“Tennessee Whiskey,” composed by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove and originally recorded by country music artist David Allan Coe in 1981, features an easy chord progression and rhythm pattern which makes the song suitable for playing on an acoustic guitar.
This song requires only two chords: A major and B minor. You can adapt its performance based on your skill level by employing various strumming patterns for optimal playing experience.
Basic Chord Shapes
The guitar stands out among other instruments due to its ability to simultaneously play multiple notes at once. This gives it the unique capability of creating chords – groups of notes played together at specific intervals that create their sound; for instance, you could form three or more simultaneous notes using an easy scale to form chords.
As our first chord shape of consideration is the C major chord, to create it you should place your ring finger on the third fret of the D string; middle finger on second fret of G string; index finger on first fret of B string and strumming all strings except low E string until complete chord has formed.
An A minor chord is relatively straightforward to play. To form this chord, place your ring finger on one of the lower strings, your middle finger on another lower string, and your index finger on one of the highest strings; then strumming all strings but for low E.
Alternative Chord Voicings
As part of learning chord shapes, it can be useful to experiment with various voicings to add variety and complexity to your playing. A voicing consists of notes that form each chord; these should usually be placed at specific places on the fretboard where there are natural notes nearby – this helps with voice leading as well as creating fuller sounding chords.
Figure 10 presents an A chord voicing that is slightly higher and more upbeat than its standard E shape counterpart. Add both forms into your playing, and compare how they sound.
Another alternative chord voicing involves taking away the thinnest string from an E shape above to create an A minor bar chord, known as an alternative chord voicing. While playing bar chords may take more practice to perfect, they are well worth practicing! Check out some examples below and gain some understanding.
Chord Progression
No matter how artists may interpret chord progressions and alterations, most popular chord progressions can often be reduced down to some basic structures. Take, for instance, I-IV-V progression – commonly known as 50s progression and found in songs such as Bring Me The Horizon’s Drown and Aerosmith’s Cryin’ as examples of such popular progressions.
How chords are arranged can also have an enormous effect on their tone. Chords crafted using major scale tend to produce happier tones than minor scale chords due to some notes being naturally more harmonic while minor scale chords contain more dissonance.
Chords are typically organized into sets of three or four and identified according to key and scale. This allows musicians to keep track of how each chord relates to the others and create progressions with clear direction. Western classical music commonly employs roman numerals for notating chords based on major scale, while those based on minor scale typically use lower case letters for notation purposes.
Strum Patterns
Long before Chris Stapleton sang about it, Tennessee whiskey was an integral part of life in the Volunteer State. Now, distilleries are opening throughout Tennessee to offer their unique take on this American spirit.
Tennessee whiskey differs from bourbon in that the Lincoln County process filters through maple charcoal before entering an oak barrel for storage, in order to remove sharp substances and soften its flavor.
Jack Daniel’s whiskey, for example, differs from other producers by spelling it without an “e” (as is common in Ireland) to distinguish themselves. There has also been much debate as to whether Tennessee whiskey should be classified as either bourbon or its own distinct category; prior to 2009 when Tennessee revised its prohibition-era laws regarding distillation all whiskey produced there was considered bourbon.