Come Hither Go Yonder

[ourgang]

Anybody know the chord progression for Monroe's "Come Hither Go Yonder"?

[John Flynn]

I am doing this from memory. I don't have the tune to listen to and it has been a while since I've played it, so no guarantees here. The way I did it, I think, was A-C-A-E-A-C-A-E-A for the A part and A-D-A-E-A-D-E-A-D-A-E-A-D-E-A for the B part.

[bsimmers]

I always played it just A A A A D D A A A A A A E E,
A A A A D D A A A A E E A A.
And the 2nd part the exact same chords.
The melody has those flatted sevenths and flatted thirds, but I think the chords are straight. That's kinda what makes it.
Hopefully someone with a better ear will chime in.
Bob

[AlanN]

Uh, no.

Part A

A A A A D D A A A A A A E E,
A A A A D D A A A A E E A A.

Part B

Substitute Am for A, Dm for D

(with appropriate stops)

That's the beauty of this number, the stress bt. the major and minor accompaniment.

[John Flynn]

Well, I can't hold with either of those. There is a critical C natural/E natural double stop in the A part. That's not gonna work with an A major or a D major. It has to be a C major or an A minor.

But everyone plays tunes differently. I learned it that way from my bluegrass mando instructor, who is a huge Monroe fan, I have performed it that way and I like the way it sounds. That's why this is an art and not a science.

[AlanN]

Well, I can't hold with either of those. There is a critical C natural/E natural double stop in the A part. That's not gonna work with an A major or a D major. It has to be a C major or an A minor.
Ah, but it does, MJ.

I know exactly what part of the tune you refer to: it's measure 3. Monroe get a C note on the G string and an E note on the D string. To my ears, the guitar on the original recording does an A string walkup to the open D string and plays a D major.

That dissonance (C figure over the D chord) makes it 'latter day Monroe'.

But, your instructor has a thing there that I will try, sounds cool.

[John Flynn]

AlanN:

Yeah, that's the spot. Instead of the dissonance of a D, that C just hits like a hammer and produces kind of a rock and roll chord change effect. So I guess it is the age old "traditional" v. "modern" approach, which I have encountered a bunch of times with bluegrass and old-time and I imagine you have also. It is one of those disagreements that only has a right answer for each individual player.

[Christopher Standridge]

the way I learned it and we play it in our band is:

A-A-D-C-A
A-A-E-E-X2

Am-Am-Dm-Am
Am-Am-E-X2

Or something like that, the first part definitely has that progression. The second part shifts to the minor and gives the song that distinct feel.

[John Flynn]

FWIW, the Mandozine TabEdit file on this, done by Strangeland, has it as:
A-D-C-A-E-A-D-C-A-E-A
A-E-A-Am-Dm-Am-E-Am-Dm-Am-E-Am

And now that I think about it, when I learned it, all the "A" chords in the second part were 1-5 power chords, so they could have been major or minor. The Dm is a new one, though, I will have to try that.

[Jim Broyles]

Johnny, where is that at Mandozine? I come up with 0 results using that title.

[John Flynn]

jbmando:

The search function appears to work better with one word than a whole title. Go to the following link, make sure the setting is "contains" and just type in "hither" or "yonder."
http://www.mandozine.com/music/tabledit_search.php