I have transcribed he melody and main chordal sequence for “The Cocks are Crowing” in notation and tab and you can see/download the pdf file here. In Csus2 tuning these are C, F, G, Dm and Am respectively. Generally for song in a major key you only need five chords – the root, fourth, fifth, the second minor and sixth minor. The first thing is to establish the melody of the song and chordally how it can be supported. So now let’s think a little about the art of song arrangement and accompaniment. Here are some of the main chord shapes in Csus2 tuning to accompany songs in the key of C or G – these are just a few versions, you can find lots more all over the fretboard: A number of singers use Csus2 tuning – Nic Jones (who often drops the intervals down a tone to Bbsus2), Martin Simpson, Chris Wood and of course John Doyle are a few examples. In terms of the scale intervals the tuning goes R 5 R 5 R 2 – where R is the root – and the R 5 R is a common element with all of the altered tunings. This ambivalence can be made overtly minor by fretting the first fret of the first string and overtly major by fretting the second fret on the first string. In CGCGCD the major/minor third is “suspended” to the second note of the scale, D, on the highest string and so is called Csus2 tuning. This also makes these tunings attractive to accompany songs. Also chords to support the melody are easily formed by fretting only a few notes. They are also “resonant” tunings as when playing the melody the open notes support it chordally and support each other – whether played or ringing as sympathetic resonances. This is an advantage when playing music such as that labelled “Celtic” where the modes that the tunes are written in are ambivalent and often flit between major or minor. The major or minor third (E or Eb) make these tunings definitely major or minor but altered tunings are ambivalent and constructed by suspending the third. This song was arranged in CGCGCD tuning and as I had transcribed it to learn it I thought it a good opportunity to give a quick overview of this tuning and into song arrangements using open/altered tunings with this as an example so here we go.Īltered tunings mainly derive from Open major/minor tunings and CGCGCD derives from Open C which is CGCGCE (C major) or CGCGCEb (C minor). I recently wanted to learn and perform John Doyle’s song and arrangement of “The Cocks are Crowing” from his “Wayward Son” CD and posted my version at “The Plucky Duck”.
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