Help with ELCumbanchero chords

[tnranger]

Those dang Tuttle kids!

I have searched on the Cafe, and have seen the tab on Mandozine, but cannot figure out what the second vamp chord the Tuttle Kids are using on the well known Youtube video. G minor sort of sounds right, but it does not look like the chord the guitar players are using.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

[Mike Bromley]

What does it SOUND like?

[tnranger]

Like I said, G minor SORT OF sounds right, but not like the chord the Tuttle kids are playing, and does not visually look like the chord they are playing.

I don't know any other way to ask the question.

[doc holiday]

C chord. It goes Dm quick C back to Dm

[AlanN]

After the 8 bars of Dm, it goes

Dm, C, Bb, Am
Gm, F, Gdim, G#dim
A7 for 2 bars, then back to Dm

The bridge mods to D7 for 4 bars, then
Gm for 4 bars
E7 for 4 bars
A, Bb, C, Bb, A

then back to first part.

[tnranger]

Thanks for the replies, but C just does not sound right, nor does it look like the chord they are playing in the video. Is it possible it is a variant of C (dim, or minor, or minor7)?

The chords on the Mandozine version play a chord per beat (just as Alan had listed). To my ear, the second vamp chord on the video does not sound like C.

If you freeze the video, it almost looks like they are playing a B7, but that doesn't sound right either.

[Bruce Clausen]

I think what you're seeing and hearing is a G major chord at the place where the correct chord is G minor. Same thing happens again during the bridge. Check out the Jesse McReynolds video for the right chords.

BC

[Philphool]

After the 8 bars of Dm, it goes

Dm, C, Bb, Am
Gm, F, Gdim, G#dim
A7 for 2 bars, then back to Dm

The bridge mods to D7 for 4 bars, then
Gm for 4 bars
E7 for 4 bars
A, Bb, C, Bb, A

then back to first part.

Another variation for part 1:

Dm, C, Bb, A
Gm, F, Em, Dm
A7 for 2 bars, then back to Dm

[swampstomper]

OK, I worked on this last night both by ear and theory. To me the descending Dm aeolian (minor scale) D C Bb A G F E D which is played as descending arpeggios should have chords:

Dm C Bb Am
Gm F Em7v5 (Em half-diminished) Dm

so I agree with Alan except for the last two chords. I worked these out from the scale tones, keeping diatonic (within the key) of D aeolian.

The Em7v5 has scale tones 2, 4, 6, 8 = E G Bb D. A full Edim substitutes Db for D. Edim and Gdim are equivalent (G Bb Db Fb = E) which would agree with Alan's penultimate chord... but that would have a Db not a D, so not diatonic. My Em7b5 is more in line with Phil's Em but I have a b5 i.e. Bb whereas the Em has a B. I sure hear some kind of diminished sound here.

Then the last chord is just the Dm7 again, I think. I did try the Gdim, G#dim substitution and it sounds pretty cool. The Gdim has the E (melody) note and the arpeggio there is Bb (A) G E so the D vs. Db does not figure. The G#dim has G# B D F where the melody note is D, but the arpeggio is A (G) F D i.e. Dm. There is a dissonance between the G# in the chord and the G in the lick. However the G#dim is a nice passing chord to the A7.

Another cool thing about this tune is the lick on the A7 chord, since you are in Dm, the notes are A Bb C D E, like A phyrgian, which gives a real Latin flavour to that final lick that resolves to the Dm. I got that idea from the transcription of Jesse's solo in the Statman book.