Fiddle Chord Charts printable pdf download

These are fiddle chord charts for the chords most commonly used in Old Time, Irish,

Scottish and other “folk” styles of fiddling. Full chords are composed of three notes: the

root note, the 3

(“flatted” 3

for minor chords) and the 5

harmony notes. On a fiddle,

one can only play partial chords, composed of any 2-note combination of the root, 3

flatted 3

or the 5

. Owing to the way a fiddle is played (with a bow), the notes must be

on adjacent strings. Bluegrass fiddlers make extensive use of chords (usually called

“double-stops”) when not playing a solo.

In Old Time, Irish and Scottish playing, chords are used primarily by a second fiddler. A

good second fiddler will often mix chordal accompaniment with playing the main melody

in unison, the main melody an octave lower (especially when playing a baritone/octave

fiddle) or a harmony melody. Different regional styles will emphasize different techniques

for the second fiddler; for example, in certain regions of Ireland, simply playing the tune

in various combinations of unison and an octave lower is favored. In other styles, the

second fiddler plays primarily chords; which works particularly well with a baritone fiddle.

A viola is sometimes used as well for the same purpose.

In any case, any fiddler who ever intends to play second fiddle in a duet best know his or

her chords. The bowing techniques for chord playing include long bowing and the “chop”

(used extensively by Darol Anger—he has a lesson on the chop on YouTube).

Experienced players will use various other techniques such as the burl (called a treble in

Irish playing), various shuffle patterns and so forth. We intend to create a video lesson

on bowing methods for second fiddle in the near future.

How to read the charts:

The first note (bolded) is the chord name. The three notes in parentheses are the root

note, the 3

harmony and the 5

harmony. For example C (C E G) indicates that for a

C chord, the root is C, the 3

is E and the 5

is G.

In the tables that follow, each row corresponds to a string on the fiddle. The heavy

darkened column (i.e. second column) represents the fiddle nut and the vertical lines

represent imaginary frets. The first column (to the left of the “nut”) represents the open

(unstopped) strings.

These tables are for a fiddle tuned in the standard violin E-A-D-G tuning. We will have

additional charts available for various “cross-tunings”, such as E-A-E-A, D-G-D-G,

E-A-D-A, etc.

When learning a new tune, try various 2-note combinations on adjacent strings to get the

“voicing” you are looking for. Most of the chords can be played in either first or third

positions. Chords composed of notes in the first position are the easiest. In general,

chords composed of 2 notes that are literally adjacent to on another take some practice

to play in tune.

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Fiddle Chord Charts

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