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Hi, I'm Vi Wickam, and this is a free lesson, brought to you by myTalentForge.com.
I'm going to teach you how to play the different pieces of Devil Went Down to Georgia. Now, Devil Went Down to Georgia is one of those fiddle tunes that is probably the most requested, actually there's no question!
This is the most requested fiddle tune that I play- and it's not really a fiddle tune! It really isn't. The main theme of it is kind of based on Lonesome Fiddle Blues, which is a Vassar Clements tune.
But this is more of a story song that's a whole band kind of deal. So we'll talk through it. I'll play the different parts, and we'll play them slowly so you can hear them. And I'll break it down so you can learn this too!
So we start out with the drums open... and then the tune [...]. Let's break that down- that's our first theme.
...3, 2, 3, 0, low 1 (we're in D minor)... B natural...
Notice there are some accidentals- B to C# to F... C natural, B natural... You can catch that D#. So that's our first section [...].
Then we have this little walk down [...]. We're kind of walking down the scale. [...]
The first time we play this theme, you end with [...], but we're going to continue that up with a little D minor scale [...].
And then we go up to the F natural, and you can either do either a slide-y kind of... [...]. You slide down to the theme.
That's where the singer comes in, or the "talker", and says, "The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal, .... he was willing to make a deal..."
And then we come to Johnny. So you can learn those words, I'm not teaching you the words. But we see Johnny on the hickory stump, and Johnny accepts the Devil's dare so he can win the fiddle made of gold.
The singers come in and sing, "Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hot, hell's broke loose in Georgia and the Devil deals the card. If you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold. If you lose the Devil gets your soul...".
And we play that theme again [...].
So that little [1, 3, 4...] with the D as a drone, is something you kind of play repeatedly while the person who's narrating, the lead on this, does the talking.
Which you can do the talking too if you're playing fiddle. It's just a little trickier to switch back and forth.
Anytime you really feel like it, you can do that, you can do little D minor riffs, but quietly while the person is talking... if you do anything, you can do [...].
The next thing we come to is the Devil takes his lead and you start out with the guitar strumming, and then the bass comes in.
And then after two measures of each of those, the fiddle comes in and we do a little thing where we're [...].
So we go up an octave a little bit at a time. And the specific notes you're playing on this are not really specific notes. It's more of you're moving up [...], and it's an effect.
Then when you get to the top, you come back down.
Those are kind of the 3 little sections in the Devil. As the band plays and the fiddle has joined, we have the walk-up... So that's phase 1- is walking up that octave.
Then phase 2 is the walk-down. This is all effects. So if you're playing electrified, and you can add a digital delay pedal or something like that to it, where it really sounds trippy and wild, that makes it extra cool!
Then you have your [...] and do that a few time, and you end with the same [1- C natural...] theme.
You'll have to coordinate that with the base player, as far as how many times you're playing each of the stuff. There's a timing out of it, and you have to listen and pay attention to where you're at in the song.
So you do the Devil sound effect stuff, and then it goes, "Fire on the mountain, run boys run..." [...]. We're playing D major- "fire on the mountain run boys run", "Devil's in the house of the rising sun..." [...]
I'm not used to playing this slow!
So basically this is a call and response section. "Fire on the mountain run boys run..." and then you do a lick in D. "Devil's in the house of the rising sun..." [...].
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