The Major Chords I-IV-I-V-I
Here’s a little of the verse of “Billy Dale” to show the changes with a prominent 1-5 bass part. Note as well that the bass walks up through a scale the measure before the IV chord. Bass walks will often “telegraph” when a chord is about to change. Notice how the bass walks up when the chords change to the IV and V chords and walks down when going back to the I chord. Notice also the bass “Walks in Place: on the last I chord. By “Walk in Place” I mean the bass plays a walking scalar run, but does not lead to another chord, but rather to another I chord (the excerpt ends right there). These bass runs are a basic vocabulary of country and bluegrass music. The excerpt of the tune is 604KB.

I have also created a Flash 6 file for "Billy Dale" that plays the song and graphically shows the changes as they happen. To view this file, you will need to get the latest Flash reader software. Right-Click (PC) or Control Click (Mac) on the image when it comes up, and select "play" to start the sound. Select "Rewind" then "Play" to hear the song again. Select "Loop" to play the song repeatedly.

(a1) I I IV IV
(a2) I I V V
(a1) I I IV IV
(a3) I V I I

A really good change is when the chords go from I to V to I to IV to I. Here’s how it happens in the chorus of “Billy Dale”. The audio excerpt ends a little abruptly because the band made a key change on the last measure (something that doesn’t happen in bluegrass much). The excerpt of the tune is 572KB.

I have also created a Flash 6 file for "Billy Dale" that plays the song and graphically shows the changes as they happen. To view this file, you will need to get the latest Flash reader software. Right-Click (PC) or Control Click (Mac) on the image when it comes up, and select "play" to start the sound. Select "Rewind" then "Play" to hear the song again. Select "Loop" to play the song repeatedly.

(a1) I I V I
(a2) IV I V V
(a1) I I V I
(a3) IV V I I

Pay careful attention to the form of this tune. In both the verse and chorus the (a1) sections have the same chord changes – I I IV IV in the verse, and I I V I in the chorus. But the (a2) and (a3) sections vary slightly. Those of you familiar with our TablEdit files, or printed sheet music, will recognize these as number 1 and 2 endings for the “A” and “B” parts of tunes. This is very common with bluegrass fiddle tunes, and songs derived from fiddle tunes. Pay close attention to how the song’s color changes with the amount of time spent on each chord in these sections. Really try to differentiate the sounds and how the feel of the music changes as the chords change.