My simple GDAD Bouzouki Chord Patterns and Scales

[eskin]

I've always been a GDAE melody player on octave mandolin, but recently, a couple of my session buddies started playing GDAD tuned bouzouki in the local sessions. I've always loved the sound of backup in that tuning, but never really spent the time working out the chords before.

Here's a quick one page PDF file in tab with some of the chord scales and voicings I've worked out and commonly use in sessions when I want a maximum drony sort of sound. This assumes that you're already familiar with backing tunes and are just looking for a quick guide to some useful patterns in this tuning.

http://www.tradlessons.com/?p=134

I've written out some simple patterns for D Major and G Major, assuming A Major as G Major with capo at 2. Similarly I've provided D Dorian and G Dorian patterns assuming E Dorian and A Dorian tunes with capo at 2. There's also enough information there to derive some simple D and A Mixolydian mode patterns.

For completeness and as to not have to always rely on a capo, I would also highly suggest learning the non-capoed chords for the E Dorian, A Major, and A Dorian tunes, the voicings I've provided are primarily for putting chord scales against either octave or 5th drones.

For a much more exhaustive set of patterns, please visit Han Speek's page at:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~hspeek/bouzouki/

[jlunt]

Thanks eskin, perfect timing for me. I was just planning to start on some accompaniment patterns for mando. Come to think of it, I've also been thinking of picking up a bouzouki. I guess it's time to go shopping.