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This page describes a variation of the Simple Guitar Accompaniment for Native American Flute developed by Mark McGourley. That page describes a simple way to play guitar accompaniments using one or two fingers and a capo. In this variation, we use only one finger and there's no need for a capo. The idea is to re-tune four of the the six guitar strings down one whole step to get a tuning that makes it very easy to play minor chords. This alternate guitar tuning is called DADFAD or “Open Dm” tuning. For background, you should probably read the version of this technique for standard guitar tuning first, then read this page (which only contains what is different about the two techniques). TuningThe core of this technique is to tune the strings of your guitar to different notes than the standard tuning. As you might guess, the DADFAD tuning uses these notes: The notes shown in blue are the ones that are different from the standard tuning — in each case they are one full tone (two semitones) lower than the standard tuning. DADFAD tuning has been used by many musicians, including early blues-man Skip James (1902-1969) in the 1930s The Basic ChordsPlaying all open strings - no fingers on the fretboard - gets you a D minor chord. You might guess that this is great for playing with a D minor Native American flute. All the other chords in the DADFAD tuning will be based on a bar chord with the first (index) finger. You stretch your index finger across the fretboard, just behind the indicated fret. A picture of this is shown on the right for the Gm chord. The chord diagrams look like this:
With these three chords, you can do a lot with a D minor flute. Here's an example of just the guitar strumming: DADFAD Tuned Guitar — Dm, Gm, and Am Clint Goss. I'm playing these chords starting from strumming on all open strings (no fingers), and then sliding my outstretched index finger up the fretboard to just behind the fifth fret. Later on, I'm sliding up to the seventh fret. Here's the same guitar part with a flute improvisation over the top: DADFAD Tuned Duet — Dm, Gm, and Am Clint Goss. All the Minor ChordsYou can play all the minor chords just by sliding your first-finger bar up and down the fretboard. Here's a table of the fret postitions:
Extending the three chords for D minor, we get the general approach for a three-chord vamp: Start on the chord that is the same key as the flute, and then slide up five frets, and then seven frets. If you get to the twelfth fret, wrap back down to the nut at the top of the fretboard and keep on counting. Major ChordsTo convert a minor chord to major, all you have to do is add one finger below the nut or the bar. Here are the three minor chords from above, converted to major:
Here's a nice two chord vamp for playing with an F# minor flute:
Here are two recordings of this second two-chord vamp, without and then with an F# minor flute: DADFAD Tuned Guitar — F#m and E Clint Goss. DADFAD Tuned Duet — F#m and E Clint Goss. F# minor flute of Alaskan Yellow Cedar by Colyn Petersen. Chords for all Key FlutesFinally, here's a table of chords and bar positions that work for each key of flute:
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