------- 0 -- This is a simple D chord.
----------- 4

----------- 0
----------- 4 -- This is a simple C chord.
----------- 6

Move your capo to the fourth fret. Now you are in the key of A. Here are the chords for this key:

----------- 0
----------- 0 -- This is a simple A chord.
----------- 6+

----------- 5
----------- 0 -- This is a simple E chord.
----------- 5

----------- 7
----------- 5 -- This is a simple D chord.
----------- 0

The finger positions of all the 1 - 4 - 5 chords are the same in all three keys. It is the capo position which changes. This greatly simplifies playing in a group. If you don't know when to change chords, watch a guitarist. When the guitarist changes chords, so do you. The progressions are repetitive and often very simple.

Good luck with this method and remember, these are only guidelines. But, if you are a beginner, they should open up an entire new area of play for you. Nothing sounds better than a dulcimer backing up another instrument while it plays the melody. And besides that, your jam circle repertoire just increased to about a kazillion tunes.

I recommend that you buy a book of mountain dulcimer chord charts. Two such books are: Dulcimer Chord Book by Neal Hellman, and Mel Bay's Dulcimer Chord Encyclopedia by James Major.

John Renwick is a musician in North Carolina. Do you have comments or questions about his article? Contact Mr. Renwick directly by email. To learn more about him, see the Contributors section of Sweet Music Index.